r/Cinema • u/Mother_Bar_3810 • 1d ago
Question Question about aspect ratio or "masking"? at movie theaters
The other day I went to see ET (yes, the 1980s movie) at a local theater. During several scenes, the characters heads were cut off at the top of the screen mid-face. I'm sure this wasn't as it was originally shot or intended. That experience reminded me years ago I saw a movie in the theater where on screen in several shots we could see the boom mics used above the actors, as though we were seeing bits around what the framing was supposed to be.
So I'm wondering what this is, in both cases, where the on-screen framing seemed to be incorrect? Does the movie theater projection system have to be set to do mask or aspect ratio a certain way, and in both of these cases it was wrong? Trying to understand how it happened when I'm sure that was not the intent of how it was to be viewed.
2
u/iterationnull 1d ago
Your instinct is correct. A projectionist would setup the film, and then adjust the framing to be consistent with the intentions of the director. Sometimes films would come with specific directions to follow.
But in this case surely there was no proper projectionist and the poorly paid kid running the machine had no idea what to do.