Recently, my wife and I subscribed to Netflix. We've enjoyed many shows, new and old. Two that she loved as a teenager were "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and its spinoff "Angel". She has gotten me to start watching them as well. Today, she was watching an episode of "Angel" when she noticed something peculiar and brought it to my attention.
So, a little background about "Angel" if you're unfamiliar. The show centers around David Boreanaz as Angel, a vampire with a soul. Angel is tormented by his previous life of killing and blood-sucking and has since resigned himself to atone for all this by saving the lives of people caught in supernatural predicaments in Los Angeles. He has two human associates who work with him to solve cases and save lives. They are all characters who were created on "Buffy".
The screenshot is from season 2, episode 1 entitled "Judgment". In the beginning of the episode, Angel and his friends are looking for something regarding a case at a health club. This health club, as you can see, has mirrors lining the walls, as many do. And Angel, staying true to vampire lore, does not have a reflection.
So how did the crew achieve this illusion? Well, in some instances, you could edit the person out in post-production. But that would have been very hard in this instance, with all the gym equipment in the foreground. So the simple solution? Just don't have the actor in the shot. But that can't last forever. They do it just long enough for us to get it that Angel is a vampire without a reflection. We have to see him eventually.
Now as the scene progresses, the camera refocuses off the mirrors and back onto the original subjects, with Angel added in. There was just one slight problem with the way they shot this particular scene.
David Boreanaz is in the scene, but not where he is supposed to be! The two yellow arrows are pointing to his two associates. The green arrow is the gym manager following them. The red arrow suggests where David Boreanaz is supposed to be walking, owing to the fact that he has no reflection. But look over on the right side of the screen. There's David waiting to join the group. As they all pass that green post, the camera racks focus, the camera is now focused on the actual people and the mirror is out of focus, and David is now at the head of the line. That's how they got around not having him in the shot. But why is he so obviously in the shot right now? I mean, it's a fast move. But it was on the screen long enough for my wife to catch it.
Here's what we think probably happened. This episode originally aired in September of 2000. While the show was originally shot in a 16:9 format, there was not a high use of 16:9 aspect-ratio capable television signals or home televisions that could receive such a signal. I imagine that was also the case when editing the episode. As a result, no one would have noticed David standing by the post, because they would have seen it something like this.
Everything outside the blue line would have been chopped off on an analog 4:3 aspect-ratio television.
I know. Nerd things. Something that we found interesting. Perhaps it interests you too. I'm now going to have to watch other shows from around that time closer to see what was shot in 16:9 and got cut off on a 4:3 TV. Gotta see what else I've been missing in widescreen.
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