" and Milos Forman made a decision when he chose to show both Jim Carrey and Jerry Lawler."
I'm amazed that Netflix edits the frame to a degree that may actually change the meaning of a scene or a dialog. I know that cropping even a few mm off the edges is bad, but 'cropping' one entire guy from a scene involving two people is outrageous.
yes, pan and scan is generally pretty destructive, which is why directors are all so happy everyone is getting at least 16:9 TVs in their homes. Imagine how it was cutting down Lawrence of Arabia to 4x3.
Now, I'm not a fancy big city video-editor but I think it has more to do with the characters placement in the original shot than the editing.
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You can probably be pretty specific with your cropping placement but whoever did the editing, likely didn't understand the meaning of both in the shot (I would've missed it initially) and had a directive of, make this look good and full screen, so they chopped it that way.
Yes, in pan and scan when there's a wide shot with two characters, it is generally preferred to show one person in full at a time and cut between them if you can.
Directors generally don't film with this in mind, so it can be rough on certain styles and completely ruins some shots. Has for decades, nothing you can really do if people won't watch letterboxed.
I'm amazed that Netflix edits the frame to a degree that may actually change the meaning of a scene or a dialog. I know that cropping even a few mm off the edges is bad, but 'cropping' one entire guy from a scene involving two people is outrageous.