Open matte is a filming technique that involves matting out the top and bottom of the film frame in the

movie projector A movie projector is an optics, opto-mechanics, mechanical device for displaying Film, motion picture film by projecting it onto a movie screen, screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illumination and sound devices ...

(known as a ''soft matte'') for the

widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than t ...

theatrical release and then scanning the film without a matte (at Academy ratio) for a full screen

home video Home video is prerecorded media sold or rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD, Blu-ray and streaming me ...

release. Open matte can be used with non-

anamorphic Anamorphic format is the cinematography technique of shooting a widescreen picture on standard 35 mm film or other visual recording media with a non-widescreen native aspect ratio. It also refers to the projection format in which a distorted ...

films presented in 2.20:1 or 2.39:1, but it isn't used as often, mainly because it adds too much additional headroom, depending upon how well the framing was protected or if the director chooses to create a certain visual aesthetic. Instead, those films will employ either

pan and scan Pan and scan is a method of adjusting widescreen film images so that they can be shown in fullscreen proportions of a standard-definition 4:3 aspect ratio television screen, often cropping off the sides of the original widescreen image to focus ...

or reframing using either the well-protected areas or the areas of interest. Films shot anamorphically use the entire 35 mm frame (except for the soundtrack area), so they must use pan and scan as a result.

History

The rise of television and home media saw the use of a narrow aspect ratio of 4:3. To avoid letterboxing for broadcast releases, films were therefore reframed and cropped shot by shot to fit appropriately the full screen with the 4:3 aspect, with a process called

. Hence, only a cropped small portion of the theatrical frame was broadcast. Many films over the years have used the open matte technique for home video releases and television broadcasts, the most prominent of which include the ''

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'' trilogy, the '' Jurassic Park'' trilogy, ''

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'', ''

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'', '' Top Gun'', ''

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'', '' The Fugitive'', and ''

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'', as well as many films that have been specially formatted for the

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expanded aspect ratio of 1.90:1 and 1.43:1.

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also used this technique for his last three films '' The Shining'' (1980), '' Full Metal Jacket'' (1987) and ''

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'' (1999). Films such as

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's '' Terminator 2: Judgment Day'' (1991), Michael Bay's '' The Rock'' (1996), and

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's ''

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'' (2002), all of which were shot in Super 35 also utilize the open matte technique, but this is mixed with

Pan and scan Pan and scan is a method of adjusting widescreen film images so that they can be shown in fullscreen proportions of a standard-definition 4:3 aspect ratio television screen, often cropping off the sides of the original widescreen image to focus ...

due to the visual effects being rendered in a wider aspect ratio.

Open matte and pan and scan

is an important process to optimise the film presentation for home viewing and television. For

HDTV High-definition television (HD or HDTV) describes a television system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since 1936; in more recent times, it refers to the g ...

, a combination of zooming and cropping is done to a portion of a frame, usually in accordance to the most important details in a shot. Pan and scan can be done on a

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(2.40:1) master for a film, or even the Open Matte version. Open matte helps in the pan and scan process, as there is more image to work with, and use the extra image on the top and bottom to fill a 16:9 display for HDTV broadcasts. Additionally, filmmakers may choose to release the open matte version for a film's "widescreen" home video release, such as with James Cameron's ''

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'' and the

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release of ''

''.

Usage

Usually, non-anamorphic 4-perf films are filmed directly on the entire full frame silent aperture gate (1.33:1). When a married print is created, this frame is slightly re-cropped by the

frame line A frame line is the unused space that separates two adjacent images, or film frames, on the release print of a motion picture. They can vary in width; a 35mm film with a 1.85:1 hard matte has a frame line approximately high, whereas both a ...

and optical soundtrack down to Academy ratio (1.37:1). The

then uses an aperture mask to soft matte the academy frame to the intended aspect ratio (1.85:1 or 1.66:1). When the 4:3 full-screen video master is created, many filmmakers may prefer to use the full Academy frame ("open matte") instead of creating a

version from within the 1.85 framing. Because the framing is increased vertically in the open matte process, the decision to use it needs to be made prior to shooting, so that the

camera operator A camera operator, or depending on the context cameraman or camerawoman, is a professional operator of a film camera or video camera as part of a film crew. The term "cameraman" does not imply that a male is performing the task. In filmmaking ...

can frame for 1.85:1 and "protect" for 4:3; otherwise unintended objects such as boom

microphone A microphone, colloquially called a mic or mike (), is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and public ...

s, cables, and light stands may appear in the open matte frame, thus requiring some amount of

in some or all scenes. Additionally, the un-matted 4:3 version may often throw off an otherwise tightly framed shot and add an inordinate amount of headroom above actors (particularly with 1.85:1), depending upon how well the framing was protected or if the director chooses to create a certain visual aesthetic. With high-definition television now in common usage (with its standardized 16:9 (1.78:1) aspect ratio), the need to reformat 1.85:1 movies for television viewing has virtually evaporated, although television broadcasts still reformat 2.39:1 movies by means of using open matte or pan and scan. For films with wider aspect ratios (2.39:1, for example) the matting bars will appear on the top and bottom of the screen of the broadcast image, thus preserving each director's framing intent.

References

{{Film formats Film and video terminology

History

Open matte and pan and scan

Usage

See also

References