View source for Letterboxing (filming)

{{Short description|Black bars below and above an image}}
{{redirect|Letterboxed|the word game|Letter Boxed|the website|Letterboxd}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}
{{more citations needed|date=December 2011}}

[[File:Image cropping 235x1.jpg|right|thumbnail|upright=1.3|A 2.35:1 widescreen image letter-boxed in a 1.33:1 screen]]
'''Letter-boxing''' is the practice of transferring film shot in a [[widescreen]] [[aspect ratio (image)|aspect ratio]] to standard-width video formats while preserving the film's original aspect ratio. The resulting video-graphic image has [[Matte (filmmaking)|mattes]] of empty space above and below it; these mattes are part of each frame of the video signal.

==Etymology==
The term refers to the shape of a [[letter-box]], a slot in a wall or door through which mail is delivered, being rectangular and wider than it is high.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Definition of LETTERBOXED|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/letterboxed|access-date=2021-10-27|website=www.merriam-webster.com|language=en}}</ref>

==Early home video use==
The first use of letter-boxing in consumer video appeared with the [[RCA Corporation|RCA]] [[Capacitance Electronic Disc]] (CED) videodisc format. Initially, letter-boxing was limited to several key sequences of a film such as opening and closing credits, but was later used for entire films. The first fully letter-boxed CED release was ''[[Amarcord]]'', and several others followed including ''[[The Long Goodbye (film)|The Long Goodbye]]'', ''[[Monty Python and the Holy Grail]]'' and ''[[King of Hearts (1966 film)|The King of Hearts]]''.<ref name="haines">{{cite book |last=Haines |first=Richard W. |author-link=Richard W. Haines |title=The Moviegoing Experience, 1968–2001 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qe-myrvrzOUC&pg=PA139 |access-date=3 February 2016 |year=2003 |publisher=[[McFarland & Company]], Inc., Publishers |location=North Carolina |isbn=0-7864-1361-1 |page=139}}</ref> Each disc contains a label noting the use of "RCA's innovative wide-screen mastering technique".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cedmagic.com/featured/amarcord.html|title=Amarcord CED Web Page|website=www.cedmagic.com|access-date=16 August 2019}}</ref>

==In cinema and home video==
{{anchor|SmileBox}}The term "SmileBox" is a registered trademark<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cineramaadventure.com/smilebox-tm.htm |title=The Smile-box Story |access-date=9 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161021011921/http://www.cineramaadventure.com/smilebox-tm.htm |archive-date=21 October 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> used to describe a type of letter-boxing for [[Cinerama]] films, such as on the [[How the West Was Won (film)#Restoration|Blu-ray release]] of ''[[How the West Was Won (film)|How the West Was Won]]''. The image is produced by using a [[map projection]]-like technique to approximate how the picture might look if projected onto a curved Cinerama screen.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2009-02-09|title=Aspect Ratio Oddities Page 2|url=https://www.soundandvision.com/content/aspect-ratio-oddities-page-2|access-date=2021-08-11|website=Sound & Vision|language=en}}</ref>

==On television==
Digital broadcasting allows 1.78:1 widescreen format transmissions without losing resolution, and thus widescreen is the television norm. Most television channels in Europe are broadcasting standard-definition programming in [[16:9 aspect ratio|1.78:1]], while in the USA, these are down-scaled to letterbox. When using a 1.33:1 screen, it is possible to display such programming in either a letter-boxing format or in a 1.33:1 center-cut format (where the edges of the picture are lost).

A letter-boxed [[14:9 aspect ratio|1.56:1]] compromise ratio was often broadcast in analogue transmissions in European countries making the transition from 1.33:1 to 1.78:1. In addition, recent years have seen an increase of "fake" [[anamorphic format|2.40:1]] letterbox [[Open matte|mattes]] on television to give the impression of a cinema film, often seen in adverts, trailers or tv such as ''[[Top Gear (2002 TV series)|Top Gear]]''.<ref>"[https://web.archive.org/web/20190119174329/http://www.imagedissectors.com/article/25 Televisual letterboxes]", ''Image Dissectors.com'', Archived from the [http://www.imagedissectors.com/article/25 original] at the [[Wayback Machine]] URL accessed 4 October 2009</ref>

Current [[high-definition television]] systems use video displays with a wider aspect ratio than older television sets, making it easier to accurately display widescreen films. In addition to films produced for the cinema, since the late 2000s a growing majority of television programming is produced in high definition widescreen.

On a widescreen television set, a 1.78:1 image fills the screen; however, 21:9 aspect ratio films are letter-boxed with narrow mattes. Because the 1.85:1 aspect ratio does not match the 1.78:1 aspect ratio of widescreen video, slight letter-boxing occurs. Usually, such matting of 1.85:1 film is eliminated to match the 1.78:1 aspect ratio in the image transference.

Letterbox mattes are not necessarily black. [[IBM]] has used blue mattes for many of their TV advertisements, yellow mattes in their "I am Superman" [[IBM Lotus Notes|Lotus]] ads, and green mattes in ads about efficiency and environmental sustainability. Others uses of colored mattes appear in ads from [[Allstate]], [[Aleve]], and [[Kodak]] among others, and in music videos such as [[Zebrahead|Zebrahead's]] "[[Playmate of the Year (album)|Playmate of the Year]]". In other instances mattes are animated, such as in the music video for [[Rob Zombie|Rob Zombie's]] "[[Never Gonna Stop (The Red Red Kroovy)]]", and even parodied such as the final scene of the [[Axel F#Music video|Crazy Frog Axel F music video]] in which [[Crazy Frog]] peeks over the matte on the lower edge of the screen with part of his hands overlapping the matte. Similar to breaking the border of a comic's [[panel (comics)|panel]], it is a form of [[breaking the fourth wall]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Letterbox |url=https://thedailyomnivore.net/2012/05/24/letterbox/ |website=The Daily Omnivore |access-date=15 September 2020 |language=en |date=24 May 2012}}</ref> The 2016 ''[[Ghostbusters (2016 film)|Ghostbusters]]'' exploited the edges for its [[3D film|3D effects]], with visual effects that "spilled over" into the letter-boxed areas.<ref>{{cite web |date=20 July 2016 |author=Kyle Buchanan |title=Why Ghostbusters Looks So Unusual in 3-D |url=https://www.vulture.com/2016/07/why-ghostbusters-looks-so-unusual-in-3-d.html |website=Vulture |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160721113140/https://www.vulture.com/2016/07/why-ghostbusters-looks-so-unusual-in-3-d.html |archive-date=2016-07-21 |url-status=live }}</ref> 

The table below shows which TV lines will contain picture information when letterbox pictures are displayed on either 1.33:1 or 1.78:1 screens.
{| class="wikitable"
! Aspect Ratio on 1.33:1 screen !! colspan="2" align="center"| 525 Line System !!colspan="2" align="center"| 625 Line System !! align="center" | Aspect Ratio on 1.78:1 screen !! colspan="2" align="center"| 525 Line System !!colspan="2" align="center"| 625 Line System !!colspan="2" align="center"| 1080 HD Line System
|-
! 1.33:1
| align="center"|21–263 || align="center"|284–525 || align="center"|23–310 || align="center"|336–623 || align="center" |—||align="center"|—||align="center"|—||align="center"|—||align="center"|—||align="center"|—||align="center"|—
|-
! 1.56:1
| align="center"|40–245 || align="center"|302–508 || align="center"|44–289 || align="center"|357–602 || align="center" |—||align="center"|—||align="center"|—||align="center"|—||align="center"|—||align="center"|—||align="center"|—
|-
! 1.78:1
| align="center"|52–232 || align="center"|315–495 || align="center"|59–282 || align="center"|372–587 || align="center" | '''1.78:1''' || align="center"|21–263 || align="center"|284–525 || align="center"|23–310 || align="center"|336–623 || align="center"|21–560 ||align="center"|584–1123
|-
! 1.85:1
| align="center"|56–229 || align="center"|320–491 || align="center"|64–270 || align="center"|376–582 || align="center" |  '''1.85:1''' || align="center"|26–257 || align="center"|289–520 || align="center"|29–304 || align="center"|342–617 || align="center"|31–549 || align="center"|594–1112
|-
! 2.40:1
| align="center"|73–209 || align="center"|336–472 || align="center"|85–248 || align="center"|398–561 || align="center" | '''2.40:1''' || align="center"|50–231 || align="center"|313–495 || align="center"|58–275 || align="center"|371–588 || align="center"|86–494 || align="center"|649–1057
|}

==Pillar-boxing and window-boxing==
{{Main|Pillarbox|Windowbox (filmmaking)}}
[[File:windowboxed.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.3|A [[windowbox (filmmaking)|window-boxing]] image]]

Pillar-boxing is the display of an image within a wider image frame by adding lateral mattes (vertical bars at the sides); for example, a 1.33:1 image has lateral mattes when displayed on a 16:9 aspect ratio television screen.

An alternative to pillar-boxing is "tilt-and-scan" (like [[pan and scan]], but vertical), horizontally matting the original 1.33:1 television images to the 1.78:1 aspect ratio. At any given moment this crops part of the top or bottom of the frame, hence the need for the "tilt" component. A tilt is a camera move in which the camera tilts up or down, or in this case a selection of the upper or lower part of the image to omit.

Window-boxing occurs when an image appears centered in a television screen, with blank space on all four sides of the image,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.jeremymoore.com/AdobePremiere/PAR_Displays/|title=A visual reference to common Pixel Aspect formats|website=www.jeremymoore.com|access-date=15 August 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.acmehowto.com/howto/hometheater/glossary/glossaryw.php|title=Home Theater: Audio & Video Glossary - ACME HOW TO.com|website=www.acmehowto.com|access-date=15 August 2019|archive-date=25 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225075623/http://www.acmehowto.com/howto/hometheater/glossary/glossaryw.php|url-status=dead}}</ref> such as when a widescreen image that has been previously letter-boxed to fit 1.33:1 is then pillar-boxed to fit 1.78:1. It is also called "matchbox", "gutter box", and "postage stamp" display. This occurs on the DVD editions of the ''[[Star Trek]]'' films on a 1.33:1 tv when the included widescreen documentaries show footage from the original series. It is also seen in ''[[The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course]]'', which displays widescreen pillar-boxing with 1.85:1 scenes in a 2.40:1 frame that is subsequently letter-boxed. It is common to see window-boxed commercials on tv networks, because many commercials are shot in 1.78:1 but distributed to networks in non-widescreen, letter-boxed to fit 1.33:1.{{Citation needed|date=May 2024|reason=Without some reference to this practice, this sounds like OR.}}

==See also==
* [[Active Format Description]]
* [[List of film formats]]
* [[Motion picture terminology]]
* [[Tor browser]] uses windowboxing in order to [[Device_fingerprint#Offering_a_simplified_fingerprint|offer a simplified fingerprint]].

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Letterboxing (film)}}
* [https://www.widescreen.org/index.shtml The Widescreen and Letterbox Advocacy Page]

{{Film formats}}

[[Category:Film and video technology]]

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