Weird thing with letterbox........

Has anyone else ever noticed that sometimes a movie will start out in letterbox format, but then switch to full screen, without you even noticing!?!

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I have! Man oh man is that weird - it totally freaks me out sometimes too. I think now and then I'll notice, but not usually. It probably does it when it cuts to a new scene or something.

Some movies are shot in both letterbox and standard formats, like Stanley Kubrick films. Kubrick was famous for multi-aspect films like Dr. Strangelove and Eyes Wide Shut, to name a few. Other films like Ben-Hur and The Last of the Mohicans go from full screen or a small widescreen to full letterbox in some scenes so that the drama has full impact. Studios will usually keep the main credits in letterbox and switch to full screen shortly after because it's the least expensive place in a film to do a 'chop and crop' since the credits are added to the action in post-production. Same is true for end credits. This is also why more studios are leaning towards releasing films in letterbox format only...it's less expensive than changing a film to 'pan and scan' or full screen.

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I hate watching films in NON-letterbox form. I always feel like half the picture has been chopped off. But I hate when I play a DVD or Tape at home that is in letterbox form and one of my bone-head friends says "Why do you like watching the movie with those anoying black bars on top and below?" They seem to think that "the top and bottom of the film has been cut off." Some people are so ignorant. I don't know why that makes me angry...but it does.

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