(2026-03-07, 10:52 AM)saddleuptherobots Wrote: when you say open matte in this context do you just mean those old pan & scan releases? or is open matte no pan and scan, just the normal aspect ratio "opened up" to avoid something black borders on those old glorious 4:3 crts? 
Yes, open matte is NOT pan & scan, it's when you see more vertically, top and bottom. Usually, they recompose the framing and crop a bit on the sides, left and right, so it looks good when the mattes are opened. Otherwise, there would be too much negative space and the characters would look smaller inside the frame.