Is this film fullscreen or widescreen?
I found a copy of Melody, but it's in 640x480 format.. i'm wondering whether that's how it's supposed to be, or whether I got a cut up version (i.e. fullscreen).
shareI believe the aspect ratio for Melody is 1.85:1, which was the British and U.S. standard ratio for 35mm theatrical film, prior to the implementation of the 16:9 international standard. I've uploaded a picture from the film to show you how it should look, apologies in advance for it being 1.14 megs.
http://rapidshare.com/files/25651234/Melody_Proper_Ratio.BMP.html
Regards, Mike.
nemo mortalium omnibus horis sapit.
Hmm... thanks. The version I downloaded was fullscreen, 1.33:1 ratio. However, it looks like my version has more picture on the top and bottom, rather than your version having more on the left and right. Maybe it was filmed in fullscreen. Check this out:
http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/2794/picture4ak9.png
That's the picture you gave me, side by side with my movie file, paused on the same frame.
You're right, there is a noticable difference between the two pics. I believe what's happened is that the film was shot using the open matte technique:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_matte
The pic I dl'd definitely shows the film as I saw it in the early seventies, when I was young, free and thin...
P.s. The version you obtained, what was the file size, and was it in two parts?
nemo mortalium omnibus horis sapit.
Wow... wait. I'm really confused now. So what about other films from the 70's? I have One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Apocalypse Now, and The Godfather on DVD. They're all presented in 1:85 Widescreen.
Does this mean i'm actually missing the top and bottom of the picture???
I know for a fact that movies these days ARE filmed in Widescreen....
My file is 1.18GB, and it's in one part.
Does this mean i'm actually missing the top and bottom of the picture???
Not really, mac, what you're seeing is what the cinematographers envisioned for each of the presentation types that existed when the film was made. Tv was 4:3, so what you got was the 4:3 version, and if you saw the widescreen version on Tv it was usually an awful pan & scan version, whether you liked it or not.
(I well remember when The Bridge on the River Kwai was shown in Britain in the 1980's there was a scene with the Jap officer and a Brit officer that lasted several minutes (I think the scene was about whether or not the officer POW's should be made to do manual labour), what the viewer saw was a close-up of a whisky bottle for the whole of the scene because the actors were standing at opposite sides of the frame and the p&s technician couldn't decide which of them to focus the action on, so decided on the most ridiculous compromise possible!)
Regards, Mike.
nemo mortalium omnibus horis sapit.