my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Film Handlers' Forum   » The movie is flat but the trailer is scope?? (Page 1)

This topic comprises 2 pages: 1  2

Author Topic: The movie is flat but the trailer is scope?? Gunnar Asgeirsson Film Handler Posts: 64 From: Iceland Registered: Jul 2006 posted 10-25-2008 07:33 PM                        One very strange thing.... Why do the movie companys have trailers of flat movie in scope. Im wondering about the trailer of "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" We are running this trailer now in scope... but the movie is Flat.. I dont really understand why they make scope trailers for flat movies??  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 10-25-2008 07:58 PM                     ..better advertising that way - to market their product as best as possible. Get's your customers in the doors keeping your business open.  |  IP: Logged Mike Olpin Chop Chop! Posts: 1852 From: Dallas, TX Registered: Jan 2002 posted 10-25-2008 08:48 PM                     They are croping the top and bottom of the image off. This used to be common practice. Matted trailers are a relatively recent development. Check out this old thread from way back in the day: http://www.film-tech.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=002081  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 10-25-2008 09:28 PM                    Way back in the early 90s I stopped playing flat trailers in front of scope movies due to our top (manually) movable masking chopping people's heads off and leading to endless complaints about the movie being "out of frame" from uninformed customers. Not playing the trailers led to our theater getting yelled at by our corporate office, but we kept up the policy anyway. Why? because the corporate office yelling at us wasn't hurting our business. Pissed off customers was. This led to us getting calls from the studios demanding we play their trailers and keep up our end of the contract. I explained the problem and told them I'd be glad to run their trailer - just send me a scope one. Several months later, one by one, scope trailers started showing up. As time went on, they became more and more common. So, the bottom line is... I guess you could say it's all partially my fault.  |  IP: Logged Gunnar Asgeirsson Film Handler Posts: 64 From: Iceland Registered: Jul 2006 posted 10-26-2008 08:50 AM                        Yes i forgot to say one thing.. Some part of the trailer is only flat... with no pictures (only black) at left and right and sometimes it is scope and then They are croping the top and bottom of the image off. Dont misunderstand me i love scope trailers more than flat trailers. Some part of the trailer for Zack and Miri Make a Porno is scope and some part is flat.. And the movie is flat. That is the point of this thread and i forgot to put that with Here is two shot from the same trailer.  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 10-26-2008 10:03 AM                    Since it looks like this is a movie about making a movie, maybe they're using the variable aspect ratio to distinguish the movie you're watching from the movie they're making in the movie? Crocodile Hunter did that.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 10-26-2008 10:32 AM                        I would really like it if they didn't do the letter/pillarboxing of the image, mainly because a lot of trailers can't seem to get it perfectly centered and the pillarbox drives me nuts even if the keystoning isn't that bad in a particular auditorium... I can still see it. Surprisingly, no customers ever complain that the entire screen isn't being filled. Seems like they are used to it. Now if only those same customers would stop buying "full screen" DVDs.  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 10-26-2008 02:01 PM                        Most trailers in scope as most of you know are specially prepared to be shown along with flat trailers without the use of an anamorphic lens when the wide image is printed within the confines of a flat aperture film frame. I have however seen actual scope trailers shown without the use of the proper lens mixed with flat trailers. When I had seen this kind of poor showmanship, I knew the person in the booth was either very lazy or did not know what he or she was doing. There was a time shortly after the introduction of CinemaScope and other anamorphic film presentations, I used to see a lot of short animated films with a feature that was in scope. The image looked like Bugs Bunny had gained a lot of weight. -Claude  |  IP: Logged John Hawkinson Film God Posts: 2273 From: Cambridge, MA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 10-26-2008 06:47 PM                     Why has no one answered the question? Gunnar asked, "Why do the movie companys have trailers of flat movie in scope." The answer is simple: distributors produce scope and flat versions of trailers for every movie, because many theatres cannot handle doing lens changes between trailers and features, and thus need scope versions to play before scope features and flat versions to play before flat features. (It is also the case that the scope trailers tend to be less in-demand, which means that they run out of flat trailers first, so if you are in a position to order trailers, you might find only scope trailers are available.) It is not correct to say that "sometimes it is scope." Scope refers not just to the apparent aspect ratio of the image, but also to the anamorphic squeeze. Yes, this trailer is odd for transitioning between full-frame scope and pillarboxed 1.85-within-2.39. Mark's answer is certainly a possible choice. Another is that they felt this scene would look wrong if they cropped it vertically. Claude's statement is simply wrong. He said, "Most trailers in scope as most of you know are specially prepared to be shown along with flat trailers without the use of an anamorphic lens...." That is not a scope trailer. A scope trailer is an anamorphic 2.39:1 image projected through an anamorphic lens. They are not at all rare. What Claude seems to be describing is a flat trailer for a scope movie, which might be letterboxed, or might be cropped. --jhawk  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 10-26-2008 10:51 PM                    quote: John Hawkinson Why has no one answered the question? quote: John Hawkinson The answer is simple: distributors produce scope and flat versions of trailers for every movie, because many theatres cannot handle doing lens changes between trailers and features, and thus need scope versions to play before scope features and flat versions to play before flat features. That's pretty much exactly what I said in my first post. Except we handled lens changes fine - just our masking was manually set and flat images put actors' heads on the masking when the screen was set for a scope feature. But then he clarified his question and I changed my answer, which I agree with jhawk - I'm right.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 10-27-2008 02:37 AM                        I think it is CrAzY that technology allows us to have flat trailers of a scope film and vice versa. What's next, trailers for movies that play in theaters shown on TV? What is this world coming to? I CANNOT TAKE IT!!!  |  IP: Logged Joe Elliott Master Film Handler Posts: 497 From: Port Orange, Fl USA Registered: Oct 2006 posted 10-27-2008 01:07 PM                     I think flat should be dropped completely. Scope is a theatrical format, TV's are also moving to widescreen. Hollywood needs to drop flat all together. NO MORE 4:3. That's my political platform. VOTE FOR JOE!  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 10-27-2008 02:48 PM                        You are correct, John Not being a projectionist, I should not have used the word "Scope" when I described trailers for 2.35:1 aspect ratio movies that has been been specially prepared to be shown with other Flat" trailers. Yes, I should have used the terminology "Letterbox" -Claude  |  IP: Logged Bill Gabel Film God Posts: 3873 From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 10-27-2008 03:03 PM                     The top picture of Zach and Miri you posted is the video they are shooting, movie (4x3) within a movie (1.85). The movie is a flat aspect ratio.  |  IP: Logged Benny Walters Film Handler Posts: 41 From: Columbus, OH USA Registered: Jul 2008 posted 10-27-2008 04:49 PM                     quote: John Hawkinson was the last to post Why do the movie companys have trailers of flat movie in scope. quote: Gunnar Asgeirsson I dont really understand why they make scope trailers for flat movies?? Movie studios make trailers in both formats so that you can advertise their films on films that are in both formats not just limiting you to films in one format. I screened a copy of Zack and Miri Sunday before last and the scene posted with the black bars on the right and left is from a scene where it is "a movie within a movie."  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 2 pages: 1  2

Printer-friendly view of this topic

Hop To: Select a Forum: Category: Operations -------------------- Digital Cinema Forum Film Handlers' Forum Large Format Forum Ground Level Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets Category: Community -------------------- Film-Yak Film Handlers' Movie Reviews The Afterlife Bob Maar's Joke-A-Thon Category: Classified -------------------- Equipment and Supplies Wanted/For Sale Help Wanted/Seeking Employment Category: System -------------------- Software Beta Testing Forum

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.