Britannia Film Archives

    Widescreen Vs. Pan & Scan

     

    Widescreen   Pan & Scan
    Widescreen Pan & Scan
    also known as: also known as:
    Letterboxed Fullscreen

    An aspect ratio is the relationship between the width and the height of a screen image. Virtually all sound films until 1953 were at a ration of 1.37:1, which is to say, slightly wider than they were tall - a modest rectangle. Since the television ratio is 1.33:1, very little is lost when an older film is shown on television. (Even films shot in the later standard ratio of 1.66:1 don't suffer too badly when viewed on a television.)

    In the 1950s, however, Hollywood's attempt to lure people away from their television sets and back into theaters led to a battle of screen sizes, beginning with CinemaScope, which was more than twice as wide as it was high at a ratio of 2.35:1.

    Today, most films are shot and shown in a ratio of 1.85:1; since this has become the "standard," such films are no longer thought of as "widescreen." Below you will see the range of screen ratios along with which processes use them.

    2:1   Metroscope, Natural Vision, Grandeur, Panascope, Realife, Superscope, Vitascope, Vista Vision
    2.2:1 Dimension 150, Panavision Super 70, Superpanorama, Super Panavision 70, Super Technirama 70, Todd-AO
    2.35:1 Agascope, Arriscope, ArriVision, Cinepanoramic, CinemaScope, CinemaScope 55, Cinescope, Cromoscope, Daiescope, Duo-Vision, Dyaliscope, Euroscope, Franscope, Grandscope, Hammerscope, J-D-C Scope, Megascope, Naturama, Nikkatsu Scope, Panavision, Panoramic, Regalscope, RKO-Scope, Scanoscope, Shawscope, Sovscope, Space-Vision, Spectrascope, Superama, SuperCinescope, Superscope 235, Super Techniscope, Super 35, SuperTotalscope, System 35, Technirama, Techniscope, Technovision, Todd-AO 35, Toeiscope, Tohoscope, Totalscope, Totalvision, Ultrascope, Vistarama, Vistascope, WarnerScope, Warwickscope
    2.4:1 Panavision
    2.75:1 MGM Camera 65, Ultra Panavision 70
    2.8:1 Cinerama


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