BBC blooper: how not to show a widescreen film

In 1986 the BBC showed a widescreen film called Adam's Woman. Instead of letterboxing it with a black band at top and bottom, they used 'pan and scan'. This meant only a part of the widescreen frame could be visible at any time. As the pan and scan operator tried to follow the action, the audience enjoyed shots of empty sky, walls, horses ears and people who were weirdly almost out of frame a lot of the time. Here are some bits.

The white frame shows where the edges of a typical TV screen would be.

See the other clip for the moment where the operator forgot to change film reels.

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• entertainment
• blooper
• bbc
• film
• pan
• scan
• widescreen

[85devotee]

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

[doubledeckers]

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

[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.

[doubledeckers]

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

[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!

[andy86i]

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

[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.

[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...

[lyris1]

Total and utter fucking travesty.

[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]

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 :)