16mm widescreen projection

As 16mm is/was the theatrical bastard stepchild of 35mm, as far as accuracy of presentation is concerned, little attention is generally paid to aspect ratio when projecting it. Purists grimace at those 16mm prints which are anamorphic, because the original 2.35:1 aspect ratio of 35mm is actually lost: as the 16mm frame is slightly wider than the 35mm frame, 16mm anamorphic prints merely lopped some of the top and/or bottom. Thus, when projected anamorphic, the image appears too wide, with not insignificant loss of the original picture on top and/or bottom.

However, when it comes to films produced in 1953 or beyond, which are photographed in "open-matte" widescreen formats, with the intention of projecting between 1.66:1 and 1.85:1, many 16mm prints are nearly frame-accurate replications of the 35mm print. Therefore, these prints are "opened up" and can be projected in a widescreen format very close to how they should look, simply by matting the image in the 16mm projector.

Interestingly, even on an archival presentation level, I have seen very few 16mm setups in theaters which are equipped for matted widescreen. So when such a film is screened in 16mm because a 35mm print is not available, more often than not it is improperly shown "opened up" top and bottom, resulting in a viewing experience which is aesthetically quite different than the original intention.

Hortson, a now defunct French manufacturer of professional 16mm projectors, manufactured several different aperture plates for their machines, including one cut to 1.66, but I have yet to find widescreen plates made specifically for Norelco, Eiki, Elmo or other common machines, and have resorted to making my own. Eiki and Elmo portable machines can easily be adapted, as the aperture plates are cut into the removable pressure plates for the projectors; heat-resistant metal tape can make a decent temporary mask, for instance.

If you crop the image accordingly, and enlarge it on screen via an appropriately shorter focal length lens, you can get a widescreen image which is pleasing, and generally pretty close to the real thing. Non-anamorphic Columbia films of the 1950s and 1960s, in particular, were often photographed with a very open aperture; I've yet to come across one which didn't perfectly crop down to 1.66 or 1.85 in 16mm. Some directors favored shooting with "hard matte", in which the image is cropped to widescreen on the camera negative, so unless 16mm prints of these titles were made "letterboxed", the image will be blown up and cropped on the sides (i.e. not much different from a pan-and-scan 'scope transfer). In these cases, the picture information is already lost in the printing stage and nothing can bring it back, or present it properly (e.g. every 16mm print I have come across of SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER, which was shot hard matte). But these are the exceptions, not the rule.

The projectionist really does have final cut.