Chewielewis said:
Another fun note, I recently saw the DCP of the theatrical edition, and on either side of the frame you could see the edges of the film gate stick out around 5% from the edge of the frame. You could tell it was the film gate edges as you could see the dirt and crud stuck to it. You could see it shift in and out between shots that were composited differently. In some shots, like the crows flying towards the fellowship on that hill, you could see where the live action plate ended (with the exposed gate edges) and the CG sky replacement began (which extended out to the edge of the frame). Very very distracting. But what it showed was how rough this work was, the full 2K master would have been done for the Bluray release and not really done for theatrical presentation.

That’s interesting! I didn’t even know that theaters projected DCPs back in 2001. I thought everyone was still projecting actual film back then. Since a DCP is digital, I wonder why they wouldn’t have just cropped those edges ever so slightly before mastering it…