Wide-screen movies debut
Wide-screen movies debuted as a response to the growing popularity of television in the late 1940s, aiming to entice audiences back to theaters with a more immersive viewing experience. This format, characterized by its enhanced visual presentation, was particularly suited for epic and grand films, such as historical dramas, musicals, and science-fiction features. Renowned directors like Alfred Hitchcock embraced wide-screen techniques in films like "North by Northwest" and "Rebel Without a Cause," which highlighted the format’s potential for both spectacle and emotional depth.
Initially, only a handful of wide-screen films were produced annually, but by the mid-1950s, the number soared to over one hundred, demonstrating growing industry support and audience demand. However, the transition of these films to television brought challenges, as the pan-and-scan method often compromised their original artistic intent by cropping significant portions of the image. Eventually, advancements in home video technology allowed viewers to experience wide-screen films in their intended format, often referred to as "letterbox." This evolution marked a significant shift in how films were consumed, preserving the integrity of wide-screen presentations for future audiences.
Wide-screen movies debut
Feature films shot in wider aspect ratios than those of standard films
In the effort to compete with the growing popularity of television, the Hollywood film industry devised several new innovations, one of which was wide-screen movies, which conveyed dynamic imagery and provided more dramatic impact.
With television sets in more than one million American homes by 1948, the film industry sensed that it must find new ways to draw paying audiences away from the free medium of television. Wide-screen movies offered an alternative to conventional films, presenting audiences an impressive viewing experience. The format was often employed for spectacles such as war films, historical epics, musicals, and science-fiction films. Wide-screen formats had dramatic names such as Superscope, CinemaScope, and VistaVision that were often showcased in the opening credits. Alfred Hitchcock’s grand-scale features such as North by Northwest (1959) and To Catch a Thief (1955) capitalized on wide-screen photography, as did intimate dramas such as Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958).
Impact
Wide-screen movies offered 1950’s audiences spectacular visual entertainment that television could not match. In 1953, there were only five films released in the wide-screen format, but by the following year, there were nearly forty. By 1955, the number had increased to more than one hundred films.
Subsequent Events
When broadcasting rights to wide-screen movies were later sold to television, they resulted in the phenomenon of pan-and-scan, whereby only part of the original film appeared on the television screen. While technicians tried to keep the most important part of the picture onscreen, the films themselves were severely compromised. Forty years later, home video technology made wide-screen movies available to home viewers in their original format which were billed as “letterbox.”
Bibliography
Belton, John. Widescreen Cinema. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992. This comprehensive book covers all aspects of the subject, from historical, technical, and cultural perspectives.
Fry, Ron, and Pamela Fourzon. The Saga of Special Effects. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1977. “The Creature-Ridden Fifties” is the most relevant chapter of this book, which traces the development of special effects from the beginning of film through the 1970’s. The fate of wide-screen formats such as Cinerama is also discussed.