Pan and scan^[1] is afilm editing technique. It modifies widescreen images allowing them to be displayed on a 4:3 aspect ratio TV. This technique helps to focus on the most important aspects of a scene.^[2] To achieve this effect, editors crop the sides of the original widescreen image. However, editors risk losing key visual elements of the scene when cropping.

"Pan and scan" was typical withVHS tapes before widescreen home media such asLaserDisc,DVD, andBlu-ray. The vertical equivalent is known as "tilt and scan" or "reverse pan and scan." This method was used to adapt older films likeCinderella (1950) for widescreen formats.

These techniques have garnered significant criticism since their inception. Critics frequently disapprove of pan-and-scan cropping because it often removes substantial portions of the original image, up to 43% for films with a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, up to 48% for earlier 2.55:1 films, and up to 52% for 2.76:1 films. Additionally, the creation of new shots or cuts may alter cinematic effects moment-to-moment, impacting the pacing, atmosphere, and suspense originally intended by filmmakers.

As such, pan and scan can sometimes alter the director's or cinematographer's original vision and intendedfield of view for a film or specific scenes, in addition to removing significant visual information from the audience.

For the first several decades of television broadcasting, sets displayed images with a 4:3 (1.33:1)aspect ratio, which was standard for most theatrical films before 1960. In the early to mid-1950s, however, to compete with television and attract audiences back to theaters, filmmakers began using widescreen formats such as CinemaScope and Todd-AO, which provided wider visual perspectives and offered new compositional possibilities.^[3]

To accommodate a wider aspect ratio, television broadcasters adopted the pan and scan technique, which maintained image quality and size but sacrificed the ability to view the entire image. A film subject to pan and scan often lost around half of its horizontal size due to cropping.^[4]Letterboxing was an alternative method of displaying widescreen films on a 4:3 screen, as it maintained the original aspect ratio by adding black space above and below the image. However, this invariably reduced the size of the image and consequently, the image quality as well.

In 1986,Voyager Company decided to make it company policy to only release widescreen films on LaserDisc in their original aspect ratio rather than pan and scan formats that were common for home media releases at the time. Many other home video labels followed suit.^[5]

In the 1990s,widescreen televisions offered a wider 16:9 aspect ratio (1.78 times the height instead of 1.33) and allowed films with aspect ratios of 1.66:1 and 1.85:1 to fill most or all of the screen, with minimal letterboxing or cropping required. DVD packaging began to use the expression, "16:9 – Enhanced for Widescreen TVs."

Films shot with aspect ratios of 2.20:1, 2.35:1, 2.39:1, 2.55:1, and especially 2.76:1 (Ben-Hur for example), might still be problematic when displayed on televisions of any type. However, when the DVD is "anamorphically enhanced for widescreen", or the film is telecast on a high-definition channel and viewed on a widescreen TV, the black spaces are smaller, and the effect is much like watching a film on a theatrical wide screen.

As of 2018^[update], though aspect ratios of 16:9 (and occasionally 16:10, mostly for computers and tablets) remain standard, wider-screen consumer TVs in 21:9 have been marketed by several manufacturers.

During the "pan and scan" process, an editor selects the parts of the original filmed composition that seem to be the focus of the shot and makes sure that these are copied ("scanned"). When the important action shifts to a new position in the frame, the operator moves the scanner to follow it, creating the effect of apan shot. In a scene in which the focus does not gradually shift from one horizontal position to another—such as actors at each extreme engaging in rapid conversation with each other—the editor may choose to "cut" from one to the other rather than rapidly panning back and forth.

If the actors are closer together on the screen, the editor may pan slightly, alternately cropping one or the other partially. This method allows the maximum resolution of the image since it uses all the available vertical video scan lines—which is especially important forNTSC televisions, having a rather low number of lines available. It also gives a full-screen image on a traditional television set; hence pan-and-scan versions of films on VHS or DVD are often known asFullscreen.

However, it also has several drawbacks. Some visual information is unavoidably cropped out. It can also change a shot in which the camera was originally stationary to one in which it is frequently panning, or change a single continuous shot into one with frequent cuts. In a shot that was originally panned to show something new, or one in which something enters the shot from off-camera, it changes the timing of these appearances to the audience.

As an example, in the filmOliver!, made inPanavision, the criminalBill Sikes commits a murder. The murder takes place mostly offscreen, behind a staircase wall, and Oliver is a witness to it. As Sikes steps back from behind the wall, we see Oliver from the back watching him in terror.

In the pan-and-scan version of the film, the audience sees Oliver's reaction as the murder is being committed, but not when Sikes steps backward from the wall having done it. Often in a pan and scan telecast, a character will seem to be speaking offscreen, when what has happened is that the pan and scan technique has cut their image out of the screen.

As television screenings of feature films became more common and more financially important, cinematographers began to work on compositions that would keep the vital information within theTV safe area of the frame. For example, theBBC suggested programme makers who were recording in 16:9 frame their shots in a14:9 aspect ratio which was then broadcast on analogue services with small black bars at the top and bottom of the picture, while owners of widescreen TV sets receiving digital broadcasts would see the full 16:9 picture (this is known asShoot and protect).

One modern alternative to pan and scan is to directly adjust the source material. This is very rare: the only known uses arecomputer-generated features, such as those produced byPixar, and video games such asBioShock.

They call their approach to full-screen versionsreframing: some shots are pan and scan, while others (such as notablyWarner Bros.'The Lego Movie) are transferredopen matte (a full widescreen image extended with added image above and below; though forThe Lego Movie, the transferred open matte used a widescreen image cropped to 16:9 with added image above and below to create a 1.37:1-framedAcademy ratio image; this version was created for theaters that do not have the anamorphic lens projection equipment).

Another method is to keep the camera angle as tight as a pan shot, but move the location of characters, objects, or the camera, so that the subjects fit in the frame. The advent of DVDs and their use ofanamorphic presentation, coupled with the increasing popularity of widescreen televisions and computer monitors, have rendered pan and scan less important. Fullscreen versions of films originally produced in widescreen are still available in theUnited States.

Filmmakers may also create an original image that includes visual information that extends above and below the widescreen theatrical image; this is known as anopen matte image. This may still be considered pan-and-scanned, but it gives the compositor the freedom to "zoom out" or "un-crop" the image to include not only the full width of the wide-format image, but additional visual content at the top and/or bottom of the screen, not included in the widescreen version.

As a general rule (prior to the adoption of DVD), special effects would be done within the theatrical aspect ratio, but not the full-frame thereof;^[6] also the expanded image area can sometimes include extraneous objects—such as cables, microphone booms, jet vapor trails, or overhead telephone wires—not intended to be included in the frame, depending upon the nature of the shot and how well the full frame was protected.^[7]

A more unusual use of the technique is present in the17 originalDragon Ball Z movies, released from 1986 to 1996. The films were displayed in 1.85:1 during their theatrical release, but this was in fact cut down from 1.37:1 animation- a choice made so that the VHS releases would be nearly uncropped.^[8]

Changes in screen angle (panning) may be necessary to prevent closeups between two speakers where only one person is visible in the pan-and-scan version and both participants seem to speak alternately to persons off camera; this comes at the cost of losing the smoothness of scenes. Inversely, the cropping of a film originally shown in the standard ratio to fit widescreen televisions may cut off foreground or background, such as atap-dance scene in which much attention is directed appropriately at a dancer's feet. This situation will commonly occur whenever a widescreen TV is set to display full images without stretching (often called the zoom setting) on images with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 or less. The solution is topillar box the image by adding black bars on either side of the image, which maintains the full picture height. In Europe, where thePAL TV format offers more resolution to begin with, "pan-and-scan" broadcasts and "pan-and-scan" DVDs of movies originally shown in widescreen are relatively rare, unless it is of programming broadcasts aimed for family viewing times likeA Bug's Life. However, on some channels in some countries (such as theUnited Kingdom), films with an aspect ratio of more than 1.85:1 are panned and scanned slightly to fit the broadcast 1.78:1 ratio.

Some directors oppose pan and scan, arguing that it compromises their directorial vision. For instance,Sydney Pollack decided to shoot his 1985 filmOut of Africa in a matted 1.85:1 aspect ratio because he was tired of having his movies, which had generally been shot in his preferred format of Anamorphic 2.39:1, "butchered" for television and home video.^[9]

In 1991, Pollack sued a Danish public television channel for airing a pan-and-scan version of his 1975 filmThree Days of the Condor.^[10][11] The court ruled that the pan and scan conducted by Danish television was a "mutilation" of the film and a violation of Pollack'sdroit moral (his legal right as an artist to maintain his reputation by protecting the integrity of his work). The court ruled in favor of the defendant.^[11]

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller made two versions ofThe Lego Movie, one in 2.39:1anamorphic format and another in 1.37:1open-mattespherical format because some theaters did not employ anamorphic lenses, and also because they were tired of having their movies, which had been shot in their generally preferred aspect ratio of 2.39:1^ panned-and-scanned for TV broadcasts (and, in the case ofCloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, its DVD release which includes both the original 2.39:1 theatrical and the cropped 16:9 versions).

Steven Spielberg initially refused to release a pan-and-scan version ofRaiders of the Lost Ark, but eventually gave in (although he successfully ordered the letterboxed format for the home video releases ofThe Color Purple andAlways).Woody Allen refused altogether to release one ofManhattan, and the letterbox version is therefore the only version available on VHS and DVD (even though one VHS release includes the typical pan-and-scan disclaimer on the cover).

Several prominent film critics, most notablyGene Siskel andRoger Ebert, have also criticized pan and scan, and agreed with directors that movies should be presented as they were intended.^[12]

• Angle of view
• Letterboxing (filming)
• List of film formats
• Motion picture terminology
• Open matte
• Panning
• Widescreen

• The Letterbox and Widescreen Advocacy Page
• YouTube video about Pan and Scan