Terminator 2

[Melvin England]

I need to comment on something that was brought up in the "What 16mm Films Did You See Last Night?" column around 19th May 2021 (for cross reference) but, I think, is going slightly off topic to warrant a comment in that particular thread.

Re Terminator 2 widescreen and flat versions.

I thought I read somewhere that this film was made using a technique called "Super 35mm."

The technique enables the shot to be filmed that encompasses the whole scene as a flat shot and, at a later date, the part of the frame with the best bit of action in it is chosen as the bit to print in the widescreen format and the best bit for a flat version is also chosen.

The net result is that the flat version isn't necessarily a masked / pan and scan of the widescreen copy, but can contain picture information at the top and bottom of the flat frame that isn't included in the widescreen version but can include action that is at each end of the widescreen picture.

Can anyone verify this, please?

[Martin Davey]

The release format is still as a 2x anamorphic format on 35mm. The super 35mm format is for shooting, and is a popular format with Cameron. If that was a 16mm scope format it would be 'squeezed' as usual. Interestingly the clip on Youtube shows the titile sequence formatted with black bars, top and bottom.

[Brian Fretwell]

I believe that it also allowed for TV showings without the "Black bars" that people complained about at that time, at least that I what I read somewhere. Also for ease of making 70mm 2.0:1 prints without cropping the sides. Of course, for TV, it meant keeping the extra area "safe" from unwanted items and special effects done full frame.

Full details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_35

[Nantawat Kittiwarakul]

IMHO this Super35 is the exaggeration of the older practice - shooting 1.85:1 "flat" features with "open matte" 1.37:1 aspect ratio, then later cropped to correct 1.85 during projection. The excessive 25% picture area will be useful when broadcasting on good ole 4:3 TV screen as a "filler" instead of black bars.

Since it's not the intended to compose as 4:3 in the first place so no wonder why the composition in certain shots would look "wrong". Characters tightly packed in the center of the frame with literally nothing important on the upper & lower edge of the screen. Or in the worse case: boom mics./crews/equipment/etc. visible on the screen.

Super35 is principally the same thing hence the same goofs can happen. Still remember some of these in VHS version of this T2. This is as far as I can remember.
- When T-1000 was first transported to the present date. You'll see some of (fully naked) Robert Patrick's "part" that's not supposed to be seen.
- When T800 threw a poor guy over a stove in the bar fight scene, you can briefly see a smoke pipe that adds the burning effect.
- And when T800 smashed a public phone to get some coins, it was clearly just a paper-thin plastic container instead of metal ones.
There would probably be dozens more throughout the film, but these are as much as I still have in my head at the moment.

[Brian Fretwell]

The modern Video assist with a monitor showing the intended screen ratio with lines on it should (but not guarantee) this doesn't happen. But, of course it depends on the director's/DOP's vigilance.