Research Topic - Widescreen Format

Widescreen refers to the aspect ratio of a screen in film, television and on computer screens. In television, it took over from the standard definition format aspect ratio of 4:3 in the 2000's for better quality and HD (high definition) televisions (HDTV). 16:9 is the standard aspect ratio for widescreen at it refers to 16 rectangle units horizontal and 9 rectangle units vertical that make up a larger rectangle that is the area of the screen.

Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/16x9_by_Pengo.svg

Widescreen in film has been used since the late 1890's, starting with the film The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight (1897) by Enoch Rector, and has since been shot on a number of different sizes of film 63mm, 70mm and 35 Anamorphic. There are 5 main types of Widescreen formats for film:

• Masked/Flat - Shot using spherical lenses but with the top and bottom of the frame masked by a metal aperture plate which was cut to the specifications of a theater's screen in the projector. The standard ratios for these are 1.66:1, 1.75:1, 1.85:1 and 2:1.
• 35mm Anamorphic - A.k.a. CinemaScope or Panavision where the film is shot 'squeezed' and the projector has a special lens that projects it to make it look normal. The standard ratio for this is 2.40:1.
• 70mm Anamorphic - same as 35mm but shot on 70mm film making the image quality higher, however has a high production cost so is rarely used. Standard ratio of 2.76:1.
• Super Gauges - Filmed using a wider gate which records on the whole negative frame and is then shrunk to fit in the release prints. Aspect ratio can be shrunk to any standard.
• Large Gauge - simply filmed on 70mm film which has four times the image area of 35mm film.