Not Wide Enough

I’ve been watching a lot of HD television shows lately (though on a standard definition TV) and seeing television faves like Law & Order and sports in glorious 16x9 widescreen. However, I have to fault the networks for the widescreen vision not being as good as it could be.

In order to simplify the process of re-purposing the widescreen frame to 4:3 the networks chop off the left and the right of the picture. Therefore, when the show it shot every camera setup must protect the important elements by keeping them in the center of the shot. You will also see this with overlays and lower thirds; they are in the center then either too far from the top of frame or bottom to protect the “safe area” when put into the 4:3 frame. What you get is a shot that is not effective at all with the widescreen frame.

Effective widescreen use means using the entire frame. Watch a movie; nothing is in the center. It is always off to one side or the other. It can be very dramatic and effective. Watching Rome last night was awesome because it was shot like a film, making full use of the 16x9 frame.

While I think this will change when everyone has 16x9 TVs (somewhere around the year 10,191), I think the networks need to make the 16x9 experience better. They need to shoot for widescreen and then pan and scan if they want to make a 4:3 presentation. Better yet, just letterbox it on the standard def channel. DVD’s has made almost everyone comfortable with black bars and there should be no problem with this.

Anyway, that’s my thought. As always YMMV!