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Pan and scan
Pan and scan is a film editing technique used to modify widescreen images for display on a fullscreen screen. It involves cropping the sides of the original widescreen image and panning across it when the shot's focus changes. This cropping can result in the loss of key visual elements but may draw the viewers' attention towards a particular portion of the scene.
"Pan and scan" was often used with VHS tapes before widescreen home media formats such as LaserDisc, DVD, and Blu-ray became common. The vertical equivalent, known as "tilt and scan" or "reverse pan and scan," was used to adapt older films such as Cinderella (1950) for widescreen formats.
These techniques have been widely criticized since their inception, with critics often disapproving because it can remove substantial portions of the original image: up to 43% for films with a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, up to 48% for earlier 2.55:1 films, and up to 52% for 2.76:1 films. Creating new shots or cuts may alter cinematic effects, thereby impacting the pacing, atmosphere, and suspense originally intended by filmmakers. Pan and scan can sometimes alter the director's or cinematographer's original vision, as well as the intended field of view for specific scenes or an entire film, by depriving the audience of significant visual information.
For the first several decades of television broadcasting, sets displayed images with a 4:3 (1.33:1) aspect ratio, which was standard for most theatrical films before 1960. In the early to mid-1950s, filmmakers began using widescreen formats such as CinemaScope and Todd-AO to compete with television and attract audiences to theaters by providing wider visual perspectives and compositional possibilities.
To accommodate the wider aspect ratio of films, television broadcasters adopted the pan and scan technique, which maintained image quality and size but sacrificed the ability to view the entire image. A film subjected to pan and scan often loses around half its horizontal size due to cropping. Letterboxing was an alternative method of displaying widescreen films on a 4:3 screen, maintaining the original aspect ratio by adding black space above and below the image but reducing the image's size and quality.
In 1986, the Voyager Company made it company policy to release widescreen films on LaserDisc only in their original aspect ratio rather than in pan and scan formats, which were common for home media releases. Many other home video labels followed suit.
In the 1990s, widescreen televisions offered a wider 16:9 aspect ratio (1.78 times the height), allowing films with aspect ratios of 1.66:1 and 1.85:1 to fill most or all of the screen with minimal letterboxing or cropping. DVD packaging began to use the expression, "16:9 – Enhanced for Widescreen TVs."
Films shot with aspect ratios of 2.20:1, 2.35:1, 2.39:1, 2.55:1, and especially 2.76:1 (Ben-Hur, for example), might still be problematic when displayed on televisions of any type. However, when the DVD is "anamorphically enhanced for widescreen", or the film is telecast on a high-definition channel and viewed on a widescreen TV, the black spaces are smaller, and the effect is much like watching a film on a theatrical widescreen.
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Pan and scan
Pan and scan is a film editing technique used to modify widescreen images for display on a fullscreen screen. It involves cropping the sides of the original widescreen image and panning across it when the shot's focus changes. This cropping can result in the loss of key visual elements but may draw the viewers' attention towards a particular portion of the scene.
"Pan and scan" was often used with VHS tapes before widescreen home media formats such as LaserDisc, DVD, and Blu-ray became common. The vertical equivalent, known as "tilt and scan" or "reverse pan and scan," was used to adapt older films such as Cinderella (1950) for widescreen formats.
These techniques have been widely criticized since their inception, with critics often disapproving because it can remove substantial portions of the original image: up to 43% for films with a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, up to 48% for earlier 2.55:1 films, and up to 52% for 2.76:1 films. Creating new shots or cuts may alter cinematic effects, thereby impacting the pacing, atmosphere, and suspense originally intended by filmmakers. Pan and scan can sometimes alter the director's or cinematographer's original vision, as well as the intended field of view for specific scenes or an entire film, by depriving the audience of significant visual information.
For the first several decades of television broadcasting, sets displayed images with a 4:3 (1.33:1) aspect ratio, which was standard for most theatrical films before 1960. In the early to mid-1950s, filmmakers began using widescreen formats such as CinemaScope and Todd-AO to compete with television and attract audiences to theaters by providing wider visual perspectives and compositional possibilities.
To accommodate the wider aspect ratio of films, television broadcasters adopted the pan and scan technique, which maintained image quality and size but sacrificed the ability to view the entire image. A film subjected to pan and scan often loses around half its horizontal size due to cropping. Letterboxing was an alternative method of displaying widescreen films on a 4:3 screen, maintaining the original aspect ratio by adding black space above and below the image but reducing the image's size and quality.
In 1986, the Voyager Company made it company policy to release widescreen films on LaserDisc only in their original aspect ratio rather than in pan and scan formats, which were common for home media releases. Many other home video labels followed suit.
In the 1990s, widescreen televisions offered a wider 16:9 aspect ratio (1.78 times the height), allowing films with aspect ratios of 1.66:1 and 1.85:1 to fill most or all of the screen with minimal letterboxing or cropping. DVD packaging began to use the expression, "16:9 – Enhanced for Widescreen TVs."
Films shot with aspect ratios of 2.20:1, 2.35:1, 2.39:1, 2.55:1, and especially 2.76:1 (Ben-Hur, for example), might still be problematic when displayed on televisions of any type. However, when the DVD is "anamorphically enhanced for widescreen", or the film is telecast on a high-definition channel and viewed on a widescreen TV, the black spaces are smaller, and the effect is much like watching a film on a theatrical widescreen.