Huh. I know Ronin was opened a bit on the full frame DVD side but I’ve never had it to check myself…hmmm…guess I’ll have to at some point since I’m obsessed with it and Frankenheimer. Also of note is that it had a CCE print run just like Seven.
Some overlays from “Ronin”:
A typical crop looks like this - http://s20.postimg.org/3r3pa2zrx/Ronin_AAPR_AAC_mp4_snapshot_00_50_04_2016_05_16.jpg (TC 0:50:04 – the 1999 R1 DVD’s WS and FS sides are synced exactly so timecodes are relevant to both. I cannot account for the 2004 SE or the Blu-ray)
Or this
http://s20.postimg.org/5wy04l38d/Ronin_AAPR_AAC_mp4_snapshot_01_38_59_2016_05_16.jpg (TC 1:38:59)
Sometimes going further up
http://s20.postimg.org/fp59nz3j1/Ronin_AAPR_AAC_mp4_snapshot_00_46_05_2016_05_16.jpg (TC 0:46:05)
…and even further up
http://s20.postimg.org/ir0nbo61p/Ronin_AAPR_AAC_mp4_snapshot_00_26_47_2016_05_16.jpg (TC 0:26:47)
…and, even with the image a little more expanded, they still pan-and-scan, like from this
http://s20.postimg.org/rr58vv259/Ronin_AAPR_AAC_mp4_snapshot_00_10_47_2016_05_16.jpg (TC 0:10:47)
…to this
http://s20.postimg.org/bdl9cplzx/Ronin_AAPR_AAC_mp4_snapshot_00_10_50_2016_05_16.jpg (TC 0:10:50)
Just a few seconds later, one of the 4x3 transfer’s almost completely unmatted shots comes in
http://s20.postimg.org/m1kext6l9/Ronin_AAPR_AAC_mp4_snapshot_00_10_55_2016_05_16.jpg (TC 0:10:55)
This is the absolute widest it goes (including a bit of the aperture at the top-- this shot and the “RONIN” title card were the only two that went so far up that you can see the splice at the beginning):
http://s20.postimg.org/59z3f26cd/Ronin_AAPR_AAC_mp4_snapshot_01_39_10_2016_05_16.jpg (TC 1:39:10)
While this split-second shot is the absolute smallest by far:
http://s20.postimg.org/6jwwu404d/Ronin_AAPR_AAC_mp4_snapshot_01_07_01_2016_05_16.jpg (TC 1:07:01)
Getting subjective here, there’s some shots that in my opinion look a bit “sitcom”-ish with the extra vertical information…
http://s20.postimg.org/umdqozgrh/Ronin_AAPR_AAC_mp4_snapshot_00_35_18_2016_05_16.jpg (TC 0:35:18)
…while the ice-skating sequence’s framing alone makes me tempted to give the 4x3 version by itself a full viewing
http://s20.postimg.org/cbx1199y5/Ronin_AAPR_AAC_mp4_snapshot_01_45_11_2016_05_16.jpg (TC 1:45:11)
http://s20.postimg.org/ogcai8mu5/Ronin_AAPR_AAC_mp4_snapshot_01_46_28_2016_05_16.jpg (TC 1:46:28 - I may be going overboard with this, but possible spoiler warning)
The black area around these overlays accounts for the complete image area that the 4x3 transfer will utilize for its reframes, some shots even going beyond the camera aperture (but not to the radical extremes of, say, “The Abyss” in 4x3 where you can actually see the film perfs at times). Most of the shots take the frame height that I assume is where the misconception that (4-perf) Super 35 is 1.59:1 comes from. I only have theories on why a 4x3 Super 35 transfer is done mainly at this size, and my best one is that it’s (mostly) scanned at the same size as open matte transfers of 1.85:1 films, only panning and scanning is still necessary since there’s around 13% extra horizontal image information.
Regarding the CCE thing, you may find this interesting: https://www.theasc.com/magazine/nov98/soupdujour/pg2.htm