4/3 letterbox(16/9)

[Neil Ryan]

(Ignore this if you’re looking for a helpful post)

One thing the technological age has brought us, is the ability and the necessity to reinvent the wheel an infinite number of times.

[Ben Holmes]

But Mr T’s in Europe, and we are all forward looking widescreen types who have been using 16:9 for ten years.

I guess it comes down to how much footage is in 16:9. Hopefully the majority. It’s far more likely over this side of the pond that they will want a 16:9 DVD, and if you reduce everything to 4:3 letterbox, EVERYTHING will look horrible on a widescreen TV. Yes, some of the 4:3 footage will look soft zoomed to fit. But on DVD it will not show half as much as you think. Alternatives (and this is really an editorial/artistic decision) include:

a) using a zoomed, blurred version of the 4:3 original as ‘curtains’ either side of the 4:3 frame in the 16:9 frame. This is sometimes used over here for old sports footage in 16:9 shows.

b) making the 4:3 footage SMALLER and using the ‘camcorder’ / ‘webcam’ look – so it obviously doesn’t fill the frame, but it looks ‘creative’. No good obviously if the footage has to be matched to 16:9 shots.

c) being creative about how you resize and reframe the footage – some shots can be part zoomed, part moved. Somtimes a combination of mild stretching and zooming can work on arty tight shots.

d) Having cameraman strung up as a warning to others.

At least HD has dragged the US kicking and screaming to widescreen formats. Welcome to the growing pains we had in the 90’s!

Ben

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