Posted by Vincent at bg-tc-ppp756.monmouth.com on May 13, 2000 at 21:22:24:
In Reply to: Sorry To All For MisInfo, But On The Other Hand... posted by Lucifer Lyndon Razoodock on May 13, 2000 at 17:01:41:
: Okay, chief; this is where you've got me: I've never actually seen "Chasing Amy" Panned-&-Scanned; only the Criterion widescreen transfer.
: My educated-guess was based on this, however: I've always thought that 1.66:1 never really suffered all that much when cropped to 1.33:1. Exactly how much image was lost that so-much panning was needed?
: Which version was cropped, after all: 1.85:1 or the 1.66:1?
Each version is cropped, but the difference is thus- in the viewfinder of the Super-16 camera, there are markings top asnd bottom showing what will be cup off when you go from 1.66:1 to 1.85:1, and the image was composed thusly. NO consideration was given for cropping side-to-side from 1.66:1 to 1.33:1 of video, hence the panning and scanning of CHASING AMY on VHS. While 1.66:1 isn't THAT much wider than 1.33, it still causes problems when a film is shot that way either using Super-16 or a "hard-matte" in the camera. Most European films are shot at 1.66:1 in 35mm with a hard-matte in the camera, and are thus panned-and-scanned- they don't look as bad as 'Scope films that are panned-and-scanned, but it's defintely noticeable. As for percentages, 20% of the width of a 1.66:1 frame is cropped for TV's 1.33:1 aspect ratio (do the math this way- 1.66:1 equals 5:3, while 1.33:1 equals 4:3, so 1/5th of the 1.66;1 frame is lost). That's more than enough to cause some problems.
As for the tight top framing, Dave Klein is a fan of "tightly" composed frames at the top (VULGAR looks this way too), so if it looks a bit "cramped" on the Criterion transfer, this is why- it's an entirely stylistic choice on his part and not due to the change from 1.66:1 to 1.85:1.
: It sounds to me as if the Miramax-transfer was overly-zoomed-in. Who supervised this?
Dave supervised it- maybe it could have been done a little more smoothly, but I doubt it- even though it's only 1.66:1 at it's widest (with the frame opened up as much as it can be top and bottom), Dave and Kevin tended to spread people out in that frame.
Vincent