FullScreen VS WideScreen?

[luca_frontino]

Let's clear somethings up for the SHH! Movie going public. The issue at hand has become far complicating due to the fact that people like to simplify things to fullscreen vs. widescreen, where those black bars seem to have caused various wierd psychosises in the movie-goin public.

What I mean by this is that you shouldn't say you're either a full-screen or widescreen watcher, just say you support OAR (Original Aspect Ratio) which is simply watching a film in the ratio that it was made, or that you simply want a film to be cropped/stretched to fit your entire screen, that's what it should come down to. What has happen though from this inane battle fueled by ignorant so-called cinephiles, is a whole new batch of problems have cropped up. Also let's clear the air, fullscreen's proper name is "Academy Ratio" which is 1:37:1, widescreen however is a little more complex. Widescreen comes in a variety of ratios which why I said that the simplification of it to Fullscreen vs. Widescreen has caused problems. For example the original Ben-Hur DVD release was wide-screen however it wasn't OAR because the film's actual ratio is 2.76:1, which is one of the widest films ever released, in the original DVD they cropped it to the normal wide-screen ratio.

Another horror story revolving around the whole widescreen vs. fullscreen, is taking Transformers the Movie (Animated) and simply throwing black bars on the top and bottom so that it looked wide-screen without any additional picture information being added, most likely done to get people to rebuy it. DBZ did the same thing with its season sets. The point I'm making is either you support movies being presented OAR or being cropped to fit your TV, the rest of this is a bunch of hogwash. I support OAR.

The most rectangular format is the Cinerama with an aspect ratio of 4:1. It was realized while shooting with 3 cameras contemporaneally.

I've forgot to say that CGI images are in square format (2K by 2K) and then rendered cutting off the top and the bottom: so, even in the original format you are loosing some of the information.

For me, the best way to shot an image would be in a square (1:1), because you should have the same amount of information from top to bottom and from left to right: if you got a 2.40:1, to film contemporaneally the sky and the ground needs a panning or a total zoom off.

 

[Tempest19]

Fullscreen shouldn't even exist.
It's so f-ing pointless to even offer it.
If I ever get a film in Fullscreen as a gift, I ask the gift-giver for the reciept. I refuse to own fullscreen films.

Same here. Films are shot wide and deserved to be seen in the ratio they were originally intended to be in.

 

[Mr Jide]

widescreen....the whole world knows this. Thats why we get wide screen monitors, tvs, laptops and not to mention most media players are wide screen by default.

 

[JTStarkiller]

I loved when DVD came out, because most were in widescreen only. Over the years though, fullscreen made quite a comeback. It's still not in high demand like Widescreen, but any demand is too much.

I'm hoping the new HD formats eliminate them once and for all, especially because TVs are 16:9 now.

 

[Downhere]

I'm hoping the new HD formats eliminate them once and for all, especially because TVs are 16:9 now.

Unfortunately, there are people with 16:9 displays that complain when they see black bars on a movie filmed in scope. Which means, the next fullscreen, or how I like to say it foolscreen, option will be cropping scope films to fit 16:9 displays. Just watch, it will happen...unfortunately.

 

[Rac]

Same here. Films are shot wide and deserved to be seen in the ratio they were originally intended to be in.

Yes, and sometimes that is fullscreen.

I do prefer wide, but if the movie was shot in full then I want it in full.

 

[Lazlo Panaflex]

Before DVD's and letterbox VHS tapes I used to play with the vertical button on my TV set and shrink the image as if I'm watching widescreen movies, as you can see I was a widescreen pioneer at a young age.

 

[Addendum]

Yes, and sometimes that is fullscreen.

I do prefer wide, but if the movie was shot in full then I want it in full.

And that mostly applies to movies that were filmed before 1953, which used the Academy Ration of 1:37:1.

Which means, there will never be a widescreen version of Gone With the Wind, Casablanca or any of the Marx Brothers movies to name a few.