TServo2049 said:
LexX said:
So, a widescreen release that is still missing. Interesting.
Not exactly. 1.85:1 films were usually shot open-matte, and they knew that Battle for Endor would go straight to TV in the U.S., so the full-frame versions of Battle for Endor would be at least mostly open-matte.
Notice I said "mostly." What I am curious about are the visual effects. ILM shot in VistaVision, so anything intended for theatrical release would use the full VistaVision frame. This means that for full-frame video transfers, the non-FX footage would be open-matte (or at least as open-matte as full-frame video transfers usually were - most of them did remove just a bit of picture on all 4 sides), but the FX shots would be cropped on the sides.
For an example of this, watch the ending of Back to the Future in full-frame and compare it to the widescreen version. There's a lot more picture on the top and bottom, and maybe a little less on the sides, until it cuts to the DeLorean lifting off, at which point there's only maybe a sliver of extra picture on the top and bottom, and a whole lot cropped off the sides.
The "ILM: The Art of Special Effects" coffee-table book mentions that for The Ewok Adventure, panning was added to matte shots by shooting the live plate in VistaVision, compositing the painting in, and then printing it down to standard 35mm and panning it optically. (I believe this same "P&S VistaVision" technique was used to add movement to matte paintings and composite shots on Star Trek: The Next Generation, though they did it at the telecine stage.)
If I had to guess, in European theaters the whole of The Ewok Adventure was matted, including these shots. I doubt that they went back to the static, un-panned matte composites, since they pan-and-scanned them specifically to add camera movement and make the matte shots less obvious.
The question is whether the theatrical prints of The Battle for Endor had the FX shots in real widescreen, or if they were also matted down from 1.33:1. If they incorporated optical horizontal "tracking" into the FX shots in that film as well, then I'd guess that even the theatrical release was matted.
That's interesting, I didn't even know that about BTTF. You learn every day...
Edit: but still, pittrek's post said that it was shot in widescreen, not in full frame?