BBC blooper: how not to show a widescreen film

[85devotee]

Τhis wasn't pan and scan. They just cropped the image.

[doubledeckers]

@85devotee - It's obviously an electronic pan at 1:53.

[psxdriverplayer]

All I'm saying is that Pan & Scan MUST DIE

[filmnet]

In fairness, Adam's Woman was made in whopping 2.35:1 and would have never been shown full letterboxed in 1986 (sets were 4:3 and most were smaller). Better would've been to zoom out a bit similar to 14:9 or 16:9 letterboxing, secondly the pan and scanning should've been done in advance on videotape - very well edited.

[lyris1]

Total and utter fucking travesty.

[JayArgonaut]

lol the person in charge of telecine didn't even make an effort at a decent 4:3 transfer. The only film the BBC showed back then in widescreen was 2001 and Kubrick had to demand they do it!

Funny with all the hype about HDTV and digital switchover yet Channel4 (& Sky maybe?) is the only UK broadcaster that doesn't show pan & scan movies or crop 2:35.1 films to fit 1:85.1 lol

These days if a "pan & scan" comes on, I'll change the channel or get the DVD or look for the torrent instead :)

[arranmc182]

@JayArgonaut the other month on ITV4 they had Total Recall it was more like Total Pan & Scan i got about half way in to the movie I couldn't stand it any more

[JayArgonaut]

@arranmc182 lol It's scary the amount of films that ITV still shows in pan & scan. They're aggressively promoting HD viewing whilst offering you clearer versions of pan & scan films, what a joke. I won't even mention Channel 5...

[Nolifereviews]

I seriously dont know why people will view movies in fullscreen: and then say you miss more with widescreen! It makes me want to punch them in the face and the roll them down a flight of stairs!

[TVperson1]

This is done quite a bit to american TV shows in wide screen, but the director usually seems puts most of action in the centre of frame. Example: NCIS, 2 and a 1/2 men, House. Most wide-screen stuff is in 14:9 on analogue TV.

[andy86i]

death to pan and scan!!!!!!!!!

[TVperson1]

This is a side crop, not a pan & scan.

[Zickcermacity]

Holy suitcase! I have enough trouble following a film plot even when viewing full frame! This is actually hilarious.

Did ANY pan or scanning go on at all during that mixdown?  It looks like the 4:3 frame was centered and not adjusted at all during the transfer.

LOL!

[doubledeckers]

I think so because there are a couple of places where the framing jumps across the frame without a picture cut. I'm sure many of those panning moves are not in the film.

[jenzi666]

This is abused art. I wouldn't do or support that for the best money.

[suziemufc]

Hilarious!

[ArtJWest]

I bought a US VHS a few years ago of a widescreen film which was cropped to 4:3 but there was no adjustment at all! The centre of the frame was always shown, no matter how empty.

I seem to remember in about the 1980s ITV getting a lot of flack for a film about Onassis panned and scanned "on the fly" disasterously.

I agree that it's often as bad now, with heads and feet missing from 4:3 shots when they are used in documentaries.

[Benhameen1975]

The last shot is priceless! Panning away from the girl to some wafts of smoke. Thanks for posting!

[Ladykeep]

What a hoot.

[Pichon61]

That's awful! Certainly demonstrates that the only way to see a film properly is at the cinema. I'm reminded of the BBC's TX of Star Trek IV compared with the VHS release. I ran them side by side for comparison. In places, virtually the full 2.35:1 frame was visible across two monitors!

[doubledeckers]

As the film reel actually ran out live on air that suggests they were panning and scanning it live.

[ArtJWest]

True. I remember BBC2 showing a Marx Brothers film. They missed out a reel, then went back to the point that they went wrong and showed it through to the end, thereby showing one reel twice. Of course, with it being Marx Bros we might have thought it was deliberate.

[g7mzh]

Oh dear! The Beeb were never very good at doing pan & scan, but these clips certainly show the lack of attention.

[Jamiep84]

Did the BBC do the film->video transfers themselves though?

It's also worth noting that the framing on the BBC's output today is often far worse than that - with tons of 4x3 stuff being cropped to 14x9 / 16x9 and vice versa!