Copying widescreen film images to video in a widescreen ratio--specifically, 16:9. Often--perhaps most of the time--the video does not reproduce the compositions on the original film, instead cropping them to fit the 4:3 ratio of the television screen. This cropping typically results in the loss of about 25% of the image; but in letterboxing, the original 16:9 aspect ratio is maintained, and black bars are put at the bottom and top of the image. This formatting is generally preferred by directors, as it includes the entire image they originally shot; one exception to this preference is [Milos Forman]
?, who finds the bands distracting. The point will become moot once HDTV becomes standard, as the televisions are themselves in widescreen format; the issue then will be how to deal with television shows and all the movies made before widescreen became popular in the 1950s.
See also Widescreen, pan and scan
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