Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Request: The Manchurian Candidate

This is topic Request: The Manchurian Candidate in forum Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 11-21-2002, 01:03 PM:

Just wondering what the ideal A.R. is. Running a beautiful new print now in 1.85 and it mostly looks great but once in a while the headroom is tight but not so blatantly as to prove it should be 1.66. Web searches come up with both of these plus 1.75 so maybe that's the ideal. But that never caught on as a general standard so they must've had a preferred alternative.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 11-21-2002, 02:16 PM:

I would have thought that by 1962, most "flat" pictures would be composed for the most prevalent 1.85:1 aspect ratio. However, I note that cinematographer Lionel Linden had a strong television production and "Academy" background as well, and so may have sometimes favored filling more of the frame height when he composed the image. He may have felt that a tighter composition better suited the subject matter of the picture:

http://us.imdb.com/Name?Lindon,%20Lionel

If nothing unwanted shows at 1.66:1, that may be the best choice, "reading between the lines" of information available.

Posted by Michael Coate (Member # 757) on 11-22-2002, 12:53 AM:

quote:
I would have thought that by 1962, most "flat" pictures would be composed for the most prevalent 1.85:1 aspect ratio.

Walt Disney Pictures seems to have had a preference for 1.75:1 on their spherical productions throughout the 1960s and into the early 1980s.

In addition, there seems to be some evidence that 1.75:1 was the favored aspect ratio of MGM and United Artists (of which The Manchurian Candidate was originally produced) for a while, and as well was the common ratio in the United Kingdom during the 1960s (despite the belief by many that 1.66:1 was the British format).

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 11-22-2002, 06:51 PM:

Whether any distributor preferred 1.75:1 or 1.66:1 in the early 1960's, I would venture that most theatres showed them 1.85:1.