American Cinematographer - February 1988 - 12

MOTION PICTURE
AND VIDEO
SPECIALISTS

About 'Letterbox'
I would like to

respond to Mr.
Greg Jennings' Nov. 1987 letter which criti¬
cizes Warner Bros' letterbox video release
of Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple.

Since I, too,

COLT

HELICOPTER LTD.

am

in favor of pre¬

senting genuine wide
some

screen films on TV in
kind of letterbox format, I also had

examined The Color Purple
with a great deal of interest.

videocassette
A comparison

of this release and the letterbox video¬
cassette of Woody Allens Manhattan will
indeed reveal a distinct difference between
the two films' mode of presentation on TV.

But, the problem is not that Warner Bros, is
guilty of a "falsehood" (in Mr. Jennings'
words) by passing off a bogus letterbox
version of the film. Rather, it is a failure in
communication whereby our terminology is

lagging behind newer formats which are
becoming more acceptable to an audience
of growing awareness.
I believe consultation with the
distributors of The Color Purple videocas¬
sette will verify that, in fact, it employs a
modified letterbox image which is inter¬
mediate between full-fledged letterbox and
the more conventional pan and scan tech¬

nique. Because this intermediate format has
though it
of great
importance for the film and video industries.
I feel it should be more closely examined.
There is a growing consensus
that pan and scan prints are an unsatisfac¬
tory mode of presenting widescreen movies
on TV. The viewer-impact of films shown
this way is substantially altered not only
because of the claustrophobic effect result¬
ing from cropping out at least half of the
original image, but also from the fact that
the act of planning and scanning in effect re¬
photographs and re-edits such films so that
several valuable attributes - even
lacks a name - it is potentially

LOCATIONS * AERIALS
WESCAM
GYRO-STABILIZED
VEHICLE MOUNT
CONTINENTAL
*

*

HELICOPTER MOUNTS

155 WEST 18th ST.
NEW YORK, NY 10011
212-929-1156
10

CinemaScope-type image into a TV screen
necessarily means that its height must be
reduced to nearly half the height of the
screen.

Hence, its

name,

the "letterbox"

format.

Many purists are adamant in
preference for the letterbox format
over pan and scan TV prints. Certainly its
ability to maintain the integrity of a film's
original wide-screen cinematography is an
important quality. But, the letterbox format
has numerous shortcomings which counter
much of its advantages. With the masked
areas occupying nearly half of the video
screen above and below the image, it inher¬
ently contains an inordinate amount of
waste and inefficiency. Being composed of
fewer scan lines, image sharpness is sacri¬
ficed. The relatively large blank spaces can
be visually distracting. And by occupying
I ittle more than half the height of the screen,
the letterbox image can seem diminishing
on all but the largest TV screens.
A simple solution to the disad¬
vantages of both the pan and scan and
letterbox formats is to obtain an image half¬
way between them - a modified letterbox
format, so to speak. This, I believe, is
essentially what was done with The Color
Purple videocassette. This intermediate im¬
age is achieved by either pulling away from
the pan and scan image, or zooming in on
the letterbox image, so that the amount of
cropping of the original widescreen image is
equal to the amount of masking of the TV
screen. While still a compromise, the mod¬
ified letterbox approach reduces the short¬
comings while retaining the advantages of
their

the two extreme formats. It encompasses
most of the original wide screen image,

the TV versions bear little resemblance to
the theatrical releases.

minimizing the need for panning and scan¬
ning, while still occupying most of the TV
screen space - the masked areas are sig¬
nificantly reduced in size.

One solution used in Europe, and
occasion in America, is to circumvent the
excessive cropping of the pan and scan

The ultimate solution, of course,
is to introduce wide screen television, but
until that advent, the modified letterbox

approach by presenting the original wide
image on the TV screen (allowing for a

format is the best

certain percentage

tributors, and the home viewer.
Richard A. Strain

on

of cropping from

over¬

scanning). Since the aspect ratio of the
anamorphic system is 2.35:1, and that of the
TV screen is 1.33:1, fitting the full width of a
February 1988

everyone

possible compromise for

concerned: filmmakers, video dis¬
-

Tampa, Florida
American Cinematographer - February 1988

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - February 1988
