Was No Country For Old Men initially intended to be 16:9?

[umbrella]

I noticed recently that the original trailers for the film are an “open gate” 16:9 — ie. not pan and scanned, but actually show more image than the final film.

Example.

Was this simply some sort of weird studio decision to conform to internet standards (YouTube only supporting 16:9, it being more common screen size, etc.)?

Or was the film designed for 16:9 or 1.85:1 and the decision to crop to 2.39:1 an after-thought?

Thank you.

Topic

[Roger Deakins]

The film was designed and shot to be seen at 2.39:1, full stop. What is done on YouTube is what is done on YouTube.

[dmullenasc]

35mm trailers were prepared in both 1.85 “flat” and 2.39 “scope” to match the feature presentation so that the projectionist would not have to change lenses and masks.

So clearly in this case the studio marketing division had access to an “open gate” D.I. master to make the 1.85 trailer (and any 16×9 unletterboxed versions needed.) of course, they should have made a 1.85 flat trailer with a 2.39 matte.

[James Parsons]

2007 YouTube would not have been a major marketing platform yet. Not even 720p for another two years.

[umbrella]

Ah thanks for the answer. Thought maybe I’d stumbled upon a little piece of trivia. Alas!

[Author]

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