2.35 films being changed to 1.77 for DVD...
 

I know some are cropped, and some (The Recruit) have opened mattes, but this seems to be becoming a trend as I was afraid it might be with 16X9 tv sales increasing.

I know Life as a House and The Recruit are like this, and I discovered two more random ones that I rented from netflix recently, Me Without You and A Song for Martin. Both of these last 2 started out with beautiful 2.35:1 compositions during the opening credit scene, and then changed to 1.85 or 1.77 or so after.

This is very, very frustrating, and I'm afraid we're just gonna be seeing more and more of it.

Any other films I'm leaving out?

Wow, I had no idea that this was going on now. I always had fears of this eventually happening but never thought this soon. Sad..very sad.

OAR only for me

By the way...are they pan&scanning these or are they just copping off part of the picture without any panning?

Both The Recruit and Life as a House were changed for video release by the filmmakers.

The Recruit was filmed for both 1.78:1 and 2.35:1 (variable matting) while Life as a House was shot for 2:1 on a 2.35:1 frame.

Little shop of horrors and South park both had trailers in 2.35 but the dvds are 1.85

Both Little Shop Of Horrors and South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut were 1.85:1.

I was trying to figure out if either LAAH or Rec. were released anywhere else in the world in their proper aspect ratio and thus far, no word. :( it sucks.

Many times, trailers will be different aspect ratios than the actual movie.

This is usually because the trailers were made to be in front of a movie in a different aspect ratio.

A 2.35:1 film will usually have a 1.85:1 trailer for use before a 1.85:1 film, but a 1.85:1 film can have a 1.85:1 trailer before a 2.35:1 film. Some trailers are anamorphic, but are pillarboxed on the trailer print. Hollow Man is one like this.

Of course, if the theater showed it like that, why should the DVD be different? :D

Playing By Heart was cropped to 1.85:1 for DVD. The end credits are still in 2.35:1 though.

How about Apocalypse Now? I am assuming that the current Redux dvd is the intended aspect ratio? The trailers look to be about 2.35 (check out the Redux trailer and look at the scene with Willard in his hotel room sparring, there is WAY more information on the left and right than is present in the film which looks to be at about 2.0:1 since there are very thin bars at the top and bottom on my widescreen set)....

Some cinematographers shoot 2:1 because they're dissatisfied with how the letterboxing looks on a regular TV screen. Apocalypse Now was done this way, as were most of the films shot by oscar-winner Vilmos Zsigmond.

That's incorrect. Apocalypse Now was shot at the full scope ratio then transferred to laser and DVD at a compromised ratio under cinematographer Vittorio Storaro's supervision. The panning and scanning is quite obvious.

Storaro shot Apocalypse Now long before the advent of letterboxing on home video, so how could he have possibly been thinking ahead to how it would look on video when he shot it?

...erm... AN was shot by Vittorio Storaro, not Zsigmund... and -for better or for worse- Mr Storaro happens to be the "father" of the 2.0:1 UNIVISIUM film format (which, by the way, has nowt to do with transfer to video)...

. . . :o . . .

I recently got the R2 PAL disc of Peter Weir's The Cars That Ate Paris (which is thankfully coming soon in R1 from HVE), and it is 2.35 during the titles, and 1.77 during the rest of the movie, just as you said. It really cheesed me off.

This interview makes it sound as if it was a transfer to video issue, at least so far as Apocalypse Now was concerned. Storaro may be a big proponent of 2.0:1 today (Goya, Tango, and Picking Up the Pieces were shot in Univision and were unquestionably meant to be 2.0:1 from the outset) but I've seen nothing suggesting he intended Apocalypse Now to be 2.0:1 from the very beginning. (This site suggests that the same was true for Tucker as well.)

WIDOW OF ST. PIERRE is another 2.35:1 film presented in 1.78:1.

Whoops, thanks for the correction. I'll change Zsigmond to Storaro in my earlier post to avoid further confusion, but the rest of the text will remain the same, since the point still stands. Apocalypse Now was shot in 2.35:1 and then later modified to 2.00:1 pan-and-scan for laserdisc and DVD.

drunken master 2 (hk version) (aka legend of drunen master)

Thanks for the info Patrick. I was always curious why Life as a House was matted to 2:1 for dvd.

Why did they not choose to have the film shown matted to 2:1 in theaters?

I never said Vilmos shot AN.

This would be a dream come true for me as I hate 2.35:1 and prefer fullscreen over 2.35:1. 1.78:1 or 1:85 would be my choice as the perfect size as opposed to the 2.35:1 I came to hate quickly. I know I am in the minority here when in comes to OAR but to each their own.

And no one said you did. SpinnerX, however, did say that Zsigmund shot AN. And this is to whom Hendrik's post was directed.

DJ

*shudder*

i would prefer everything to be shown in 2.35:1. It's more cinematic in my opinion. 1.85 is just a compromise, IMHO.

But to show where my head was at, I was confused by DonnachaOne's post, which read, "Apocalypse Now was done this way, as were most of the films shot by oscar-winner Vilmos Zsigmond."

Either the Zsigmond comment was somewhat of a nonsequitur or DonnachaOne was implying that Zsigmond shot AN, but either way I repeated it without thinking when I commented on AN. Sorry for the confusion.

2.35:1 Anamorphic on a Widescreen TV is great, but watching 2.35:1 that is Non-Anamorphic is dreadful, it makes me feel like I am watching it on a 4:3 TV.