I’m In Heaven ~ Aspect Ratios Revisited

Not even a year ago I made note of the screen size of movies – know as the ASPECT RATIO

So many channels are now showing the full picture on the HD channels ! It is really like seeing a lot of my favorite movies for the first time … I was absolutely blown away seeing the Brando version of “Mutiny On The Bounty”

All I can say is BRAVO to TCM and the like !!! Thanks so VERY much !!!

What the heck is aspect ratio you may ask ?

TCM has a great short on the subject – explaining “letterbox”, “pan and scan” and wide screen aspect ratios such as Cinemascope, Panavision, etc …

Early movies and television up until just a few years ago were basically square.

Human vision likes to see things with width – more so than up and down.

Early wide screen ratios were given names like Vistavision and Panavision which would also indicate the type of lenses and cameras used. But mainly it was how wide the screen would appear.

The true cinematic aspect ratio is known as ANAMORPHIC … this is like two standard 4×3 TV size screens side by side and stitched together – for lack of a better description …

Bottom line is – with big screen flat TVs, we can now see the whole picture as intended by the cinematographers. Even the new “wide screen” 16×9 TVs are not anamorphic – but doing the “black bar” letterboxing allows the full cinema view … AWESOME !!!

It is such a pleasure to watch TCM and see the whole shot no matter what the original aspect ratio was just as it was seen in a theater when the movie came out.

now if some of the movie channels will get off this “limited commercial interruption” phase they are going through – i might tune back in. DO YOU HEAR ME FOX MOVIE CHANNEL, MGM, ETC ?!?

Category: Tony Rollo Blog