No more letterbox on Smallville

CM Houghton · April 21, 2009

Just wanted to share a depressing memo I received lately, regarding how we shoot Smallville...
With digital transmission there is only going to be one signal broadcast, HD 16 x 9 . While this is a great step to the future, the studio is now not doing a SD downconvert with a letter box to preserve the widescreen image we have composed for since season 3. This step is being left to the cable provider. Since the studio believes that this will be not done by them in the foreseeable future, we are being asked to go back to protecting for 4 x 3 centre cut. Most viewers watching Smallville on SD will go back to only viewing it in this aspect ratio, after 5 years of letterbox. This was such a great breakthrough for us at the time. We were liberated from the tyranny of compromise, and began working the frame with stretched compositions that we considered cinematic! Now this is a great step backward, and it really hurts.

When I first noticed the change I thought it was something like that....

:(

That's bad news, so I'm glad I still can get the show on iTunes to see it how it was meant to be shown.

Tom Lowe · April 21, 2009

glen, just want to say that the photography has been tremendous this season once again.

BTW, i notice that erica durance seems to keep looking hotter and hotter! i didn't think she was photographed very well when she first came to the show, but you guys really have the lighting and framing nailed with her now -- suddenly she seems more beautiful with every show. kudos.

Tom Jensen · April 21, 2009

Mr. Brown... you had me trying to kill that bug.. then trying to figure out how it got in my Cinema Display!!!!!!

:lol: Thanks !!!!!

So... when can we frame for 16x9 and broadcast in 16x9 ?..... 6/12/09?

It about drove me nuts for a minute.

By rectangle, I think he meant that rectangle that almost resembles a square.