Logo Rob Buckley – Freelance Journalist and Editor

A 16:9 shelf life?

A 16:9 shelf life?

Ever tried fitting a square peg in a roundhole? Since digital TV now gives them the chance, Robert Buckley asks why digital broadcasters don't show more widescreen films in widescreen

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Film Four's Sykes counters that the requirements of broadcasters carry little weight with filmmakers. “As their funding comes mostly from film studios, not TV companies, those concerns are more important.” True for Hollywood, certainly, but even true, he says, for features that his own company makes with the likes of Working Title, where the bulk of the money comes from Polygram.

It'll be a long time until films are routinely transmitted in widescreen. And though the advent of hidef in the US this year may increase the number of widescreen prints available from Hollywood, until enough viewers have digital widescreen TV sets, films will go on being shown in full-screen 4:3.

But that won't stop film-makers choosing the format they prefer - and their day will come.

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