A 2.35:1 image panned and scanned to 1.33:1. Nearly half of the original image has been cropped.

Pan and scan is a method of adjusting widescreen film images so that they can be shown within the proportions of an ordinary television screen, often cropping off the sides of the original widescreen image to focus on the composition's most important aspects. Some film directors and film enthusiasts disagree with pan and scan cropping, because it can remove up to 45% (on 2.35:1 films) of the original image, changing the director's original vision and intentions. The vertical equivalent is known as "tilt and scan" or "reverse pan and scan." Download high resolution version (1280x544, 318 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Download high resolution version (1280x544, 318 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... The inner box (green) is the format used in most pre-1952 films and pre-widescreen television. ...

Background

In the U.S., television sets from the last several decades displayed television images with a "4:3" aspect ratio" in which the width is 1.33 times the height. Internet and DVD packages refer to the 4:3 aspect ratio as a "1.33:1 aspect ratio"). On the other hand, a film image typically has a longer, rectangular projected image with an aspect ratio greater than 16:9. Film widths are often 1.85, 2.35, or 2.39 times the height of the image. For other uses, see United States (disambiguation) and US (disambiguation). ... The aspect ratio of an image is its displayed width divided by its height (usually expressed as x:y). For instance, the aspect ratio of a traditional television screen is 4:3, or 1. ... Film is a term that encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. ...

To broadcast a widescreen film on television, or create a videotape or DVD master, it is necessary to make a new version from the original filmed elements. One way to do so is to make a "letterbox" print, which preserves the original theatrical aspect ratio, but produces an image with black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. Another way to turn the wide aspect ratio film into a 4:3 aspect ratio television image is to "pan and scan" the negative. Bottom view of VHS videotape cassette with magnetic tape exposed Videotape is a means of recording television pictures and accompanying sound onto magnetic tape as opposed to movie film. ... DVD (commonly Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc) is an optical disc storage media format that can be used for data storage, including movies with high video and sound quality. ... A 2. ...

Techniques

During the "pan and scan" process, an operator selects the parts of the original filmed composition that seem to be significant and makes sure they are copied — "scanning." When the important action shifts to a new position in the frame, the operator moves the scanner to follow it, creating the effect of a pan shot. This method allows the maximum resolution of the image, since it uses all the available video scan lines — which is especially important for NTSC television, it having a rather low number of lines available to begin with. It also gives a full-screen image on analog television. For this reason, Pan and Scan versions of DVDs are often called Fullscreen. But this method can also severely alter compositions and therefore dramatic effects. The references in this article would be clearer with a different and/or consistent style of citation, footnoting or external linking. ...

For instance, in the film Jaws, the shark can be seen approaching for several seconds more in the widescreen version than in the pan and scan version. For the opening crawl in each Star Wars film, on the pan and scan versions the viewer has to wait until a line of text of the opening crawl reaches the center of the screen to read through that whole line. On the widescreen versions, each line of the opening crawl text appears in its entirety beginning at the bottom of the screen. Jaws is a 1975 horror–thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg, based on Peter Benchleys best-selling novel of the same name, which was inspired in turn by the Jersey Shore Shark Attacks of 1916. ... -1...

In some cases, the results can also be a bit jarring, especially in shots with significant detail on both sides of the frame: the operator must either go to a two-shot format (alternating between closeups in what was previously a single image), lose some of the image, or make several abrupt pans. In cases where a film director has carefully designed his composition for optimal viewing on a wide theatrical screen, these changes may be seen as changing that director's vision to an unacceptable extent. One notable example of this technique is in the film Emma, where a scene with Gwyneth Paltrow and Alan Cumming and two other performers, the VHS version of the movie pans back and forth across a row of people, never showing all four at any one time. The film director, on the right, gives last minute direction to the cast and crew, whilst filming a costume drama on location in London. ... Jane Austens novel Emma (1815) was adapted as a feature film in 1996. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Alan Cumming (born 27 January 1965 in Aberfeldy, Perth and Kinross), is a Scottish film, television and stage actor, best known for his film roles in GoldenEye, as Boris Grishenko; in X2: X-Men United, as Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler; and on the stage with his Tony Award-winning performance as... Bottom view of VHS cassette with magnetic tape exposed Top view of VHS cassette with front casing removed The Vertical Helical Scan, better known by its abbreviation VHS (and often confused to be Video Home System) is a recording and playing standard for analog video cassette recorders (VCRs), developed by...

Once television revenues became important to the success of theatrical films, cameramen began to work for compositions that would keep the vital information within the "TV safe area" of the frame. For example, the BBC suggests program makers who are recording in 16:9 frame their shots in a 14:9 aspect ratio which is then broadcast in analog with small black bars at the top and bottom of the picture, while digital viewers see the full 16:9 picture. The British Broadcasting Corporation, usually known as the BBC (and also informally known as the Beeb or Auntie) is one of the largest broadcasting corporations in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the UK alone and with a budget of more than £4 billion. ...

In other cases film directors reverse this process, creating a negative with information that extends above and below the widescreen theatrical image (this is sometimes referred to as an "open matte" composition). The Sting and Swing Shift were both filmed in this manner. Often pan-and-scan compositors make use of this full-screen negative as a starting point, so that in some scenes the TV version may contain more image content than the widescreen version while in other scenes where such an "opened" composition is not appropriate a subset of the widescreen image may be selected. Open matte is similar to Super 35 in that it involves matting out the top and bottom of the frame for the theatrical release and removing the mattes for the home video release. ... This article is about the 1973 film involving con artists. ... Swing shift, also known as second shift, is an employment schedule during the evening, for example 4 p. ...

The danger with this method is that information deliberately left out of shot in the widescreen version — such as cables, microphone booms, jet vapor trails, or overhead telephone wires — may appear in the TV version. In some cases (notably many of the films of Stanley Kubrick) the original 1.33:1 aspect ratio of the negative is transferred directly to the video master (although these versions also represent a new aspect ratio compared to the original theatrical release; these are not properly "pan and scan" transfers at all but are often called "full-frame" or "open matte" transfers). Stanley Kubrick (July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an artistically influential, Academy Award-winning and critically acclaimed American film director and producer. ... Open matte is similar to Super 35 in that it involves matting out the top and bottom of the frame for the theatrical release and removing the mattes for the home video release. ...

Reactions

Some directors still balk at the use of "pan and scan" version of their movies because they feel it compromises the very directorial vision with which their movies were created. For instance, Steven Spielberg initially refused to release a pan-and-scan version of Raiders of the Lost Ark but eventually gave in; Woody Allen refused altogether to release one of Manhattan. The letterboxed version is in fact the only version available on VHS and DVD. Any tampering with the original image of a film, particularly to crop it to fit a television screen, implies a compromise of the original image, and the cropping of a widescreen image to a full screen image for standard televisions requires skill by a film editor to prevent undue loss of elements of the composition. Steven Allan Spielberg (born December 18, 1946) is a three-time Academy Award-winning American film director and producer. ... Raiders of the Lost Ark, also known as Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, is a 1981 adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. ... Woody Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg on December 1, 1935) is a three-time Academy Award-winning American film director, writer, actor, musician, and comedian. ... Manhattan is a 1979 romantic comedy film. ...

Changes in screen angle (panning) may be necessary to prevent the ludicrous situation in which, when two persons face each other in closeup, only one person is visible in the pan-and-scan version, but this comes at the cost of losing the smoothness of scenes. Inversely, the cropping of a film originally shown in the standard ratio to fit widescreen televisions may cut off foreground or background, as in a tap-dance scene in which much attention is directed appropriately at a dancer's feet. This situation will commonly occur often whenever a widescreen TV is set up to achieve non-stretched full width (such as through the "zoom" function) on images with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 or less. The solution is to pillar box the image by adding black bars on either side of the image, which maintains the full picture height. It is also a question of local culture and technologies; in Europe, where the PAL TV format offers more vertical resolution to begin with, "pan-and-scan" broadcasts and "pan-and-scan" DVDs of movies originally shown in widescreen are relatively rare. The American style of rhythmic foot stomping known as tap dance was born in the United States during the 19th century, and today is popular all around the world. ... The pillar box effect occurs in widescreen video displays when black bars (mattes or masking) are placed on the sides of the image. ... For other uses, see PAL (disambiguation). ...

One modern alternative to pan and scan is to directly adjust the source material. This is very rare: the only known uses are computer-generated features, such as those produced by Pixar, who began the process with their film A Bug's Life. They call their approach to full-screen versions reframing: some shots are pan and scan, while others are transferred open matte (a full widescreen image extended with added image above and below). Another method is to keep the camera angle as tight as a pan shot, but move the location of characters, objects, or the camera, so that the subjects fit in the frame. Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is the application of the field of computer graphics (or more specifically, 3D computer graphics) to special effects. ... Pixar Animation Studios is an American computer animation studio based in Emeryville, California (USA). ... A Bugs Life is a computer animated film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution in the United States on November 14, 1998, and in the United Kingdom on 5 February 1999. ... Open matte is similar to Super 35 in that it involves matting out the top and bottom of the frame for the theatrical release and removing the mattes for the home video release. ...

The advent of DVDs and their use of anamorphic presentation, coupled with the advent and ever-increasing popularity of widescreen televisions and computer monitors, have rendered pan and scan an arguably obsolete practice, although many retailers insist that fullscreen versions of films originally produced in widescreen be made available. Anamorphic widescreen is a cinematography and photography technique for capturing a widescreen picture on standard 35mm film. ...

See also

• Letterbox
• List of film formats
• Motion picture terminology
• Panning
• Widescreen

A 2. ... This is a list of film formats known to have been developed for shooting or viewing motion pictures since the development of such photographic technology towards the end of the 19th century. ... The film industry is built upon a large number of technologies and techniques. ... Panning refers to the horizontal movement or rotation of a film or video camera, or the scanning of a subject horizontally on video or a display device. ... The inner box (green) is the format used in most pre-1952 films and pre-widescreen television. ...

External links

• The Letterbox and Widescreen Advocacy Page
• OAR: The Guide to Film Aspect Ratios
• Example of Film Presented in Pan & Scan
• List of Pan & Scan-only DVDs produced by the Walt Disney Company