Film to Video (Letterbox)

What is "Letterbox"?
Transferring Movies to Video

Lets face it, movies were meant to be seen in movie theaters. No matter what we do to convert a movie from film to video, it will never be the same. The television screen is much smaller than a projection screen, and the resolution of a movie projector is unparalleled. The performance of a good theater sound system can envelope an audience and heighten the overall experience. There is no match for an acoustically sealed room, designed specifically for that purpose. Aside from the inherent movie theater advantages, the majority of video movies available for purchase and rental are in the pan and scan format. It is puzzling then to try to understand why most people prefer to view movies at home than in an adequate movie theater environment.

Although a good movie theater is superior to most home theater set-ups, there is one thing we can easily do to improve the home viewing experience: demand letterbox videos. Most home videos show a tag at the beginning that says, "This film has been modified from its original version. It has been modified to fit this screen". Videos displaying this message are in a format called "pan and scan". This format is not what you would see if you had seen the movie in a theater. With pan and scan you are watching an image which has been altered for video viewing. The pan and scan conversion to video includes unnatural closeups, additional camera movements, and loss of picture. Sometimes almost 50% of the picture is lost when transferring a film from its original aspect ratio to pan and scan.

The superior alternative is the "letterbox" format where the image is preserved in its original aspect ratio. Although the picture seen on your television screen is smaller in the letterbox format, you are watching the picture as it was meant to be seen; in its full splendor!

What does "Letterboxing" do to film?

To understand what letterboxing is and why it exists, you must first have an understanding of proportions or ratios.

Consider the diagram below:

The object displayed above is a square, that is, all sides are of equal length. If the vertical sides are 1 inch, the horizontal sides must also be 1 inch. Since the vertical sides are the same length as the horizontal sides this is said to be a 1:1 ratio. In a one-to-one ratio the vertical measurement and the horizontal measurement are the same size.

Now consider the following diagram:

This rectangle has horizontal sides that measure twice that of the vertical sides. This is said to be a ratio of 2:1. If the rectangle were to measure 10 inches on the short sides, it would measure twice that on the long sides, or 20 inches. This shape most closely matches that of a movie theater screen.

With this in mind lets look at the next object:

This rectangle has a ratio of 3:4; the same proportions as your television screen. Regardless what size television set you have -- the large screen TV in your family room or the small portable television in the kitchen -- the ratio of length to width is always 3:4.

By now you might have noticed a problem: the shape of the movie screen does not match that of the television. Since the theatrical image is much wider than it is tall, the image does not fit the television set. This is indeed a major problem, and one that has to be dealt with when movies are transferred from film to video. One possible solution to the problem is called "pan and scan". With the pan and scan conversion an editor looks through a 3:4 viewer which can be moved over the original, wider image. The viewer is positioned so that it captures the action, or "focal point" and the remainder of the image is "cropped" and eliminated.

Theatrical image as seen in theaters. Presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio

This is an image from David Lynch's "Wild At Heart" (1990) . The movie was filmed with Panavision cameras and lenses on standard 35 mm film. This highway scene was seen several times in this film and the editor chose to deal with the pan and scan conversion with two different techniques. One possibility is to select the left side of the screen and then the right side, but that would destroy the nature of the scene. We were meant to see Lula (Laura Dern) and Sailor (Nicholas Cage) sitting in the car side by side, all in a single frame.

Anamorphic Compression

Anamorphic image in television 3:4 ratio
Pan and Scan image

With the anamorphic representation the editor takes the original anamorphic image from the 35 mm print and duplicates it as a 3:4 pan and scan image. None of the information is lost, however, it is not presented in the intended aspect ratio and the image appears horizontally compressed. This effect causes an unnatural appearance as figures appear "slimmer" than normal.

Anamorphic Compression/Cropping

Cropped anamorphic image in television 3:4 ratio
Pan and Scan image

Since cropping alone could not solve the problem with this particular image, the anamorphic frame was cropped and only a partial anamorphic image is preserved. The result is a compromise between showing the anamorphic image in full compression from its original 35 mm anamorphic print or partially cropping the anamorphic image to fit a standard 3:4 ratio (giving the picture a more natural look but losing some of the picture).

Letterboxed Image

Letterboxed image in original 2.35:1 aspect ratio

This is the letterboxed image, presented in the original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. Notice that the image is identical to the one projected in the theatrical version. The image doesn't fill the entire screen, but it is presented the way it was meant to be seen.

This may sound confusing but it all boils down to one simple fact: pan and scan transfers destroy the natural look of movies. Thousands of movies have been transferred to video in pan and scan format, and it is the preferred format in this country. Unfortunately, some people refuse to accept the letterbox format, and some return videos as "defective" when they accidentally check out a letterbox film from their local video store. The great misconception is that the "black bars" on the top and bottom of the screen are blocking information, when in reality it is the pan and scan format which not only removes information, but also adds undesirable effects such as additional camera movements and unnatural closeups that were never meant to be there in the first place. Fortunately, every day more of us are understanding what letterboxing is , but we have a long way to go before the majority chooses letterbox as their preferred viewing format. I encourage you to evaluate the examples and see for yourself the dramatic difference between the two formats. Hopefully this will encourage you to take a few minutes of your time to send a quick e-mail to some of the links below. Tell them that you support the letterbox format, and you prefer to view movies in this format. Your help and support can and will make a difference.

Which image would you prefer?

I'm not convinced, I want more examples!