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1.66, 1.78?


Guest Tony DeRosa

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Guest Tony DeRosa

Confused with aspect ratios. 1.66 is European Widescreen? 1.78 is HD? So if you wanted to go to HD you want your ratio at 1.78?

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Confused with aspect ratios. 1.66 is European Widescreen? 1.78 is HD? So if you wanted to go to HD you want your ratio at 1.78?

 

More and more films are projected in Europe with a 1.85 mask instead of a 1.66 mask these days, though occasionally I see a European movie here that is clearly meant to be projected in 1.66 (due to the fact that the subtitles don't quite fit inside 1.85.)

 

Yes, if you want to release something in 16x9 full-frame HDTV, you'd compose for 1.78.

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Yeah, most commercial (ie. non-arthouse) theatres here are only equipped to show 1.85:1 and 'scope nowadays. Accordingly, films meant for large-scale theatrical distribution are not generally composed for 1.66:1 anymore.

 

Some films are still made at 1.66:1, but these tend to be the ones that are primarily in festival/arthouse circulation.

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Yeah, most commercial (ie. non-arthouse) theatres here are only equipped to show 1.85:1 and 'scope nowadays. Accordingly, films meant for large-scale theatrical distribution are not generally composed for 1.66:1 anymore.

 

Some films are still made at 1.66:1, but these tend to be the ones that are primarily in festival/arthouse circulation.

 

The neighborhood theater for most of my life projected 1.66:1 until it was torched in the 80s.

The 60s was full of dubbed Italian action and horror movies.

On a 1.66 screen, it was easily seen that most non-scope Italian and Spanish movies were shot with 1.85:1 hardmattes.

The last movie I saw there was 'Fitzcarraldo', another 1.85:1 hardmatte.

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