Many thanks guys. I thought I was cracking up !! I love the movie, so I will be buying redux on bluray, and possibly also the 'heart of darkness' documentary.
With regards to the movie business, I thought that the director would have the final say on the aspect ratio, maybe in conjunction with the cinematographer? Francis Ford surely would have wanted the final say over how his masterpiece was shown to the public?
Also, for a movie to be displayed in a particular AR, do different camera lenses need to be used (panavision panaflex etc) or is the AR set in the editing suite or when the film is mastered to dvd and bluray etc?
As you can tell I know nothing about how films are made, but I do find the subject very interesting.
Okay, absolute minefield.
When DVDs/Blu-rays are released, often the director/DoP isn't/can't be involved. When they are, it's often one or the other, and they don't always agree.
FFC was happy to go with VS on his 2.00:1 ratio experiment, but the reason given was the lack of real estate on old 4:3 TVs. Now that most people have 16:9 TVs, FFC was happy to go with 2.40:1 for the Blu-ray Disc.
How the aspect ratio is decided; first, with traditional film.
With 'narrower'/non-anamorphic films, the image is usually shot at 1.37:1, and that's how it appears on the original camera negative, and usually how it remains right through to the cinema print. The image is then masked in the projector, in the way recommended in print on the reels of films as delivered to the cinema.
Occasionally the film is hard masked, either during filming, or in post production, so the film the cinema receives is already in the correct ratio. However, this is relatively rare.
With anamorphic films (most 2.40:1 films) the film is shot through a lens which squeezes the image so that it's tall and thin. A reverse lens is used when the film is projected, to un-squeeze the image. Why? This way you use the whole of the 35mm frame, rather than just a portion of it. The image should be better by doing it this way, but anamorphic lenses often distort and soften the image.
Thus doesn't mean the projector screens are always 2.40:1. Most US cinemas in the '50s & '60s were roughly 2.00:1, with masking at the top & bottom as well as the sides. They'd show the film in the largest area possible. However, in the multiplex era most screens are either 1.85:1 or 2.40:1.
In the digital age, the vast majority of films are not anamorphic when shot. The chips in digital cameras are pretty much 16:9 (like your TV) and 2.40:1 films are generally shot on to that chip with black bars at the top and bottom (like on your TV). In the cinema they are usually projected through 'flat' (non-anamorphic) lenses, so they've never been squeezed or un-squeezed.
For 65mm/70mm films, most are shot 'flat' (non-anamorphic) in 2.20:1, and projected 'flat' (without any need for un-squeezing). For 2.40:1 cinemas the 2.20:1 image is cropped at the top & bottom, then the remaining 2.40:1 image is squeezed on to 1.37:1 film stock, then un-squeezed in projection.
I hope that helps. I know it's quite complicated.
Steve W
