Originally posted by: Gaffer Tape
I've heard interviews with him on the DVD (which you should have) that state that he didn't consider the movies to be suited for widescreen, and that he shot them in 1.33:1 because more people would end up seeing the movie on video anyway. Last time I brought this up here, someone proposed that he could have been referring to 2.33:1 as wide rather than 1.88:1 (which is the ratio the widescreen version of it is in), which could be a possibility. I personally prefer the widescreen versions, and I own them that way on DVD, but in this case there is nothing wrong with the fullscreen, and in terms of your versions, less wrong with the fullscreen.
But it gets even more complicated than that, I just remembered! The special effects shots were filmed in a 1.88:1 ratio, so you're actually seeing the full image of special effects shots in the widescreen version while the fullscreen version crops them! So basically, in either version, you're losing some parts of the picture... which sucks.
I've heard interviews with him on the DVD (which you should have) that state that he didn't consider the movies to be suited for widescreen, and that he shot them in 1.33:1 because more people would end up seeing the movie on video anyway. Last time I brought this up here, someone proposed that he could have been referring to 2.33:1 as wide rather than 1.88:1 (which is the ratio the widescreen version of it is in), which could be a possibility. I personally prefer the widescreen versions, and I own them that way on DVD, but in this case there is nothing wrong with the fullscreen, and in terms of your versions, less wrong with the fullscreen.
But it gets even more complicated than that, I just remembered! The special effects shots were filmed in a 1.88:1 ratio, so you're actually seeing the full image of special effects shots in the widescreen version while the fullscreen version crops them! So basically, in either version, you're losing some parts of the picture... which sucks.
No way. I had to have watched the original Star Wars over 200 times as a kid in fullscreen. It used pan and scan all over the place. When I saw the special edition in the theater (and then purchased all three on VHS), I saw it in widescreen and was blown away by how much of the screen I had peviously been missing. It was so cool to see it all for the first time. Uhm, one famous scene that comes to my mind is the closing shot of everyone standing at the award ceremony; the fullscreen had to pan over as the music finale boomed in order to just show everyone. I also remembered scenes in the cantina that showed more of the strange creatures. Oh, and that awesome shot of the Star Destroyer in the opening was a lot more impressive.
Here are two websites:
http://www.widescreen.org/examples/starwars/index.shtml
http://www.stomptokyo.com/sings/lbx/starwarslbx.html
....anyways, perhaps he meant Empire and/or Jedi? Though, I seem to remember seeing a lot more in those movies too, but I'm less sure...
Perhaps a good explanation of what you heard is that he used widescreen for every shot he made, but still designed each shot to be easy to convert to 3x4?
Otherwise, I think I enjoy movies in widescreen over fullscreen since widescreen gives that greater horizontal periphery. Human beings more naturally look to their side before looking up.