This is what I discovered by accident while replacing my full screen VHS tapes with wide screen, 1: 85 ratio. I noticed that some of the movies on CD with ratio of 1:85 did not show very much more picture left and right but less top and bottom. After months of comparing and researching this issue, I have come to the conclusion that a number of full screen prints are actually the full print minus the mask that was used during filming to make it 1:85. During the days of VHS why would a studio crop a 1:85 to full screen when the film minis the crop was already full screen. If it is a major film they might have done pan & scan but a lesser film, just scan it as is. You can see the cost savings. This appears to be the case also with some full screen DVDs but to a lesser degree. I believe “It! The Terror from Outer of Space” and “The Monster that Challenged the world” are these full prints. Just set your DVD player to full and TV to Zoom. Your player and TV may us different terminology. I watched It! and Monster this way (Wide 16:9) and it works! No heads cut off. No missing action. You’ll notice the title and credits fit perfectly. (If they don’t you don’t have the set up right.) It actually played better because the close up added tension. No extraneous views of sets or background. Just as I'm sure the director and cinematographer wanted. Ladies and Gentleman I do believe you own the 1:85 wide screen, Just crop it and watch. If you have other full screens that fall in this category, watch it in wide screen and if no heads or credits are cut off, it could be another one. Check with IMDb for aspect ratio. By the way the HULU showing is this print croped. I compared my disk to their print.
reply
share
djkeith3984
15 years ago
Thanks for the info. This is actually airing tonight on MGMHD. It's a channel on Dish Network (maybe others.)I'll pay attention and see. I'm DVRing it for now. Nice to see someone with some insite.
reply
share
stepstonefilms
15 years ago
That's good advice. I think they call these fullscreen versions open-matte, which is as you say, the widescreen picture with the black bars removed. I was half way through watching It! The Terror from Beyond Space when it occurred to me that it was a 1958 film, so should probably be widescreen. So I had a look here and found out it was meant to be 1.85:1.
I always try cropping any fullscreen picture to see how it looks, unless of course it's a pre-widescreen film (mid to late 50's).
-------------------
"I've never seen a sight, that didn't look better lookin' back".
reply
share