lunchtime movies on Channel 4 ???

InisMor

Hi,

Channel 4 show some great old movies at lunchtime on week days.
All that I've seen recently have been in 4:3, but today they are showing DAY OF THE EVIL GUN, which is a widescreen movie - not a UPC box or TV setting issue, just that is the way C4 are showing it.

I was wondering though, do C4 crop all their movies at this time of day or is it a rare for them to do so?

Cheers

zilog_jones

Channel 4 are usually good for not cropping films at all - even with Cinemascope/Panavision (2.35:1~2.39:1) films, which are usually cropped and zoomed to 16:9 on most other channels.

They are dependent on a video source though. What may have happened in this case is that the only available tapes they had were a 4:3 pan & scan transfer of the film, either due to a distribution problem or the fact that a recent modern widescreen transfer of the film has simply not been made (which is possible as judging by the IMDB entry there's no DVD available).

I've seen a similar thing happen before on BBC1 - they showed Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (another 2.35:1 film) a few years ago but in 4:3 pan & scan format, and it was quite obviously an analogue video recording (chroma noise, etc.). I don't know if this was just lazyness on the BBC's behalf, or the distributors did not give them new tapes for whatever reason.

InisMor

thanks zilog_jones. Good to know.

I just wanted to be sure it isn't the normal way C4 do it.

Cheers.