Welcome to the weird, wonderful, and often accidental world of .
But movies are shown in theaters in wide formats like (2.39:1, that super skinny rectangle) or Flat (1.85:1, a mild rectangle).
You switch to the Blu-ray, and suddenly the picture is wider, but the top and bottom are clipped off. You feel claustrophobic. open matte
To fix this, the projectionist puts a physical or digital (a black bar) over the top and bottom of the film strip. They "mask" the image. You only see the slice in the middle.
is what happens when you remove those black bars. You are seeing the full camera negative. The whole enchilada. The "Heavenly" Shot vs. The TV Compromise Open Matte usually appears in two specific, contradictory scenarios: Welcome to the weird, wonderful, and often accidental
When James Cameron’s Titanic came to VHS, most people bought the widescreen version. But the standard Fullscreen VHS wasn't a Pan & Scan hack job. Because Cameron shot the film on Super 35 (a format designed to protect the top and bottom), the VHS actually revealed more information than the theatrical cut.
You might just find the secret version of the film the director never intended you to see—but that the camera saw anyway. Have you ever spotted a boom mic or a stunt wire because the matte was opened? Let me know in the comments. You feel claustrophobic
But other times? It feels like you’ve taken a step into the movie. You stop watching a framed painting and start watching a window.
