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Untitled (Patreon)

Published:
2015-11-12 15:39:12
Imported:
2021-03

Content

I'm going through Space Cop and reformatting the shot compositions for the inevitable 4:3 VHS version. The proper aspect ratio for the movie is 2.35:1, which is pretty widescreen and as I butcher all these shots, I'm being reminded of how many movies I discovered and grew up with on VHS, so far removed from how they're actually supposed to look. I was trying to find a clip online of the VHS version of the elevator scene in Ghostbusters (right before they fight Slimer), since that one always stood out to me as looking weird and terrible on VHS (for reasons I didn't understand as a little kid), but it doesn't appear to exist on the internet. Anyone else remember how odd that scene was cropped and pan-and-scanned?

--->jay

Comments

Anonymous

Yeah I saw a broadcast version of the VHS last year and it was really bad. Right before the rooftop fight, when they are going through Dana's apartment, looks like crap, all you can see is smoke.

Anonymous

I remember that scene in Ghostbusters... There were two different pan & scans of that scene that I had come across. One version left the crop static in the middle of the shot, and the other version jumped to each actor as they said their line.

redlettermedia
>>978496

Yep, I saw it both ways. One was the VHS version and one was the cable broadcast version. Don't remember which was which though. --->jay

Anonymous

yeah, definitely remember the strange pan and scan in a few scenes.

Anonymous

I definitely remember that, Jay. I remember seeing it on TV as a kid and being like, something is wrong here but I don't know what it is! I think it was my father that eventually explained it to me (who, for some reason, hated letterbox and resisted it when it started to become common on DVD. lol, old people).

Anonymous

You're weird, Jay. But we love you.

Anonymous

That shot is pan & scan notorious. The worst translation I've ever seen has to be from the Michael Keaton classic, Multiplicity.

Anonymous

Ugh. That one is awful. I'm also reminded of the 1982 version of "Annie," which wasn't a great movie by any means (though I love Carol Burnett and Tim Curry in the film). But even worse was the TV/VHS transfer, which had awful pan & scan moments in it, often resulting in speaking (or singing) characters not even captured within the frame.

Anonymous

Oh wow, great bit of process. I wouldn't have considered that...

Anonymous

I remember learning what Pan & Scan was from watching Ghostbusters 2 on HBO. In the aftermath of the court scene ("Two in the box, ready to go, we be fast and they be slow"), I noticed the really unnatural movement of the frame shiftng between the characters. My parents were remarkably quick to explain the difference between TV screens and theatrical aspect ratios, albeit without much knowledge of actual technical terms. When I asked, "So why don't they just show the full picture?" my mom uttered the phrase that would later come back to haunt me for my two years as a video store clerk: "The black bars are distracting."

Anonymous

I really hope someone starts doing VHS transfers and uploading all the big movies that got pan-and-scan fucked. Works for both historical reference and ironic hipster parties. The worst one I remember is Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

Anonymous

I don't specifically remember the elevator, but I do remember when they entered the hotel, the horrible pan and scan that showed all three of them. Like you, I never realized as a kid why I didn't like that, but it always just felt weird.

Anonymous

I don't remember the Ghostbusters example. But I do remember a certain scene from Star Trek IV. It's when Kirk, Spock, and Gillian are in Gillian’s truck and driving away. Spock reveals that he knows the whale is pregnant. The scene was humbly focused on the three of them in the front seat. As a kid, I knew it was funny, but couldn’t really appreciate the full depth of it. That’s because I watched it endlessly on a VHS tape, where the editors cropped, zoomed and did all kinds of crazy gymnastics to retain the great facial-responses playing out in the scene. In widescreen, it's an effortless conveyance. Discovering that as a young adult was the first time I'd started to think about this kinda thing.

Anonymous

What is the name for that older process where for TV versions they'd squeeze the image to fit? I remember a local cable channel around here used to show movies where all the proportions were off, and everyone looked thinner.

Anonymous

So, am I right in saying that, back most TVs were at a standard 4:3 ratio, but most films were shot at 1.85:1, people who bought the DVD/VHS had the sides of the whole film cut out? I've never really thought about it.

Fred Mulholland

YES! The pan and scan version of that scene in particular was so awkward. When I finally saw a widescreen version of the movie, that scene flowed so much better. One of the biggest issues I saw with Pan/Scan in general was the scanning itself. There were never any easing to the scan movement, so it would always be abrupt starts and stops. Even when I was a kid, I thought that was a bit jarring. Another thing I noticed that not a lot of people talk about is motion blurs. When a character moves quickly from one side of the frame to the other with the camera steady, they blur. However, when the pan/scan video moves with them, the movement of the frame creates this unnatural look where the background is clear, but the character is still blurred- which is the direct opposite of how it should look if a camera were to actually follow a character. In Ghostbusters, you can see this in the Pan/Scan version when Walter Peck snaps back at Venkman after he brings the EPA into the building (the starting line is "Forget it Venkman!" and ends with "Well now, it's my turn, wise-ass.")

Anonymous

I had a hard time sitting through the "rewind this" and "adjust your tracking" documentaries because of the endless claims being made by the talking heads in those films (the same people in both docs for the most part) about how vhs is a superior format. I have very fond memories of the old video store days, but vhs was a shit format even then. Any claims otherwise are either nostalgia or hipster nonsense and are simply, objectively untrue.

Fred Mulholland
>>978702

I always called it anamorphic distortion, but I can't remember off hand. Yeah, that would drive me up the wall. Circles would look like ovals, squares would look like rectangles, etc. I think this was done during credits sequences when they couldn't go widescreen, but the text would look weird scanning all over the place.

K2

Harold Ramis remarks in the commentary how he is usually the one that is panned and scanned off of the screen when they first walk into the Sedgewick Hotel

Anonymous

The worst offender for me was the Tron VHS. For such a revolutionary film whoever did the aspect transfer needed some sleep.

Anonymous

I am so glad you are doing a pan-n-scan edit for VHS. This idea should have been slaughtered in infancy, but since it became part of the culture, then died, thanks for bringing it back!

Anonymous

The Library scene always stood out to me. They couldn't fit all three in the same shot. Lol

Anonymous

Basically any Spielberg movie shot in scope (Jaws, Close Encounters, Raiders, etc) was ruined by pan and scan. I remember reading he said that he knew his composition was good by how bad the pan and scan version was. Thank god for laserdisc.

Anonymous

This is probably the only place in the world today where the word: "inevitable" was used to describe the words: "vhs release"

Anonymous

I had a cropped version of Spaceballs and when they showed Princess Vespa next to the picture of her old nose, you couldn't see the nose in the picture.

Anonymous

There's also the scene in DIE HARD where Al Powell is investigating the Nakatomi lobby, and then says "ah the hell with this!" and leaves. In the pan and scan he just seems inept, but in the widescreen version you can see a terrorist waiting just around the corner to murder him if he had investigated any further. The scene is completely different in widescreen! You breath a sigh of relief instead of just being annoyed with how lazy he is.

Anonymous
>>978633

<a href="http://thevhsvault.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://thevhsvault.com/</a> has a handful. I think they're legitimate VHS transfers, not just cropped and filtered to look like it.

Anonymous

Yep! That scene in the elevator is burned into my mind for that reason. Oddly enough, the first time I 'noticed' it as a kid is also the first time I truly appreciated the film and realized how classic it was.

Sean Graham

I can picture the Slimer scene perfectly in my mind, I know exactly what you're talking about...

Anonymous

Who would pay for a downloadable VHS rip of Space Cop if RLM made it available?

Anonymous

Can i pre-order a copy? I never pre-order anything but this is totally worthy.

Anonymous

Can't wait!

Anonymous

I've got a VHS copy of Pulp Fiction; the opening and closing diner scenes are actually in widescreen. The rest of the film is in 4:3. The Elevator scene at the beginning is panned and scanned also.

Anonymous

will there be a pre order??? please :)