Letterbo xing (filming)
 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification.(December 2011) |
Letter-bo xingis the practice of transferring film shot in awidescreenaspect ratioto standard-width video formats while preserving the film's original aspect ratio. The resulting video-graphic image hasmattesof empty space above and below it; these mattes are part of each frame of the video signal.
Etymology
[edit]The term refers to the shape of aletter-box,a slot in a wall or door through which mail is delivered, being rectangular and wider than it is high.[1]
Early home video use
[edit]The first use of letter-bo xing in consumer video appeared with theRCACapacitance Electronic Disc(CED) videodisc format. Initially, letter-bo xing was limited to several key sequences of a film such as opening and closing credits, but was later used for entire films. The first fully letter-boxed CED release wasAmarcord,and several others followed includingThe Long Goodbye,Monty Python and the Holy GrailandThe King of Hearts.[2]Each disc contains a label noting the use of "RCA's innovative wide-screen mastering technique".[3]
In cinema and home video
[edit]The term "SmileBox" is a registered trademark[4]used to describe a type of letter-bo xing forCineramafilms, such as on theBlu-ray releaseofHow the West Was Won.The image is produced by using amap projection-like technique to approximate how the picture might look if projected onto a curved Cinerama screen.[5]
On television
[edit]Digital broadcasting allows 1.78:1 widescreen format transmissions without losing resolution, and thus widescreen is the television norm. Most television channels in Europe are broadcasting standard-definition programming in1.78:1,while in the USA, these are down-scaled to letterbox. When using a 1.33:1 screen, it is possible to display such programming in either a letter-bo xing format or in a 1.33:1 center-cut format (where the edges of the picture are lost).
A letter-boxed1.56:1compromise ratio was often broadcast in analogue transmissions in European countries making the transition from 1.33:1 to 1.78:1. In addition, recent years have seen an increase of "fake"2.40:1letterboxmatteson television to give the impression of a cinema film, often seen in adverts, trailers or tv such asTop Gear.[6]
Currenthigh-definition televisionsystems use video displays with a wider aspect ratio than older television sets, making it easier to accurately display widescreen films. In addition to films produced for the cinema, some television programming is produced in high definition widescreen.
On a widescreen television set, a 1.78:1 image fills the screen; however, 21:9 aspect ratio films are letter-boxed with narrow mattes. Because the 1.85:1 aspect ratio does not match the 1.78:1 aspect ratio of widescreen video, slight letter-bo xing occurs. Usually, such matting of 1.85:1 film is eliminated to match the 1.78:1 aspect ratio in the image transference.
Letterbox mattes are not necessarily black.IBMhas used blue mattes for many of their TV ads, yellow mattes in their "I am Superman"Lotusads, and green mattes in ads about efficiency & environmental sustainability. Others uses of colored mattes appear in ads fromAllstate,Aleve,andKodakamong others, and in music videos such asZebraheads,"Playmate of the Year".In other instances mattes are animated, such as in the music video for"Never Gonna Stop (The Red Red Kroovy)",and even parodied such as the final scene of theCrazy Frog Axel F music videoin whichCrazy Frogpeeks over the matte on the lower edge of the screen with part of his hands overlapping the matte. Similar to breaking the border of a comic'spanel,it is a form ofbreaking the fourth wall.[7]The 2016Ghostbustersexploited the edges for its3D effects,with visual effects that "spilled over" into the letter-boxed areas.[8]
The table below shows which TV lines will contain picture information when letterbox pictures are displayed on either 1.33:1 or 1.78:1 screens.
| Aspect Ratio on 1.33:1 screen | 525 Line System | 625 Line System | Aspect Ratio on 1.78:1 screen | 525 Line System | 625 Line System | 1080 HD Line System | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.33:1 | 21–263 | 284–525 | 23–310 | 336–623 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1.56:1 | 40–245 | 302–508 | 44–289 | 357–602 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1.78:1 | 52–232 | 315–495 | 59–282 | 372–587 | 1.78:1 | 21–263 | 284–525 | 23–310 | 336–623 | 21–560 | 584–1123 |
| 1.85:1 | 56–229 | 320–491 | 64–270 | 376–582 | 1.85:1 | 26–257 | 289–520 | 29–304 | 342–617 | 31–549 | 594–1112 |
| 2.40:1 | 73–209 | 336–472 | 85–248 | 398–561 | 2.40:1 | 50–231 | 313–495 | 58–275 | 371–588 | 86–494 | 649–1057 |
Pillar-bo xing and window-bo xing
[edit]
Pillar-bo xing is the display of an image within a wider image frame by adding lateral mattes (vertical bars at the sides); for example, a 1.33:1 image has lateral mattes when displayed on a 16:9 aspect ratio television screen.
An alternative to pillar-bo xing is "tilt-and-scan" (reversedpan and scan), horizontally matting the original 1.33:1 television images to the 1.78:1 aspect ratio, which at any given moment crops part of the top and/or bottom of the frame, hence the need for the "tilt" component. A tilt is a camera move in which the camera tilts up or down.
Window-bo xing occurs when an image appears centered in a television screen, with blank space on all four sides of the image,[9][10]such as when a widescreen image that has been previously letter-boxed to fit 1.33:1 is then pillar-boxed to fit 1.78:1. It is also called "matchbox", "gutter box", and "postage stamp" display. This occurs on the DVD editions of theStar Trekfilms on a 1.33:1 tv when the included widescreen documentaries show footage from the original series. It is also seen inThe Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course,which displays widescreen pillar-bo xing with 1.85:1 scenes in a 2.40:1 frame that is subsequently letter-boxed. It is common to see window-boxed commercials on tv networks, because many commercials are shot in 1.78:1 but distributed to networks in non-widescreen, letter-boxed to fit 1.33:1.[citation needed]
See also
[edit]- Active Format Description
- List of film formats
- Motion picture terminology
- Tor browseruses windowbo xing in order tooffer a simplified fingerprint.
References
[edit]- ^"Definition of LETTERBOXED".merriam-webster.Retrieved27 October2021.
- ^Haines, Richard W.(2003).The Moviegoing Experience, 1968–2001.North Carolina:McFarland & Company,Inc., Publishers. p. 139.ISBN0-7864-1361-1.Retrieved3 February2016.
- ^"Amarcord CED Web Page".cedmagic.Retrieved16 August2019.
- ^"The Smile-box Story".Archived fromthe originalon 21 October 2016.Retrieved9 January2010.
- ^"Aspect Ratio Oddities Page 2".Sound & Vision.9 February 2009.Retrieved11 August2021.
- ^"Televisual letterboxes",Image Dissectors,Archived from theoriginalat theWayback MachineURL accessed 4 October 2009
- ^"Letterbox".The Daily Omnivore.24 May 2012.Retrieved15 September2020.
- ^Why Ghost-busters Looks So Unusual in 3-D
- ^"A visual reference to common Pixel Aspect formats".jeremymoore.Retrieved15 August2019.
- ^"Home Theater: Audio & Video Glossary - ACME HOW TO".acmehowto.Retrieved15 August2019.
External links
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