Why new movies keep being released with letterboxing?
#1
I have a question that's been bothering me for quite a while. I have noticed that most "old" movies (say, released before the 90s) re-released on bluray have a full screen HD resolution, be it 1080p and 720p, without letterboxing (further I will refer to this as "full screen HD". Not very technically accurate I know). This is also the case for most "indie" movies I come across, but almost all moderate to big budget movies are released with letterboxing and it kind of confounds me. The fact that indie movies are released with "full screen HD" tells me it's not done to save costs for most movies of a regular length (or in any case it's not something the Avengers budget couldn't surmount) so why is this the case? I know that the reason of letterboxing is because of the camera that the movie was shot with, so the heart of my question would be why do they keep using these cameras knowing that in the end people will not take full advantage of their HD screens. And before you say "well, home theaters are an after thought, their real target is cinema" then you have to account for Avatar, that was released in "full screen HD" and this movie obviously had cinema in mind. Also, Interstellar mixed letterhead with "full screen HD" and the latter was intended for cinema, specifically IMAX. So I guess you can see now why this confounds me Smile I hope the kind people in kodi could give me a good explanation. My guess right now is that inertia has set in and they don't really care much in solving it but a lot of video engineers work on this movies so it seems a very simplistic explanation.

PS: Although it's not specific to kodi it is vaguely related. I could not post it to offtopic myself for some reason. Any moderator: feel free to move it there!
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#2
I'd like to turn the question around and ask why 21:9 isn't the new standard TV aspect ratio?

Rather than 4K aka more pixels you can't see, why not 21:9 aka more pixels you can see??
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#3
(2015-06-03, 20:49)twelvebore Wrote: I'd like to turn the question around and ask why 21:9 isn't the new standard TV aspect ratio?

Rather than 4K aka more pixels you can't see, why not 21:9 aka more pixels you can see??

So that is the reason? Those letterboxed movies are shot in 21:9?
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#4
Well correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I'm aware all movies intended for display in cinemas are shot in 21:9 or greater, even today. Some modern movie directors may take the 16:9 TV crop into mind when making the movie, especially if the movie isn't a visual spectacular (eg. Sex In The City 5), but I think they generally enjoy the creative freedom of the wider aspect ratio.

It also differentiates the cinema experience from the TV experience - why else would you sit in a large dark room with a bunch of noisy, smelly strangers to watch a movie??!
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#5
In your question you seem to have the answers, you did miss the part of an video engineer that selectively crops and otherwise fits the movie into "full screen HD". In the main, it's as you mentioned, these are visual stories made for the silver screen and some venues have to be certified in sound or visual aspect in order handle media. Directors are shooting in some cases with Imax certified equipment with that kind of theatre in mind for their finished product (which just happens to be an easy match for "full screen HD"). Watching some of the Avatar outtakes and directors comments, and you get to see the mired amount of guide lines painted on their equipment for various aspect formats, not to exclude any market. A lot of Home Theatre enthusiasts have gotten around the match box look with their own projection systems.

Indie producers know they will not re-coup costs with theatres screenings, and either shoot with equipment that matches the home market, or pay for the transcription to "full screen HD"


The Motion picture dynamic is changing, swinging towards TV and 16:9 model is their target.
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#6
16:9 was seen as a compromise between the various other aspect ratios. Before it was proposed as a compromise ratio, 16:9 itself really wasn't a "common standard".
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#7
(2015-06-03, 22:46)PatK Wrote: A lot of Home Theatre enthusiasts have gotten around the match box look with their own projection systems.

If I had the money I would probably just buy two TVs: one 21:9 and another 16:9 Big Grin

(2015-06-03, 22:46)PatK Wrote: The Motion picture dynamic is changing, swinging towards TV and 16:9 model is their target.

How is it changing? Because of streaming? Do you think that push would be enough for them to stop shooting in 21:9?

Thanks for your comment, very informative!
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#8
Quote: If I had the money I would probably just buy two TVs: one 21:9 and another 16:9 Big Grin

http://televisions.reviewed.com/news/lg-...aming-more

Quote:How is it changing? Because of streaming? Do you think that push would be enough for them to stop shooting in 21:9?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickhanlo...y-changed/
https://www.thebroadcastbridge.com/conte...ing-habits
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#9
(2015-06-04, 16:26)PatK Wrote:
Quote:How is it changing? Because of streaming? Do you think that push would be enough for them to stop shooting in 21:9?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickhanlo...y-changed/
https://www.thebroadcastbridge.com/conte...ing-habits

Right, but I thought there were some specific changes coming to theaters. If everybody already having 16:9 TVs isn't having any effect on them I doubt online streaming will change that.
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#10
Actually you're mistaken. The films you're thinking of were shot at a ratio of 1.85:1 which is wider than the 'Full Screen HD' you keep referring to, which for reference is the somewhat narrower 1.77:1 ratio (Same ratio adjusts to be 16:9). However since minimal cropping is needed it's not unheard of to see the blurays cropped to this resolution. If not, the letter boxing isn't significant either.
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#11
(2015-06-05, 02:16)DJ_Izumi Wrote: Actually you're mistaken. The films you're thinking of were shot at a ratio of 1.85:1 which is wider than the 'Full Screen HD' you keep referring to, which for reference is the somewhat narrower 1.77:1 ratio (Same ratio adjusts to be 16:9). However since minimal cropping is needed it's not unheard of to see the blurays cropped to this resolution. If not, the letter boxing isn't significant either.

You're right, many of those "Full Screen HD" movies actually have very small letterboxing but it's almost unnoticeable. Unlike recent TV shows that have none at all (because they are released for TV, of course).
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Why new movies keep being released with letterboxing?0