Xixax Film Forum

With a widescreen movie on BETA for projection at a film festival, would you have to provide the movie letterboxed, or could you provide it vertically stretched and project it with an anamorphic lens on the projector?

My guess is that it's probably up to what equipment the festival has, but I was wondering if MAYBE there was a general rule concerning this matter, and if anyone on this board knew about it or has had any experience with this.

Thanks.

From my festival experience, if you're going by the better safe than sorry rule, then it's better to letterbox your Beta copy. Current projectors can unsqueeze an image just like a 16:9 TV can (no lens necessary), but a lot of smaller festivals don't use up-to-date gear like that.

Thank you very much.

The perfectionist projectionist in me winces at the idea of giving up precious resolution-lines in an already lowish-resolution format, but you're right: better safe than sorry.