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Open matte

Open matte is a filmmaking technique in which motion pictures are photographed using the full frame of 35mm film, typically in a 1.33:1 or 1.37:1 aspect ratio, but then masked during theatrical projection to achieve a widescreen format such as 1.85:1, with the unmasked full frame later revealed in home video releases to fill 4:3 television screens and provide additional image content at the top and bottom of the frame.^[1] This method contrasts with other adaptation techniques like pan-and-scan, as it preserves more of the original captured image without lateral cropping, though it often exposes areas not intended for public viewing and can alter the director's compositional intent.^[2] Historically, open matte emerged in the mid-20th century as a practical solution to adapt widescreen theatrical releases for the 4:3 aspect ratio of early television and VHS home video formats, which dominated consumer media until the widespread adoption of widescreen displays in the 2000s.^[3] Filmmakers would intentionally expose the full frame during production to anticipate this dual-use presentation, allowing theaters to apply soft matting for wider ratios while home versions utilized the complete image to avoid black bars or forced zooming. Notable examples include many films by director Stanley Kubrick, such as The Shining (1980) and Full Metal Jacket (1987), where he specifically requested open matte transfers for video releases to maximize screen fill, sparking ongoing debates among cinephiles about fidelity to the original theatrical vision versus accessibility for television audiences.^[3] Despite its prevalence in the analog era, open matte has become less common with the standardization of high-definition widescreen formats, though it persists in archival restorations and specialized releases that aim to showcase the full captured frame.^[2]

Definition and Basics

Definition

Open matte is a soft matting technique in filmmaking where motion pictures are captured using the full frame of the camera aperture, typically the 1.37:1 Academy ratio, while being composed and lit primarily for a widescreen theatrical presentation, such as 1.85:1.^[4] This approach exposes the entire negative height during shooting, allowing the image to be masked (or matted) at the top and bottom during projection or printing to achieve the intended widescreen aspect ratio in theaters, without requiring in-camera cropping.^[5] By preserving the complete frame, open matte enables subsequent adaptations to narrower formats like 4:3 (equivalent to 1.33:1) for television broadcast or home video releases, where the full image can be displayed without lateral cropping or repositioning.^[4] The primary purpose of open matte is to provide additional vertical image area, often referred to as headroom, which remains hidden in theatrical screenings but can be revealed in non-widescreen contexts.^[4] This headroom serves as a buffer zone, accommodating elements like lighting equipment, set extensions, or actor movements that might otherwise intrude into the composed frame if hard matted in-camera.^[5] As an alternative to hard matting—which physically blocks portions of the lens or aperture during filming—or dynamic panning methods, open matte offers flexibility in post-production and distribution, ensuring the original footage retains more compositional options across varying display formats.^[4] Visually, the open matte frame encompasses extra content above and below the theatrical widescreen crop, effectively expanding the image height while maintaining the original width.^[4] In illustrative examples, this is often demonstrated with graphical overlays, such as a yellow border outlining the cropped 1.85:1 theatrical area and a red border highlighting the extended full 1.37:1 frame, revealing how the additional top and bottom regions integrate seamlessly or occasionally expose unintended details.^[4] Aspect ratios, defined as the proportional relationship between an image's width and height (e.g., 4:3 for square-like traditional screens versus the more elongated 1.85:1 for cinema), form the foundational concept enabling such adaptations.^[4] This technique also facilitates brief references to related adjustments, such as pan and scan, by leveraging the preserved extra footage for selective reframing.^[4]

Technical Principles

Open matte is achieved during the shooting process by exposing non-anamorphic 35mm film using the full silent aperture of 1.33:1 (dimensions approximately 0.980 inches wide by 0.735 inches high) or the slightly cropped Academy ratio of 1.37:1 (camera aperture 0.864 inches by 0.630 inches, projector aperture 0.825 inches by 0.602 inches).^[6] This 4-perf vertical pull-down format captures the entire frame height, allowing cinematographers to compose scenes with extra headroom and footroom to accommodate potential widescreen cropping without obscuring essential action or dialogue.^[4] In contrast to horizontal 4-perf setups like Techniscope, which reduce frame height to two perforations per frame for economy but require enlargement, non-anamorphic open matte relies on the standard vertical orientation to maximize vertical resolution while planning for horizontal expansion through later matting.^[6] In post-production, soft matting is applied during printing, transfer, or projection to crop the top and bottom portions of the full frame, yielding theatrical widescreen aspect ratios such as 1.85:1 (projector aperture approximately 0.825 inches by 0.446 inches).^[7] This process uses aperture plates in projectors or digital masking to conceal the unused areas, effectively widening the visible image without anamorphic squeezing or distortion.^[4] For home video or broadcast in 4:3 formats, the full open frame is revealed, providing the complete captured image as originally exposed.^[6] This technique offers advantages in resolution preservation, as the full frame utilizes the entire negative area without the lateral panning or zooming required in pan-and-scan conversions, thereby retaining more original detail and avoiding motion artifacts.^[4] However, it demands meticulous composition to position microphones, lights, or crew within the extra headroom, preventing their exposure in full-frame presentations.^[6] Aesthetic challenges also arise, such as disproportionate character heights or unbalanced framing in the uncropped view, which can alter the intended visual balance.^[7]

Historical Development

Origins in Film Formats

The roots of open matte trace back to the silent film era, when 35mm films were typically shot using the full frame at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, exposing the entire area between the film's perforations without masking.^[8] This full-frame approach provided maximum image area for projection, often within theater prosceniums that effectively masked portions of the frame to fit screen dimensions. With the advent of synchronized sound in the late 1920s, the introduction of optical soundtracks on the film strip necessitated a slight reduction in image width, leading to the establishment of the Academy aperture standard in 1932 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). This resulted in a 1.37:1 aspect ratio, where films were frequently composed and exposed using the larger silent-era full aperture but masked or cropped during printing and projection to accommodate the soundtrack and maintain compositional balance.^[9] The 1950s marked a pivotal shift with the widescreen revolution, driven by Hollywood's need to counter the rising popularity of post-World War II television, which standardized at a 4:3 (1.33:1) aspect ratio. To lure audiences back to theaters, studios introduced flat (non-anamorphic) widescreen formats such as 1.66:1 and later 1.85:1, often achieved through in-camera or optical matting of the full Academy frame. Open matte emerged as a practical technique in this era, allowing filmmakers to shoot the complete 1.37:1 frame while anticipating that the top and bottom would be cropped via projector aperture plates to create the desired widescreen image, thus providing compositional flexibility without the expense of specialized lenses.^[6] This method contrasted sharply with the 1953 debut of CinemaScope by 20th Century Fox, an anamorphic process that squeezed a wider 2.55:1 image onto the standard frame for desqueezing in projection, requiring costly equipment and limiting adaptability for non-theatrical uses.^[10] Television's dominance further influenced these developments, as its 4:3 format aligned closely with the full Academy frame, enabling open matte shots to be broadcast without alteration or loss of vertical information.^[11] Some studios began shooting in full frame during this period to future-proof their productions for lucrative television licensing deals, ensuring that widescreen theatrical versions could coexist with unaltered TV releases. These transition challenges highlighted the tension between cinematic spectacle and practical distribution.^[12]

Adoption in Home Media

The rise of open matte in home media during the 1970s and 1980s coincided with the expansion of VCRs and cable television, allowing studios to release theatrical films in full-screen 4:3 format without black bars at the top and bottom, a practice favored by broadcasters to fully utilize the standard television screen.^[13] This approach provided an alternative to pan and scan, enabling easier adaptation of widescreen content for consumer viewing while preserving more of the original frame.^[14] Industry practices evolved with the adoption of Super 35 format by major studios such as Universal and Paramount, which routinely shot films using this open matte variant starting in the mid-1980s to facilitate straightforward transfers to NTSC and PAL video standards for television and home video.^[15] Super 35 utilized the full 35mm frame aperture, composing for widescreen theatrical release but exposing additional top and bottom areas that could be unmasked for 4:3 home media without extensive re-editing.^[16] In the 1990s DVD era, open matte remained widespread for blockbuster titles on home video, offering full-frame presentations that appealed to consumers accustomed to television formats, though its use began to decline as letterboxed widescreen options gained popularity with improved player capabilities and viewer education.^[13] Economically, open matte offered significant cost savings over pan and scan by eliminating the labor-intensive process of cropping and repositioning shots frame by frame, allowing quicker and cheaper preparation of home media masters.^[16] However, such alterations to intended compositions—whether through open matte revealing unintended elements like equipment or via alternatives like pan and scan—sparked legal challenges, exemplified by director Sydney Pollack's 1997 lawsuit against Danish state television for broadcasting his film in a cropped format, which the court deemed a "mutilation" of the work but ultimately dismissed the suit.^[17]^[18]

Comparison with Pan and Scan

Open matte and pan and scan represent two distinct approaches to adapting widescreen footage for narrower display formats, such as the 4:3 aspect ratio common in early home video. Open matte involves a static reveal of the full original frame by removing the theatrical mattes from the top and bottom, exposing additional vertical image area that was not intended for the cinematic presentation.^[13] In contrast, pan and scan is a dynamic process that crops the sides of the widescreen image and repositions the frame—panning horizontally or scanning vertically—to follow key action and maintain focus within the narrower format, without necessarily uncovering extra vertical content.^[13] This fundamental difference lies in their handling of composition: open matte provides a fixed, unadjusted full-frame view, while pan and scan actively reframes the image to simulate a centered composition.^[4] The interaction between these techniques often arises when open matte footage serves as the source material for pan and scan adaptations, particularly in conversions from widescreen (e.g., 1.85:1 or 2.35:1) to fullscreen formats. Open matte's inclusion of extra headroom above and below the primary action offers compositors more vertical buffer, allowing for smoother panning or occasional zooming without resorting to extreme close-ups that could distort the intended framing.^[13] This buffer reduces the loss of contextual elements during lateral shifts, as the additional vertical space can be selectively incorporated to enhance the pan and scan output.^[4] However, such combinations depend on whether the original production was shot with open matte in mind, as not all widescreen films provide this extra image area. Each method carries distinct advantages and drawbacks in preserving the director's vision during format adaptation. Open matte excels at retaining the vertical elements of the composition, such as ceiling details or environmental context, that might be masked in theatrical releases, but it risks revealing unintended production artifacts like microphone booms or crew shadows in the exposed areas.^[4] Pan and scan, on the other hand, prioritizes the horizontal framing critical to widescreen storytelling by tracking action across the width, thereby avoiding black bars and filling the display, yet it frequently alters the pacing through added movements and omits peripheral visual information, potentially disrupting spatial relationships and narrative flow.^[13] In technical transfers, particularly for 16:9 HDTV broadcasts or releases, open matte facilitates hybrid approaches where elements of both techniques are combined to optimize for modern displays. For instance, open matte sources can be partially panned and scanned to fit 16:9 while incorporating the extra vertical footage to minimize cropping of the 2.35:1 original, resulting in a fuller image than pure pan and scan alone.^[13] This combined use has been applied in home media transfers of films originally shot in formats amenable to open matte, allowing for more flexible aspect ratio adjustments without fully sacrificing the widescreen intent.^[4]

Comparison with Letterboxing and Anamorphic Processes

Open matte differs from letterboxing in its approach to adapting widescreen content for narrower display formats like 4:3 television screens. While letterboxing preserves the original widescreen aspect ratio—such as 1.85:1 or 2.39:1—by adding black bars at the top and bottom, thereby maintaining the director's intended composition without distortion or cropping, open matte utilizes the full frame height by revealing additional image area above and below the theatrical framing, eliminating black bars but potentially exposing unintended elements like booms or ceilings.^[19]^[20] This trade-off allows open matte to fill the entire screen area on legacy TV formats, maximizing visible content vertically at the expense of proportional accuracy and artistic intent.^[4] In contrast to the anamorphic process, which involves horizontally squeezing a widescreen image (typically 2.39:1) onto a standard 1.33:1 or 1.85:1 film frame using specialized lenses and then unsqueezing it during projection to restore the full width and detail, open matte employs flat, non-squeezed spherical lenses on formats like Super 35 to capture a taller full-aperture frame that can be cropped horizontally for widescreen theatrical release.^[4]^[21] Open matte simplifies adaptation for television by allowing direct full-frame playback without desqueezing, making it more straightforward for home media transfers, though it is less efficient in utilizing horizontal film space compared to anamorphic's compression, which captures greater resolution across the width.^[4] Anamorphic requires compatible projection equipment for optimal fidelity, complicating open matte-like full-frame equivalents on non-widescreen displays.^[21] Fidelity concerns highlight key drawbacks of open matte relative to these methods: it can introduce visual artifacts, such as visible headroom with structural elements or crew visibility not intended for the audience, whereas letterboxing avoids any alteration to the image, preserving exact proportions and avoiding such exposures, albeit with reduced on-screen area.^[20]^[4] Anamorphic excels in maintaining horizontal detail and sharpness for widescreen presentations by fully exploiting the film's width, offering superior resolution in that dimension over open matte's cropped approach, though both can suffer quality loss in video transfers without proper handling.^[21] Letterboxing, by contrast, sidesteps cropping entirely, ensuring no loss of original framing fidelity.^[19] The evolution of these techniques has diminished open matte's prevalence in the digital era, where high-definition formats enable flexible letterboxing on 16:9 displays without significant resolution penalties, allowing widescreen content to be presented accurately across platforms.^[4] Anamorphic persists for its cinematic quality in theatrical releases, but digital workflows favor non-destructive aspect ratio preservation over open matte's analog-era compromises.^[21]

Applications and Examples

In Theatrical and Broadcast Use

In theatrical exhibition, films shot in open matte—capturing a full-frame image—are commonly projected digitally with variable masking to conform to standard widescreen aspect ratios like 1.85:1 or 2.39:1. This process involves applying soft mattes either within the digital cinema package (DCP) or directly at the projector, enabling precise control over the displayed frame during screening.^[7] Such flexibility proves beneficial for international releases, where regional standards vary; for instance, European theaters often mask to 1.66:1, allowing a single master to support multiple ratios without refilming.^[7] In broadcast applications, open matte facilitates adaptation of content across television formats. For standard definition television (SDTV) in 4:3, full-frame open matte presentations of older widescreen titles reveal additional top and bottom image areas, filling the screen completely while avoiding the distortions of pan and scan techniques.^[4] In high definition television (HDTV) with a 16:9 aspect ratio, these versions are typically pillarboxed—adding black bars on the sides—to preserve the intended widescreen composition alongside the extra vertical information.^[4] Directors have employed open matte for production flexibility, particularly in re-releases across theatrical and broadcast platforms, as it allows post-production adjustments to suit varying display requirements. The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) provides standards like RP 40:2003, which specify test films for aligning and evaluating 35mm projection, including aspect ratio dimensions essential for accurate matting in transfer workflows.^[22] Open matte retains current relevance in non-anamorphic digital productions, where shooting full sensor height with spherical lenses offers cost efficiency over pricier anamorphic optics, even as digital intermediates enable straightforward cropping alternatives in post.^[23]

Notable Films and Modern Instances

The Back to the Future trilogy (1985–1990), filmed in Super 35, utilized open matte framing for television broadcasts and early home video releases, expanding the image to a full-frame 1.33:1 aspect ratio that revealed additional vertical space beyond the theatrical 1.85:1 composition, particularly in non-effects scenes.^[24] Jurassic Park (1993) exemplifies open matte application in home media, with its VHS release presenting non-VFX shots in a full 1.33:1 frame derived from the Super 35 negative, offering viewers more headroom than the 1.85:1 theatrical version while preserving the intended composition for broadcast compatibility.^[25] In Titanic (1997), the 2012 Blu-ray 3D edition employed an open-matte 1.78:1 aspect ratio, expanding the scope from the original 2.39:1 theatrical print to include extra image at the top and bottom, a format originally optimized for IMAX 3D re-releases.^[26]^[27] The 1980 film The Shining was captured using soft matte techniques on 35mm, enabling a theatrical 1.85:1 projection from a 1.33:1 full aperture negative; subsequent full-frame presentations on home video occasionally exposed unintended elements, such as boom microphones in the upper headroom during certain scenes.^[28] Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), shot in Super 35, supported open matte transfers for 4:3 video formats, where the full frame revealed more vertical detail than the 2.39:1 theatrical release, a common adaptation for television and VHS distribution.^[29] James Cameron's Avatar (2009), portions of which were filmed for IMAX, featured open-matte adaptations in HDTV and home video releases at 1.78:1, incorporating expanded vertical framing from the digital negative to suit widescreen televisions while maintaining compatibility with the film's variable aspect ratios.^[30] In contemporary digital contexts, open matte persists through streaming platforms' IMAX Enhanced offerings, such as Disney+'s presentations of Marvel Cinematic Universe films like Iron Man (2008), where toggleable options allow viewers to switch between the theatrical 2.39:1 letterboxed format and an open-matte 1.90:1 version that reveals additional headroom captured during production.^[31]^[32] This approach enhances flexibility for modern displays, including mobile devices, though its use has declined overall in favor of consistent widescreen standards, with lingering applications in select indie productions for cost-effective aspect ratio versatility.^[33]

References

[1]
[PDF] Movies and Meaning An Introduction to Film Stephen Prince Sixth ...
Open Matte Formatting of 1.85:1 aspect ratio films for the television/home video ratio of 4:3 by transferring the film full frame without the matting that ...
[2]
[PDF] university of california - eScholarship.org
For other films, this may have been achieved through an open matte, with filmmakers framing for theatrical exhibition but simultaneously capturing more.
[3]
None
### Summary of Open Matte in the Provided Document
[4]
Aspect Ratios - Widescreen.org
Soft matte usually involves filming and delivering the complete 1.37:1 frame with the expectation that the top and bottom will be matted out at the ...
[5]
Conrad Hall: An Interview - jstor
hard-matte it. That means to block out an area of the Academy aperture to make a film whose size ratio is 1 to 1:85 in the camera itself, so there is no ...
[6]
Wide Screen Apertures and Aspect Ratios
In 1931, the American motion picture studios adopted a new standard image size for 35mm sound films. ... In August 1993, the standard was published as SMPTE 195- ...
[7]
1.66:1 (aspect ratio)(1953–Present) - FILM ATLAS
There are two ways to do so: with a soft matte or a hard matte. Soft Matte. A soft matte (also known as an open matte) involves shooting and printing the ...
[8]
History - Widescreen.org
... open matte to 1.33:1 AR. (I say "paraoxically" because while it allowed a 4:3 TV screen to be "full", it was not necessarily showing the full visual frame ...
[9]
Academy ratio(1932–Present) - FILM ATLAS
Academy ratio(1932–Present). (Academy Aspect Ratio, Universal Projector Aperture, Uniform Aperture) ... ratio (open matte). As such, despite efforts to make ...
[10]
CinemaScope and Historical Methodology - jstor
Academy aperture or ratio, a standard that remained in effect until 1953. ... Its success made obsolete traditional film formats (i.e., the 1.33:1 aspect ratio.
[11]
Cinematography Tour - BFI Screenonline
Accordingly, even non-anamorphic films began to adopt widescreen aspect ratios, the most common being 1.85:1 (in the US) and 1.66:1 (in Europe). Because this ...<|separator|>
[12]
13.1 The Impact of Television on the Film Industry - Fiveable
Widescreen formats, vibrant color, and epic productions became the norm as studios worked to differentiate themselves and keep audiences coming to theaters.
[13]
What is Pan and Scan? Full Frame vs. Widescreen Explained
Aug 22, 2021 · What is pan and scan? Pan and Scan is the process of fitting a widescreen film into the confines of a 4:3 frame. Why was this done?
[14]
Filling the box: The Never-Ending Pan & Scan Story - David Bordwell
Jan 25, 2015 · Many cinematographers used the “shoot and protect method” by composing for both 1.85 and 1.33. There were problems with this “open matte” ...
[15]
Film Studies 101: Ten Movie Formats That Shook The World
Jul 8, 2014 · Films shot in Super 35 don't travel to theatres as Super 35 prints, instead getting a post-production rejig into a more standard format.
[16]
Widescreen, pan and scan, and the slow rise of letterboxing
Mar 24, 2016 · Even low rent panning and scanning of a film could be an expensive business, and smaller distributors put their films on in a letterbox ...The Rise Of Tv · Video · Still The Niche
[17]
Why Sydney Pollack Sued Danish TV Over 'Three Days of the Condor'
Jan 9, 2024 · Pollack claimed that the pan-scanning technique had broken the parameters of his contract, and brought forward a lawsuit of $15,600. Although ...
[18]
Danes dismiss Pollack's suit - Variety
The case involved the television broadcast in 1991 of Pollack's Cinemascope film “Three Days of the Condor” in a pan-scanned version, a technique which in ...
[19]
What is Letterboxing in Film — Definition & Why It's Used
Jan 21, 2024 · Letterboxing places black bars above and below the image in a movie to maintain the original aspect ratio of the content being displayed.
[20]
Pan and Scan - Filmmakers Academy
Jul 16, 2021 · Pan and Scan is a technical transfer method. It adapts widescreen films for narrower screens. Technicians typically adjusted the widescreen ...
[21]
Invasion of the Aspect Ratios - Chicago Film Society
Jul 2, 2012 · Don Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers was photographed in a standard, open-matte version, with the probable assumption that it would be ...
[22]
SMPTE RP 40:2003 PDF - PDF Standards Store
Abtract: This practice describes the content and dimensions of the image on a 35-mm motion-picture test film intended for alignment and evaluation of 35-mm ...
[23]
Using Anamorphic vs. Spherical Lenses for Video Production
Understand before taking the leap that professional-quality anamorphic lenses are quite expensive. Be sure to have the budget for it. An ARRI Master anamorphic ...
[24]
Why was Back to the Future DVD framed at 1.85:1 not 1.78:1 (16:9)?
Feb 27, 2004 · Why was Back to the Future Trilogy DVD framed at 1.85:1, resulting in small black borders top bottom on 16:9 screens (with no overscan), ...
[25]
Jurassic Park Shot in Full Screen, Why? - Cinematography.com
Aug 16, 2013 · Home video would of course also have been a contributor (Jurassic Park was open matte on all the non VFX shot on VHS). A pattern is ...
[26]
Alternate versions - Titanic (1997) - IMDb
The film's IMAX & Blu-ray 3D release presents the film open-matte, at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, meaning there was more picture information visible in the top ...
[27]
Titanic - 3D (1997) - Blu-ray News and Reviews | High Def Digest
Sep 9, 2012 · For our review, here, the four-disc 3D Blu-ray combo pack finds the first two Region A locked, BD50 discs dedicated entirely to the 3D version ...
[28]
The Shining (1980) - FAQ - IMDb
This is a process known as "soft matte" or "open matte" which refers to the fact that, for theatrical exhibition, the 1.33:1 image is matted to 1.85:1-in ...<|separator|>
[29]
LaserDisc Database • View topic - New aspect ratio: Super 35
Oct 23, 2021 · I guess we can use it as "Super 35 / 2.xx:1" for the letterboxed framing and "Super 35 / 1.33:1" for the Open Matte? Ex: Terminator 2 ...
[30]
Avatar to be 1.78:1 - AVForums
Mar 18, 2010 · So basically it is going to be a bit like open matte with no data lost at the sides but more gained at the top and bottom of the image, if ...
[31]
Why Disney Plus Marvel movies go from black-bar widescreen to ...
Feb 17, 2023 · Films like Iron Man make use of IMAX Enhanced by taking advantage of the “open matte” style of shooting, where more picture is captured ...
[32]
IMAX Enhanced to Launch on Disney+ with Titles from the Marvel ...
Nov 8, 2021 · 13 Fan-Favorite Marvel Movies will be Available to Watch at Home in IMAX's Expanded Aspect Ratio for the First Time Ever on Disney+ Day, November 12.Missing: open | Show results with:open
[33]
List of IMAX Variable Aspect Ratio Movies - The Video File Blog
Aug 31, 2022 · Film was projected open-matte constant 1.90:1 in most IMAX locations. Select laser and 70mm IMAX theaters had a VAR 1.90:1/1.43:1 presentation.