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[PhoncipleBone]

People complaining about black bars and aspect ratios? What the fuck is wrong with you all?
Leave the films/tv shows in their originally intended ratios. They were made that way for a reason.
Want to alter someone else's art? Use the zoom button.

Seriously, how is this even a conversation in 2017?

 

[Fancy Clown]

You want every single movie shot in the same aspect ratio? You never want to see a shot that can be framed like this again???

God damn man

 

[Extra Sauce]

I like that different works use different canvases. I wouldn't want every movie to use the same aspect ratio.

 

[PhoncipleBone]

I like that different works use different canvases. I wouldn't want every movie to use the same aspect ratio.

Then you get people like Nolan with sometimes switching aspect ratios in the films. Hell, his IMAX stuff is still cropped on blu since it should be a square screen.

 

[Tain]

of course i do

Most people seem to agree that they don't like it in games

these people are also wrong as hell

 

[Professional Enthusiast]

I bet OP has nothing but 'Fullscreen' dvds in his closet.

 

[EGM1966]

I want the director's preferred ratio so I'm fine with it. The idea of all films being one ratio just to fit 16:9 TV's is (apologies OP) fucking absurd.

Sorry again OP but I'm glad you're on losing side here.

 

[televator]

OAR or GTFO

 

[Inferno313]

That depends if people see it as art or commerce. If it's art then absolutely. If it's commerce some would say give the customer what they want. It's a problem (of sorts) for the entertainment industry as a whole; art or commerce and where do you draw the line IF there is a line. But that's an argument for another day.

With regards to film ratios I always felt a movie director sees the ratio as a painter sees their canvas. It's not chosen by accident. They have preferences and see what they want to create within the picture ratio or the canvas dimensions. It's essentially the same process.

It's not a problem. Films are art. Full stop.

Some exist in the form of commercialized art, sure. Still art.

 

[WillyFive]

I want to see the entire movie, not cut up part of it just so that it fills up a TV screen.

 

[Human Resources]

whatever ratio the director feels best supports the work.

when we ascend into the energy planes and the sum of our knowledge is compressed into a more palatable size, all of this thread's responses will be truncated into these words, so that our descendants' sensory fields can briefly pause over them, emitting sagely harmonics of acknowledgement

 

[Bobby Roberts]

Seriously, how is this even a conversation in 2017?

I was saying

 

[pswii60]

OP, get a OLED. The black bars are so black (100% black) that in a dark room you don't know where the TV begins and ends. Problem solved.

 

[Extra Sauce]

Then you get people like Nolan with sometimes switching aspect ratios in the films. Hell, his IMAX stuff is still cropped on blu since it should be a square screen.

That doesn't even come close to happening often enough to be credible as an argument against a diversity of aspect ratios.

 

[jerry113]

there's a special place in hell reserved for those who prefer cropping

 

[Lagamorph]

No.

They're terrible in games and terrible in films.

 

[pargonta]

I wouldn't say i like or dislike letter boxing. I do like it when a movie is 1.85:1, so that the image is larger in my home, but I'm up for whatever

 

[TyrantII]

Get a bigger TV OP.

OAR that the DOP chose is important to the art.

 

[PhoncipleBone]

That doesn't even come close to happening often enough to be credible as an argument against a diversity of aspect ratios.

Didn't mean it as an argument against diversity in aspect ratios. Just against people crying about some of their pixels being black on the screen.
Sorry it came across strangely. I have been traveling and operating off of little sleep.

 

[Almighty]

I used to hate it, but as my TVs over the years got bigger I stopped caring. Back when I had to watch stuff on a 20 inch it was the worst.

 

[IdreamofHIME]

Can't wait for cinema to die its overdue death so this shit can be done away with.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

They're terrible in games and terrible in films.

This opinion is terrible in general

 

[seventynine]

A thread of Philistines.

The director will shoot as they please and you’ll lump it.

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

Do I like letterboxing? No, but if the alternative is to literally hide part of the view of the movie to take up a full screen then I am more than willing to put up with it. Purposefully removing a pretty large portion of an image in a medium that almost solely relies on you seeing an image is insane.

 

[seventynine]

I’m enjoying the renaissance of 4:3 too.

😝

 

[pixelation]

I used to hate it... but ever since i got a bigger screen i don't even notice it at all.

 

[MMarston]

This opinion is terrible in general

Somebody needs to upload a Bordwell and Thompson textbook in this thread.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

I had to look that up.

 

[MooseKnuckles]

Buy a bigger TV.

2.35:1 creates beautiful pictures, and it would be a shame to miss out on them because people think they're entitled to have the entirety of their television filled by an image.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

No one likes letterboxing. But many directors dont often make movies with a 55" hdtv in mind. They make them for theater screens.

That said, I think 2.39 is actually a terrible aspect ratio. Imagine if all our phones and monitors had to be 2.39. Not fun. And often times movies arent shot in ultrawide. Theyre shot with more of a 4:3 aspect ratio and then cropped to 2.39. Movies like Skyfall had so much visual information cut out for the 2.39 blu ray release compared to some theater releases. And we'll never see it again unless the studio does some kind of 'special edition' re-release.

You're talking mainly about Super 35, which is shot on the 4:3 aspect 35mm film and then cropped for theatrical release. Directors who shoot with Super 35 compose for the theatrical aspect they have chosen. Unless the director is an amateur, this is not a problem with cropped aspects. Many of the best-known action directors, including James Cameron and Michael Bay, used Super 35 for their movies shot on film.

The reason why 2.39:1 was ultimately settled on as the common theatrical aspect ratio is purely economic. As television came about in the mid-1900's, Hollywood struggled to find a way to compete with TV for entertainment dollars. One solution they found was to make movies wider than the 4:3 TV screens, which gave a noticeably more dramatic feel to scenes. It's not clear if they realized the underlying biological reason for this: Human vision is binocular with our eyes side-by-side, so our natural visual field is wider than it is tall. Therefore a wider picture feels more immersive as it occupies more of our visual field than a square one.

 

[rekameohs]

4:3 TV days:

Oh wait, sorry. What I meant was:

 

[Dan-o]

Damn I miss my CIH projector setup.
Folks complaining about original aspect ratios not fitting your screens ... cinema ain't for you.

Cropping the image is like taking the drums out of a song ; it's still the same song, but it's also very much NOT.

 

[Peltz]

I saw Dunkirk in 70mm film last week. It was eye opening how much you can get into the frame. Cropping would be a shame.

 

[_Ryo_]

I like widescreen pictures but I don't love black bars, but it's better than 4:3 almost all the time so whatever. Would I prefer no black bars? Yes. Unfortunately I do not have a good enough display for extra widescreen outputs.

 

[Skux]

Yes. There is not one standard of how to make films and videos.

Letterboxing is necessary to appreciate a director's intention when the screen size doesn't match the film size.

No.

They're terrible in games and terrible in films.

So all the games that were made when screens were 4:3 are now terrible because they have black bars when viewed on a 16:9 screen?

 

[wbEMX]

I really love widescreen pictures and I want to see the movie how it was originally shot, so yes.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

If you care more about filling your screen than watching a movie you can fat thumb the zoom button as much as you want

 

[Wolfe]

If it bothers you that much get a TV with the correct aspect ratio, unless they don't make any in which case time to pick up a projector setup?

Either way I don't want them making movies for the theater with TV ratios.

 

[riotous]

I love the framing wide aspect ratios provide.

Even if you aren't advocating cropping, "seeing what is hidden behind the black bars" completely changes the shot.

 

[GuitarAtomik]

Obligatory

It was fun/frustrating working at Suncoast Video during the transition to DVD and trying to explain this concept to people. Most people had it in their heads that letterboxing was the version that was cutting off the picture.

 

[televator]

Luckily, for you picture quality and/or artist intent hating savages, TVs have a zoom feature. So you can happily fuck up your own viewing experience while the rest of us watch things correctly. Go ahead and set your color temp to "cool" and crank up the handy cam frame interpolation while you're at it.

 

[Lynd7]

I love wide aspect ratios, they definitely feel more grand and a nicer presentation.

 

[13ruce]

I hate it tbh. I don't mind slight letterboxing but when it takes alot of space then well it looks distracting as fuck imo.

 

[megarockexe]

Yes, of course.

I honestly think it's a bit odd when a movie is 16:9. I wish more shows dropped 16:9, like Game of Thrones would look a bit more epic in a wider format.


I've shown this video to people before to explain to them why letterbox is superior.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GseDCbaHNOk

Despite this excellent example, weren't there some movies where a full frame is a really shot, then cropped for the theatrical release, then the full shot used on the home video release? I remember a live-action example of that somewhere. And I believe the first Shrek movie also had some shots for the 4:3 home video release which were basically the "uncropping" of the original wide shots?

 

[Inferno313]

I hate it tbh. I don't mind slight letterboxing but when it takes alot of space then well it looks distracting as fuck imo.

How on earth is static black "distracting as fuck"

it's literally the least distracting anything can be

 

[JB1981]

TV manufacturers should make sets that transform from flat to scope aspect ratios to accommodate the varying ratios used for movies. Just like how movie theaters do. That's the only potential solution to this problem

 

[CreepingFear]

It was fun/frustrating working at Suncoast Video during the transition to DVD and trying to explain this concept to people. Most people had it in their heads that letterboxing was the version that was cutting off the picture.

That was me in the VHS days. I learned by the time DVD was a thing.

 

[StrategyFan]

TV manufacturers should make sets that transform from flat to scope aspect ratios to accommodate the varying ratios used for movies. Just like how movie theaters do. That's the only potential solution to this problem

letterboxing is how you do this without the TV costing $100,000

 

[exmachina64]

I support a director's right to choose.

 

[Jakten]

I don't give a shit as long as the content of the film is good. I'll watch it on an oscilloscope if I have to.