Once upon a time, every film released in home media formats (we are talking end of 70s here) was full screen; to achieve that, many were pan&scan - took just a part of the screen, eventually slide it left or right, and the sides were lost.
After a while, the laserdisc format (followed by all the others) started a new trend, letterboxed movies, where the whole image was displayed, adding black borders on top and bottom; at the time, many were against this, because TV sets were 4:3, and so black bars huge, and image smaller than non-letterboxed version.
Then came the 16:9 TV sets, DVD, HDTV, Blu-ray, and letterbox is the standard "de facto" for released movies.
So, what's about open matte? Well, many movies filmed in 35mm were "soft matted" when projected in the theaters; that mean the whole 1.33/1.37:1 image is used - apart, usually, for FX shots, as the cost of them is directly proportional to image area; then, when projected, a matte mask is put in front of the projector, to get rid of top and bottom parts, and get the desired aspect ratio. There are also some "hard matted" movies, where the black bars are on the print, and so no chance to get back the image parts that were behind them.
Many argue that a movie, at home, should be watched as the director (and/or studios) wanted it projected in theaters, in its OAR (original aspect ratio); I agree, this is the best way to watch it. But an open matte version is a great, alternative way, sometimes, to discover interesting things. Of course, not every one is a good version.
The best chance to find a good open matte version is to find out the OAR and the OM (open matte) AR; 1.85:1 (and smaller) AR and 1.33:1 OM, and in general 1.78:1 OM have often (but not always) a good chance to be good, and lose small to few image on the sides, often gaining more image on top and bottom.
At the contrary, 2.35:1 movies in 1.33 OM are usually heavily cropped, and a bad way to see the movie; also, many movies with a 2.35 (and higher) aspect ratio were shot using anamorphic lenses, so no way to get an OM version of them, but only P&S (Pan and Scan)
Old VHS tapes, laserdiscs and also DVDs offer a vast opportuinity to get 1.33:1 OM versions; I read somewhere that about 80% of the so-called fullscreen DVDs (in opposition to letterboxed DVDs, anamorphic or not) are indeed OM. On BD and HD-DVD, chances to get an OM version are quite rare, while often it's possible to see them on HDTV broadcast, or web download.
While open matte means to get a movie without mattes, not all of them are of the same kind. We could distinguish them in the following main kinds:
After a while, the laserdisc format (followed by all the others) started a new trend, letterboxed movies, where the whole image was displayed, adding black borders on top and bottom; at the time, many were against this, because TV sets were 4:3, and so black bars huge, and image smaller than non-letterboxed version.
Then came the 16:9 TV sets, DVD, HDTV, Blu-ray, and letterbox is the standard "de facto" for released movies.
So, what's about open matte? Well, many movies filmed in 35mm were "soft matted" when projected in the theaters; that mean the whole 1.33/1.37:1 image is used - apart, usually, for FX shots, as the cost of them is directly proportional to image area; then, when projected, a matte mask is put in front of the projector, to get rid of top and bottom parts, and get the desired aspect ratio. There are also some "hard matted" movies, where the black bars are on the print, and so no chance to get back the image parts that were behind them.
Many argue that a movie, at home, should be watched as the director (and/or studios) wanted it projected in theaters, in its OAR (original aspect ratio); I agree, this is the best way to watch it. But an open matte version is a great, alternative way, sometimes, to discover interesting things. Of course, not every one is a good version.
The best chance to find a good open matte version is to find out the OAR and the OM (open matte) AR; 1.85:1 (and smaller) AR and 1.33:1 OM, and in general 1.78:1 OM have often (but not always) a good chance to be good, and lose small to few image on the sides, often gaining more image on top and bottom.
At the contrary, 2.35:1 movies in 1.33 OM are usually heavily cropped, and a bad way to see the movie; also, many movies with a 2.35 (and higher) aspect ratio were shot using anamorphic lenses, so no way to get an OM version of them, but only P&S (Pan and Scan)
Old VHS tapes, laserdiscs and also DVDs offer a vast opportuinity to get 1.33:1 OM versions; I read somewhere that about 80% of the so-called fullscreen DVDs (in opposition to letterboxed DVDs, anamorphic or not) are indeed OM. On BD and HD-DVD, chances to get an OM version are quite rare, while often it's possible to see them on HDTV broadcast, or web download.
While open matte means to get a movie without mattes, not all of them are of the same kind. We could distinguish them in the following main kinds:
- full open matte - the image includes all (or almost all) the letterboxed image, hence a lot more image on top and bottom, while none (or a little bit) of image lost on the sides; this usually happens for movies where OAR difference is not that high from the OM AR - example, 1.66:1 OAR and 1.33:1 OM, 2.00:1 OAR and 1.78:1 OM, but sometimes happens also in other cases - as far as I know, vast majority of 1.85:1 OAR -> 1.78:1 OM is full open matte; 1.50:1 OAR (and lower) -> 1.33:1 could (should?) be the same
- normal open matte - the image includes more details on top and bottom in comparison to letterbox, but quite some image lost on both sides; this is the normal situation of higher difference from OAR to OM AR - example, 1.85:1 OAR and 1.33:1 OM, and 2.35 OAR and 1.78:1 OM
- open matte cropped - the image gain something on top and/or bottom, but a lot of details are lost on both sides; the difference with pan&scan is that usually no pans occour during the movie, but the OM image remains centered, or offset on given shots
- mixed open matte - some scenes could be full or normal open matte, while others could be cropped (usually during widest shots, or shots with special effects) or pan&scan
- variable aspect ratio - lately we find some movies, usually shot on IMAX, that retain some shots open matte (full or cropped), while the rest of the movie is letterboxed
