Posted by Vincent at tcache-wa01.proxy.aol.com on May 11, 2001 at 19:00:50:
In Reply to: But... posted by Pimpbot on May 11, 2001 at 17:40:18:
: : 16mm shoots in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio, so there would be no need to letterbox the image.
: The DVD is presented in a aspect ratio of 1.85:1, so it could have had an anamorphic transfer. At the time Disney released Clerks they were not to big on anamorphic transfers, so that is why it is not anamorphic.
Plus they just ported over the laserdisc transfer.
I really wish they'd offered the full-frame transfer as well, which I think looks better. The 1.85:1 transfer came from a 35mm blow-up and it quite grainy. The full-frame transfer used for the VHS release was taken from a 16mm interpositive and looks a lot better. Check out the trailer on the DVD and you'll see what I mean, that too was taken from a 16mm IP and it looks a lot better than the feature.
Oh, and as for saying there's "no need" to letterbox the image at all- not quite true. When we did the A BETTER PLACE transfer (from a 16mm low-contrast print made directly from the negative), we pulled the image out all the way so the extreme left-and-right of the image was captured in the transfer. By doing so, we exposed a lot of smutz at the top and bottom of the frame, and had to add a 1.5:1 letterbox matte to cover the smutz and give us a clean edge.
Vincent