Are Movie Channels Like HBO Ruining Films by the Way They Broadcast Them?

I love movies, but I don't particularly care for movie theaters. I'd much rather be on my couch with popcorn I didn't pay $14 for and all the comforts of home. Nonetheless, the way movie channels choose to broadcast films often ruins the experience.

Even when I was growing up with 4:3 CRT television, I remember thinking how much I disliked the almost square format of broadcast television of that time. Movies, with their much, much wider aspect ratios, felt so epic partially because those aspect ratios were much wider than those of the typical human eye (if you consider the circumscribed rectangle of the roughly oval-shaped field of vision). Thus, I've never minded the black bars that are required on 4:3 and even more modern 16:9 televisions when they broadcast movies. On top of that, if you crop the frame to fill the screen, you're losing information that the director intended you to see. Nonetheless, for some reason unbeknownst to me, a lot of movies are broadcast in a zoom-to-fit format. As this video from Patrick (H) Willems details, it's an annoying practice that really detracts from the experience. Does it bother you? Let me know in the comments! 

[via Patrick (H) Willems]

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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14 Comments

No give me a full screen on 16:9. I hate black bars on top and bottom. I don't care if a little is chopped off. The new theatre is in the home. Directors need to give it up and shoot 16:9. Wide screen is dead.

Agreed! Fill my screen. I have a great 55" tv.. I'm not buying an 80" monster just so that super wide is visible in the center. Besides, while there are some great movies released each year (and I go to the theater to see those I feel best on huge screen, like Star Wars), MOST of the very best stuff I've enjoyed (quality writing, directing and cinematography) has been series TV from Netflix, HBO, Amazon and Starz. All 16:9

Here’s a question: Do you think given that the majority of content consumption is mobile now that photographers should be cropping to phone aspect ratios?

I really don't like the look of 2:3 vertical images, so give me that 16:9 vertical or horizontal crop for sure. It's a shame one of biggest influences of photography today, Instagram, punishes people who use 16:9 horizontal cropping when it looks so damn good for many images.

Yes, they need to think more about it. Our analytics on our website now show that 60% of the traffic is now on mobile. Our website developers keep asking for funky formats for Facebook, etc....
But I keep the YouTube videos 16:9. One of our suppliers are shooting and editing in full 4K and their videos have a thin black bar at the top and bottom. I have to reformat them to get rid of the bars. I have asked them why they don't shoot 4K 16:9 and the answer was "I don't know"

Portrait orientation is making a big "comeback" for photos because on a mobile device a portrait oriented photo takes up way more real estate on the screen than a landscape oriented photo. I think there will come a time when short, web based videos that are typically viewed on a mobile device will be shot on purpose in 9:16 instead of 16:9...especially now that YouTube actually supports 9:16.

Have you scrolled through Instagram? It doesn't work that way. The point is that standard behavior is to keep scrolling through content in an endless feed. Whether it's in blogs, Facebook, Instagram etc. and portrait oriented content fills more of the screen.

Well I have to ask are they shooting in a widescreen format or are they adding the bars to the top and bottom? Or are they shooting square and cropping to give us a widescreen?

More often than not it's a creative decision to either shoot in a wider aspect ratio (i.e. anamorphic) or crop the image to get a similar format. So not really just to add a letterbox just to do it.

I assume some are cropped to get the aspect ratio. So 16:9 is easily achievable than originally thought. Its just the standard for movies it needs to be in widescreen.

It is easy-just like the video explains that cropping a 2.35:1 to 16:9 or anything similar your loosing a chunk of the picture, which also deviates from the filmmakers' vision.
Hate to see people react to cropping the Hateful Eight to 16:9 since it was shot in super Panavision 70 with a 2.76:1 aspect ratio

Yeah that's the issue in shooting in wide vs square and having your sequence as wide. Thanks!

Maybe buy the Blu-Ray?

I'm glad to see the old "pan-and-scan" versions of films have largely disappeared from TV broadcasts thanks to the emergence of widescreen TVs, but it's still hugely disappointing to know that some companies choose not to honor the filmmaker's vision for their films.

Simply put, a viewer who hates the "black bars" is a viewer who doesn't care about the quality of the film they are watching.

As a still photographer, I offer my photos in specific aspect ratios based on my vision for a particular image. I largely work in 3:2 because it is a standard full-frame format, but there are often times images where I aim for a more cinematic look and go wider. If someone cropped those images, I'd be upset because I put as much careful thought into what is represented at the edges of the image as I did into the center of the photo.