Open matte is a technical filming That Involves matting out the top and bottom of the film frame in the movie projector (Known as a soft matte ) for the widescreen theatrical release And Then scan the movie without a matte (at Academy ratio ) for a full screen home video release.

Usually, non- anamorphic 4-perf movies are filmed directly on the full frame silent aperture gate (1.33: 1). When a married print is created, this frame is slightly re-cropped by the frameand optical soundtrack down to the Academy ratio (1.37: 1). The film projector then uses an aperture mask to soften the Academy’s frame to the expected aspect ratio (1.85: 1 or 1.66: 1). When the 4: 3 fullscreen video master is created, Many filmmakers May prefer to use the full Academy frame ( “open matte”) INSTEAD of Creating a pan and scanversion from within the 1.85 framing. Because the framing is increased vertically in the open matte process, the decision to use it to be made prior to shooting, so that the camera operator can frame for 1.85: 1 and “protect” for 4: 3; otherwise unintended objects such as boom microphones , cables, and light stands may appear in the open matte frame, thus requiring some amount of pan and scan in some or all scenes. In addition, the unmatted 4: 3 version will often have an impact on the backing of the game (particularly with 1.85: 1).

Many films over the years have used this technique, the most prominent of which includes Schindler’s List , Titanic , and Top Gun . Stanley Kubrick also used this technique for his last five films.