Scott replies: > > Palma continually runs into trouble. He loves using split-screen and split- > > focus, which only works in widescreen. The recent pan-and-scan release of > > SNAKE EYES had to resort to "letterbox" for one sequence because the > > problem was so obvious. > The tape of _Pillow Talk_ does this for some scenes (though interestingly, > not in the main title). I know this because they were playing it at > Suncoast. The only time I saw it it was on laserdisc, and a lot of scenes > make you wonder how it would work in pan and scan. _The Wiz_ is in > harmatted 1.85 and some scenes look incredibly stupid on video with > characters half-in the image, while some scenes are letterboxed to > eliminate that problem (actually, only the main and end credits, and > Dorothy's "Home" solo, where characters appear at the left and right of > the screen that are important). That kind of thing also happens during the "rise to fame" montage in TOOTSIE, which also uses multi-screening as "Dorothy Michaels" appears on the covers of various magazines. It is an interesting concession to issues of "intellectual property" (and contracts, no doubt) that many wide-screen films will be presented in pan-and-scan but the opening credit sequence will be in anamorphic format (but not "unsqueezed") so that any characters, etc. appear distorted, tall and thin. Look at the credit sequence in a standard video version of REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, for example. Don Larsson ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.tcf.ua.edu/ScreenSite