Widescreen TV?
Including, how the BBC wasted £Millions of Licence fee payer’s money and continues to unnecessarily do so, and admitted to it!
Please note, the answers given to the ‘virtual interview’ questions in this exposé/article, are (by and large) in the ‘Public Domain’. See the TRUTH’s editorial page (the link to which can be found on the main contents page) for more.
Other than a few exceptions (70mm films) and until films and, indeed, at least one TV series were shown in a Widescreen and/or Letterbox format, they were broadcast in a 4.3 aspect. Even today, popular TV series, including feature length episodes, are still broadcast in a 4.3 aspect along with 16.9 full widescreen adverts inserted every so often and willy-nilly.
When it comes to films, episodes of Columbo from season 10, and the original 4.3 version of music videos, they can have as much as 76% cropped from the original image for a Letterbox presentation.
In that sense, the TV broadcaster employs one or more people to unnecessarily crop/butcher Music videos, TV series and Films, as the following evidence proves.
By far, and this may come as a shock, Channel 4 and Film 4 are the main culprits, while SKY films, something that SKY viewers pay extra for, are likewise guilty followed by the BBC, ITV, Channel 5 and its subsidiary channels.
The first and, by far, the most damning example, is the film ‘Equilibrium’. Snapshot one comes from SKY films, who gain the broadcast rights to films 1 year ahead of everyone else while snapshot 2 comes from a recent version broadcast by the Sony Movie channel on 13th June 2019.
This snapshot, however, is indicative of the Channel 4/Film 4 version, resulting in a loss of 54%.
By my reckoning, Channel 4/Film 4 irresponsibly cropped the original Letterbox version to Widescreen and then cropped that to Letterbox.
The simple question, and just as simple an answer, is this. Why would Dimension films go to the extreme trouble and cost of producing a savagely cropped version when they had a perfectly acceptable version, the one they sent to SKY and, more recently, the Sony Movie channel? And the simple answer is, they wouldn’t; why would they?
I had my suspicion that the ‘Horror’ channel cropped films, from as long ago as October 2015. That was when they, like every other channel, broadcasted a letterbox crop of the second Dracula film to star Christopher Lee in the title role, ‘Dracula Prince of darkness’.
What gave it away is, the opening title sequence, one that features the demise of the Count from the first film, shown in an incomplete diamond shape, incomplete in that the tips have suffered from the cropping.
Although my suspicions were further clarified when the ‘Horror’ channel broadcasted ‘Dr Terror’s house of horrors’ only with less of a letterbox crop to the faulty disc version I’d already recorded from the ‘Horror’ channel, they surpassed themselves when they cropped the Letterbox version of ‘Krull’ to Widescreen, as seen in these two screenprints; the first from ‘Movie Mix’ [now ‘Great movies’], and the second from the ‘Horror’ channel.
Note that, in order to match the height of the ‘Horror’ channel version, I positioned it over the full Letterbox version from ‘Movie Mix’.
I’m still waiting for a TV channel to broadcast this excellent children’s sword and sorcery film, one rated PG, uncut, despite the cuts coming towards the end of the film, along with an unnecessary cut for an extended ad break.
22nd March 2004, and Channel 4’s integrity in relation to films was rendered somewhat “WORTHLESS” as a result of them unnecessarily messing around with the framing of the film ‘Urban Legend’. The opening title sequence was shown in a Letterbox aspect; after which, Channel 4 changed it to a 16.9 Widescreen aspect; however, some 17 minutes into the film they zoomed the picture, thus cropping it on all 4 sides so that the image was even smaller than that of the 4.3 version broadcast by SKY, which I have on DVD.
Of course, if Channel 4 wishes to lie by challenging the TRUTH’s irrefutable evidence, there is more, and in the form of a Mariah Carey music video. Snapshot 1 is the original 4.3 aspect version, while snapshot 2 is the Widescreen crop from Channel 4’s ‘4 music channel’ (see ‘DOG’ in top left corner). Freeview channel 29 as of September 2019.
Channel 4 were not alone in the cropping of 4.3 music videos to 16.9, a loss of 33%. For the BBC3 programme, ‘Madonna’s millions’, which I have a DVD recording of, Madonna’s 4.3 music videos were also cropped to Widescreen. Additionally, the BBC has employed one or more people to crop some of their very own old, archive 4.3 music recordings to Widescreen.
Amazingly enough, the BBC had the 4.3 recording of ‘Revelations’, featuring American stand up comedian Bill Hicks, cropped to 16.9. Snapshot 1 is the 4.3 version screened by Channel 4, while snapshot 2 is the Widescreen crop from BBC Four.
Channel 4, along with its subsidiary channels, have unnecessarily cropped 4.3 aspect films to Widescreen (a loss of 33%) and Letterbox (a loss of 76%), and Widescreen films to Letterbox (a loss of 32%). Previously, they cropped Letterbox to Widescreen (a loss of 32%), something that, even today, other broadcasters do: The Lord of the rings trilogy on ITV along with the James Bond films starring Roger Moore to Daniel Craig and Die Hard. For a while, and this might amaze you, ITV had episodes from season 10 of Columbo cropped from 4.3 to 16.9 (a loss of 33%).
In SKY Premier Widescreen’s case, they cropped the Letterbox version of ‘Lethal Weapon 4’ to Widescreen, confirmed by the fact that they used the full Letterbox version to demonstrate to the user how to change the aspect of the picture. In this snapshot, you can clearly see the SKY digital remote control in the Letterbox frame.
Sky movies, which is an additional monthly subscription channel, just like Sky Sports, also cropped ‘the Money Train’ to Letterbox. The snapshot below is from the 4.3 version. As you will notice from the top left corner, it was recorded from the ‘Fox’ channel, 20th Century Fox’s dedicated digital channel, which also broadcast some of its long running TV series, including ‘NYPD Blue’ and ‘the X Files’.
The black and white snapshot above and right, comes from ‘Under a cherry moon’ starring Prince and Christian Scott Thomas. In the 4.3 version her character exposes her ‘chest’ in all its naked glory to those gathered for her party, saying: “How do you like my birthday suit?”
Going back to the film company the broadcaster buys the film from, when the Widescreen crop of ‘Thelma and Louise’, ‘Conspiracy Theory’, ‘Die Hard 3’ and ‘Scream’ were shown on more than one channel, the broadcaster, when they independently cropped one or both sides, cropped them differently to that of the other broadcaster in at least one point of the film.
Again, why would the film company go to the totally unnecessary length of producing a second and differently cropped version of the film, if at all?
To confirm that and more, Channel 4, as recently as February 6 2021, cropped the Letterbox version of ‘Halloween III Season of the witch’ to Widescreen and here is the proof:
In watching the Film 4 recording of the film, and comparing it with my original recording from the BBC, also in Widescreen, it was noticeable that there was extra footage at one or both sides. Indeed, in one still scene, Tom Atkins’ character was cropped from the right side by Channel 4.
Snapshot 1 comes from the BBC recording. Incidentally, the BBC noticeably shortened the four gruesome scenes of the film.
Snapshot 2 comes from the Film 4 version.
Snapshot 3, however, is a combination of both stills from the film. The aspect of the full frame is 2131 X 1000 [= 213 X 100] while a full Letterbox aspect is 2350 X 1000 [= 235 X 100].
So, there you have it. Conclusive, irrefutable proof that the broadcaster employs one or more people to crop films.
For those reading this who assume a blanket crop (the exact same proportion) is applied all the way through the film, cropping a film, specifically the height, as is the case of ‘Beverly Hills cop II’, can be no way easy, as a result of what can only be termed as border criticality. Specifically, when the camera pulls back on one or more characters, resulting in their small size heads being at the top of the frame. If you cropped the 4.3 image evenly, 38% top and bottom, you would lose the heads. In that respect, it looks to be a case of frame by frame cropping when border criticality occurs, as noted by these two snapshots from ‘Beverley Hills Cop II’. Snapshot 1 is the original 4.3 frame, while snapshot 2 shows the effect of a 38% crop, top and bottom.
Note. In the film, three of the characters (top and centre left) are involved in addressing the press. As they continue their ‘press release statement’, the camera slowly pans down the crowd to Eddie Murphy’s character.
It is not just TV broadcasters who crop films, noted by the fact that some of the DVD’s people pay money for, in particular, letterbox versions, are cropped by as much as 35%, compared with that of the full Widescreen version broadcast on TV. Examples being; ‘Kill Bill 1 & 2’, ‘SWAT’, ‘Public Enemies’, ‘Gladiator’, ‘Resident Evil: Retribution’, ‘Romeo Must Die’ the first 3 ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ films and the first 3 Jason Bourne films to name several of many more.
Friday 16th October 2020, and I finally have a comparison in the start of the film ‘Judge Dredd’. The original, letterbox, recording (snapshot 1) comes from Channel 4, while the recent recording, a Widescreen crop of the Letterbox version (snapshot 2) comes from Sony Movies, resulting in a 32% loss. To confirm that it is the exact same frame, the neon sign reading ‘MEGAV’ vertically, perpetually changes, while the other thing to notice is the horizontally moving craft near the top of the screen vertically above the signs that read ‘BO’ and ‘JACK IN THE BOX’.
I have also placed them one above the other (letterbox first). That way you can see exactly how much is missing. In effect, almost the exact same as cropping 4.3 to Widescreen, albeit top and or bottom.
Note. Having placed the 2 screeprints, I then positioned the WS crop over the letterbox image and it matched on both sides.
On SUN 01/06/03, the TRUTH contacted the BBC: Dear BBC, why do you waste license fee payer’s money…by employing people to unnecessarily mask (crop) films?
The BBC replied: “Actually this is a very confusing subject. I won't say we have never done it, but it is a very rare event indeed.”
Rare it may have been in 2003; however, not so rare now and at an unnecessary cost to the license fee payer.
In conclusion to that point: Since the BBC employed one or more people to unnecessarily crop films, etc, over 16 years and counting, the BBC has wasted an untold amount of license fee payer’s money in unnecessarily cropping films etc!
Further evidence of that was noted when I compared my old version of the film ‘Collateral’, recorded from Channel 4 before December 2014 – sometime after which, I used a Panasonic DVD recorder – with the BBC1 version broadcast as recently as 22nd December 2020.
Two unnecessary and money wasting changes were made to the BBC1 version, while the second change was in multiples.
The C4 version included what are known as ‘fade to black’ sections in between some of the scenes. Primarily, they are inserted by the filmmaker to allow for adverts to be inserted at that point. Not all films have them, though, as noted by numerous other films I’ve recorded and from Film 4 and C4. The BBC, however, opted to remove them, quite unnecessarily, while it’s noted that they do and did that with other films and American TV series, the ‘X-files’ for one.
If that were not already enough of a waste of license fee payer’s money, the BBC did something totally banal to the opening titles, they being the film company’s title sequence. Whereas the C4 version showed ‘Paramount films’ followed by the ‘Dreamworks’ one, the BBC reversed them: ‘Dreamworks’ followed by ‘Paramount films’. As always tends to be the case, the BBC speeded up the end credits, which again costs money. First, they have to separate the end credits from the film. Next, separate the end music from the end credits and shorten it to the length of the end credits while applying ‘fade out’ at the end so that the sound level drops before replacing the original audio track, something that is easily done with a video editor.
Ultimately, as far as the two changes highlighted are concerned, why would the film company make those unnecessary changes? Moreover, why would the BBC waste an excessive amount of license fee payers’ money by paying the film company to do so?
If you think that’s strange, wait until you hear what Channel 5 did to the 146 minute, 12 rated version of ‘Robin Hood Prince of thieves:
Channel 5: ‘Yes, well, compared with the purchasable version of the film, we, Channel 5, moved some of the scenes around.’
Let me get that straight. You actually took more than one scene from where it was and placed it somewhere else?
Channel 5: ‘Yes.’
Channel 5 and the BBC are not alone in doing that, noted by the fact that when what is now ITV4 once broadcast ‘An audience with Billy Connolly’ they, likewise, changed and moved around the order of his comedy sketches.
In addition to the above, there are a few anomalies.
Just because the opening credits, up to the point that the director’s name appears on the screen, are shown in a letterbox aspect, while the film, itself, is shown in a Widescreen, 16.9 aspect, does not, necessarily, mean that the film has been cropped from letterbox to Widescreen, as in the case of ‘Resident Evil Retribution’, which I recorded from Channel 5. Having come across the DVD letterbox version, I compared them both and noticed that the purchasable DVD was a letterbox crop of the Widescreen version I recorded from Channel 5.
Although I do not have the ‘Resident Evil Retribution’ DVD, for obvious reasons, what I do, however, have is ‘the Matrix’, which I recorded from SKY Movies, along with the purchasable DVD version. The first screenprint is of the opening credits from SKY movies, which, as with the DVD, are letterbox (see screenprint 3), while the 2nd screenprint comes from the SKY movies Widescreen version. Screenprint 4 is the same frame from the actual DVD, cropped to letterbox.
NB. The slight additional footage at the sides of the Letterbox crop of the DVD verion, suggests the aspect is 2.4 rather than 2.35 X 1.
For the broadcaster to accomplish that, a mix of 2 aspects, one of two things occurred:
Either the broadcaster combined the letterbox opening credits with the Widescreen film, or the film company, in this case Warner Brothers, did it for them. The answer as to which, a very simple one, is this. Paying the film company to do it, is almost the same as paying a decorator to paint a wall when you could just as easily do it yourself and for the cost of the materials. Thereby avoiding their ‘labour’ costs.
Even then, with the opening credits to ‘Catwoman’ being shown in a letterbox aspect, and beyond that of the director’s name appearing on the screen, ITV eventually ‘switched’, if that’s the right word, the film to a 16.9 Widescreen aspect.
By contrast, both the BBC and Dave broadcast ‘Kill Bill Vol 1 and 2’ in a full Widescreen version from the opening credits to the end credits, with Dave showing the full, long end credits of ‘Kill Bill Vol 2’. Additionally, the BBC also broadcast the first three ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ films in Widescreen, and, again, from start to finish. That said, the BBC has since opted to screen the commercially available letterbox crop of the 16.9 version of all five of those films, thereby resulting in a 32% loss/crop.
That, however, throws up this question. Having the BBC acquired a different version of those five films, did they have to, yet again, waste your license fee payer’s money to re-purchase the films?
There is also a seriously strange cropping applied to at least three films. Of those, I have the 4.3 video version and letterbox crop of ‘Broken Arrow’. In addition to the letterbox cropping (top and or bottom) one or both sides of the 4.3 version are cropped.
The additional footage at the left side of the letterbox crop, clearly suggests the full aspect of the film is fractionally more than 4.3.
For your interest, whether you are a film lover or not, there now follows a selection of film titles that are likely to be cropped to Widescreen (a loss of 33%) and *Letterbox (a loss of 76%).
Beverly Hills cop – all 3 (*2)
The Driver
*Turbulence
Sister act
Commando
Navy SEALS
Kevin and Perry go large
Ghost
Planes, trains & automobiles
City slickers
The Firm
Fletch lives
Monty Python and the holy grail
Striptease
48 hours
Cobra
The Eyes of Laura Mars
Sister act 2
Total recall
Indecent proposal
Internal affairs
Prizzi’s Honor
Predator 2
Mad Max 2
Jerry Maguire
A fish called Wanda
The life of Brian
Terminator
My cousin Vinny
Barbwire
Another 48 hours
Lock up
Home alone 3
Batman returns
The Running man
White men can’t jump
The Mask
Goodfellas
Gangster No 1
Copland
Back to the future
Trading places
Coming to America
FX-murder by illusion
Air force one
The Santa Clause
Most Steven Segal films, up to and beyond ‘Under Siege 2’, and a selection of John Claude Van-Dame films, including ‘Double impact’ and ‘Knock off’.
Strangely, there are two versions of the same film – one the 4.3 version the other a WS crop – noted by the opening historic information of ‘First Knight’. No second guess as to which version I have in my extensive film collection!
Just recently, when I compared two recordings of ‘Red Heat’ starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, I noticed that the on screen subtitles for what was said in Russian, were different. Not only that, but, as will be noticed from these two screenprints of the same frame, as far as the subtitles are concerned, the first from the BBC while the second is the more recent Film 4 version, they are positioned differently.
Yet again, the question is this: Would the broadcaster pay the film supplier to add different subtitles to the screen and in a different position, or would the broadcaster do it themselves?
Now this is interesting. Posted below this is the same frame from 3 different versions of the film ‘For a Fistful of dollars’.
The first one comes from the Letterbox DVD. The second a Widescreen crop by Channel 5 while the third is a Widescreen crop by Channel 4.
In the first two you will notice that Eastwood’s character has a round face, while in the Channel 4 one it’s more oval, plus, there is more detail at both sides compared to that of the Channel 5 crop.
Irrefutably, that means, Channel 4 drew in the original image before cropping it. In doing so, the cropped area was less than that of other broadcasters; on this occasion. It also proves, irrefutably, that TV broadcasters employ one or more people to crop films.
More recently, some broadcasters, and this takes the biscuit as far as the BBC are concerned, are screening 4.3 films and TV series in a 4.3 on Widescreen background, leaving huge, hideous black bands at the side, noticeable by this screenprint from ‘Blackadder II’.
As previously mentioned, the black bands are equal to a third of the 4.3 image (12.9, which is the upscale of 4.3 plus 33% = 16.9). I find this both amazing and unacceptable from the BBC, and the reason is this. Unlike all of the broadcasters that have no problem switching from a full 4.3 frame broadcast to a Widescreen broadcast for adverts, the BBC, on the other hand, has no ad breaks, save for its own, and which, even then, are shown at the start and end of a programme.
Even today, 10th December 2020, I recorded the first 2 minutes of ‘Dempsey and Makepeace’ from ITV4, a 4.3 aspect TV series previously broadcast on ITV. As you will note from the following screenprint, it was shown full screen, a 4.3 stretch across a 16.9 aspect. Sure, the actors are wider, but they fill up the screen and that’s what matters, so why the hell add totally unnecessary thick black bands at the side?
Now here is something quite strange. The ‘Paramount Network’ channel appears to be that in name only, when, in fact, it is clearly the replacement channel for channel 5’s ‘5 spike’ channel. Moreover, it sat and sits closely with another Channel 5 channel, that of ‘5star’. It also carries adverts for Channel 5 programmes, broadcasts ‘Access’ in between films, as does channel 5 and 5Star, and even shows TV series and films that were previously shown on Channel 5.
Moreover, if you Google search ‘Paramount Network’, you’ll end up here:
http://www.channel5.com/paramountnetwork/
The thing, however, is this. Channel 5 broadcasts 4.3 episodes of ‘Friends’, and in a Widescreen stretch, and I recently recorded part of an episode. Additionally, I recorded a few minutes of an afternoon film from ‘Paramount Network’. As you will note, it, too, is a 4.3 aspect, only with those hideous black bands at the side. Strangely, though, the ‘Paramount network’ still
crops modern day 4.3 films to either Widescreen or letterbox as well as letterbox to Widescreen.
Now this I find totally amazing, in light of both the previous point and what has been said and exposed so far!
First, check out this screenprint, which comes from the 4.3 version of the film ‘Stir Crazy’:
As noted by the copyright notice at the start of the film, it is 1980. I recorded the clip from which that still was taken on Friday 8th January 2021 from, as the DOG in the top left corner states, the Sony movies classic channel (Freeview 51).
That now poses the following question: Why is it necessary to crop as much as 76% from the 4.3 version of films (see sample list above)? And the answer is, it’s not necessary, whatsoever, and yet TV broadcasters and SKY movies will continue to do so.
Moreover, and as far as the BBC, an advertisement free broadcaster, are concerned, there is, now, absolutely no excuse whatsoever for the BBC to continue wasting the licence fee payers money by unnecessarily cropping as much as 76% from 4.3 films, while not, also, broadcasting them in a 4.3 aspect with the hideous and, again, totally unnecessary, black bands that take up a quarter, 25% of the screen (12.5% on each side) to produce a 12 X 9 up-scale aspect on a Widescreen TV (16 X 9).
Footnote: Having published this 26 years update of the original printed TRUTH from and since 1994 to the internet, the TRUTH has contacted, by e-mail, one or more of those named in this article. Specifically, the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) and Channel 4.
Contact us: the.irrefutable.truth2020@gmail.com