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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