BLOG QUESTION ADV: PAN AND SCAN

What is pan and scan? Why was it created? How does it affect a film when it's transferred from the theatre to home video? In your own words, explain 3 examples from the video on how pan and scan changes what the filmmakers intended.

The pan and scan is when a wide-aspect ratio film is cropped or "letterboxed". This was created so films could fit the format of a TV screen. The pan and scan is inconvenient because it crops out a lot of the action elements and the visual information on screen, which takes away from the viewer's experience. Every shot in a movie is carefully composed, so when a film is pan and scanned, it takes away from the art and emotional impact of the film.