Here's a common one which pops up at the cinema....

A customer pops out of their screen to tell us there is something wrong with the picture as it "Doesn't fill the screen properly." On checking the picture is being displayed perfectly, but the customer is still insisting there is something wrong as there are "Black bits to each side of the screen."

So, what is the issue here?

Well, all that it is is that the film being shown is in a 'widescreen' aspect ratio (for example the DCI 1.90:1 aspect, or the Pano 1.85:1 aspect) on a Scope screen 2.39:1 aspect. Thus it is not as long horizontally as the screen, leaving gaps at the edge.

Some older cinemas have curtains which draw in to hide these areas, some newer cinemas have mechanized wall plates that move and shift to 'box' the screen. We just have big screens.

Now some people seem baffled when explaining the aspects ratios as they hear "Widescreen" and think of their TV set at home and can't recall seeing black lines at the side (top and bottom, yes, but not the side). This is all thanks to the muppets who chose to inflict utter confusion when Widescreen VHS became a bit of a fad. Your widescreen Tv is NOT the same aspect ratio as a Scope screen, and so the comparison cannot be explained easily without aid of diagrams (trust me, I have ended up almost banging my head against a wall infrustration at times trying to explain the system)

Some people may never have noticed this before as the main blockbusters tend to opt for the Cinemascope aspect (more screen, bigger impact), and it is the lower interest films that have a different aspect.

If the film was really being projected in the wrong aspect on screen you would either have a load of people with very squashed heads, or extremely thin people on screen. If all are in proportion, then it is in the right aspect.

For a visual aid, check out http://web.forret.com/tools/aspect.asp and play around with the screen size and picture size to compare.

Remember choose Scope for screen and DCI for picture to see what I mean by the lines either side.

To see how the films look on your TV choose HD or TV (depending on your TV type) and then put a scope film on there.

Quite a good site - very useful.

I was in HMV a few years back and a customer asked what was the difference betwen two versions of a film, one being widescreen. The 'explanation' was that the widescreen had black bars at bottom and top of picture. Duh!
I would have said widescreen shows all the film and 'full screen' chops both sides off leaving you with half the image missing.

Some older cinemas have curtains which draw in to hide these areas, some newer cinemas have mechanized wall plates that move and shift to 'box' the screen. We just have big screens.Alternatively - some Cinemas save money by not masking films correctly using the two methods described.
I've been told that staff have requested proper masking but as it would cost money....

There are some very annoying DVD releases in curious ratios which cause me great problems on my home cinema projection screen. My screen is a 2.35:1 full scope screen, with masking options for 1.85:1 (16:9 roughly) or 1.33:1 (normal old TV screen). No problem with DVD's released on a base 16:9 frame as an anamorphic 2.52:1 picture....No porblem with base 16:9 or base 4:3 framing.....but there are some DVD's released in annoying formats, just as in a base frame of 4:3, with a non anamorphic 2.35:1 letterbox image, or a base of 4:3 presented as non anamorphic 16:9 letterbox......my projector then has to be zoomed to get the correct size of image within the base aspect ratio masking on the screen....

does that make sense or am I talking rubbish....I wish all DVD's could be totally standard and not use odd formats here and there.

And of course another PET HATE is DVD companies who constantly issue 'old' films from standard TV film prints, ie 4:3 image, when the original may well have been 1.85:1 or higher, resulting in a presentation where up to 50% of the image is actually completely missing.....GRRRRRRRRRRRR

Hi I used to use this website when editing video, it was very helpful

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/anamorphic/aspectratios/widescreenorama2.html

And of course another PET HATE is DVD companies who constantly issue 'old' films from standard TV film prints, ie 4:3 image, when the original may well have been 1.85:1 or higher, resulting in a presentation where up to 50% of the image is actually completely missing.....GRRRRRRRRRRRR

Depend how it was filmed. Older films were frequently shot with coverage for 4:3. Since a 35mm film frame is square (regular frame), you can end up with more of the orginal image on a 4:3 print

But as it's usually Pan and Scan.........not to mention that shots composed for a wider aspect ratio look odd if then shown 4:3
Also anything shot with an anamorphic lens is distorted on the neg.

As I say, depends on the film. Whether it was shot using anamorphic lenses or not, and whether the dp took the 4:3 frame into account (which was fairly standard practice), and whether the 4:3 print was taken directly from the negative.

And also if it was a low budget 16mm film (like Tetsuo), it originally would be closer to 4:3

Before the introduction of wide screen films and CinemaScope, films were shown in the old 'Academy' ratio. This was a perfect square.

Before the introduction of wide screen films and CinemaScope, films were shown in the old 'Academy' ratio. This was a perfect square.

Aye - which causes confusion amongst some whenever they see a classic film on the big screen these days.