DVD Demystified

132
The Transfer Tango
Chapter 3
Of course, the option still remains to transfer the movie to DVD’s 4:3 aspect
ratio instead of 16:9. At first glance, there may seem to be no advantage in
doing this because 1.85 movies are so close to 16:9 (1.78). It seems simpler
to do a 16:9 transfer and let the player create a letterbox or pan and scan
version. But there are disadvantages to having the player automatically
format a widescreen movie for 4:3 display: The vertical resolution suffers by
25 percent, the letterbox mattes are visible on movies wider than 1.85, and
the player is limited to lateral motion. In addition, many movie people are
averse to what they consider as surrendering creative control to the player.
Therefore, almost every pan and scan DVD is done in the studio and not
enabled in the player. During the transfer from film to video, the engineer
has the freedom to use the full frame or zoom in for closer shots, which is
especially handy when a microphone or a piece of the set is visible at the
edge of the shot.
Many directors are violently opposed to pan and scan disfigurement of
their films. Director Sydney Pollack sued a Danish television station for airing
a pan and scan version of his Three Days of the Condor, which was
filmed in 2.35 Cinemascope. Pollack feels strongly that the pan and scan
version infringed his artistic copyright. He believes that “The director’s job
is to tell the film story, and the basis for doing this is to choose what the
audience is supposed to see, and not just generally but exactly what they
are to see.” Years later, when talking about DVD, Pollack said, “DVD hasn’t
changed my approach to filmmaking, but what it has changed radically is
my emotional reaction to the afterlife of the films that I do. I was always terribly
disturbed by the fact that the overwhelming majority of people who
see the work that you do as a filmmaker do not ever see it in its original
form. . . . More and more people were watching videos, which were more
and more often being altered by panning and scanning. Those pictures were
getting butchered on video. ...You have superb quality with DVD. Plus,
you can see the movies in their original widescreen format, framed as they
were intended.” 25 Some directors, such as Stanley Kubrick, accept only the
original aspect ratio. Others, such as James Cameron, who closely supervise
the transfer process from full-frame film, feel that the director is responsible
for making the pan and scan transfer a viable option by recomposing the
movie to make the most of the 4:3 TV shape.
25 Interview in Widescreen Review, Issue 37, 2000.