'The Wire'

leggy

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Quote: Originally the programme was filmed on 35mm film cameras, which actually capture the image in the widescreen format we’re now used to
 

Tom

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It'll be like the STTNG remasters, shot in 16:9 but cropped to 4:3. The STTNG remasters had dodgy bits of set and lighting in the edges of frame, so they kept it at 4:3. Presumably The Wire doesn't suffer from that problem.
 

Raven

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I read it as they are using CGI to remove any bits of set or crew.
 

megadave

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Shame they couldn't put it on blu-ray in time for Christmas

I'm sure I read somewhere that they changed filming method after season 3. Originally they framed it in 4:3 because it was cheaper but made it transferable to 16:9 without much effort. After season 3 they just went full 4:3 stylistically which means CGI and shit will be required more because random stuff will enter the frames. This is why David Simon has some trepidation about it.

The first season was on amazon prime in 16:9 temporarily and apparently looked great.
 
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megadave

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found an article on it

http://www.avclub.com/article/hbo-finishes-remasteringthe-wire-hd-david-simon-is-212510

About that 16:9 part: when The Wire’s pilot was filmed, back in the stone age of 2001, 4:3 standard definition was, well, standard for TV. In the meantime, the technology has shifted to 16:9 HD—in layman’s terms, from square, deep TVs to rectangular, flat TVs—rendering shows like The Wire prematurely archaic. By remastering the show in 16:9, HBO is actually altering the shape of the frame, and thus the composition and content of the shots contained within. This isn’t a big deal for the first three seasons of the show, which according to DP Dave Insley were framed to work in 16:9 in anticipation of an eventual HD transfer. But, as Insley says, before shooting began on season four of the show, a meeting was held and series creator David Simon decided they would stick with 4:3, which he thinks “feels more like real life and real television and not like a movie.”

HBO did consult Simon about the transfer, and Simon says he’s mostly happy with the results. In a lengthy post on his blog, Simon says he has mixed feelings about the transfer itself, since executive producer Bob Colesberry, who died during pre-production on the third season, took great pains to adapt the look of the show to the 4:3 format. But, Simon says, not all the scenes have been changed for the worse (“there are a notable number of scenes that acquire real benefit from playing wide,” he says).
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Zarjazz

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So basically we'll just have to wait and see ...
 

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