Dawn of the Dead - Accidentally Un-letterboxed Cannes Cut Anchor Bay (1996)

First off, thanks to Larry DeVincentz for not only telling me about this version, but helping me track a copy down so I could help archive it.

In late 1996, when the Cannes cut was first officially released in the US on VHS by Anchor Bay (Incorrectly labeled the "Directors Cut"), the first print released was accidentally not letterboxed. This was a mistake and other reprints were matted correctly, as the back of the VHS cover says its 'letterboxed'. What you get is a little extra frame on the top and bottom. As far as I know, this version is the only version to have that of the Cannes cut. There is also no marking on the box telling you which version is which. I also read that the original, non-letterboxed copies were recalled.

This was captured in SD (640x480) as it was recorded from a composite SD cable from my VCR to my computer, and is in mono, as the original release was. The only thing I did was sharpen the image a hair.

0:00 - Tape start
0:29 - Tape 1
1:22:26 - Tape 2
2:19:59 - Trailers

The only stuff I cut out was the end of tape 1, and the beginning of tape 2. Tape 1 ends with the Video Treasures logo with the blue background, and tape 2 starts off the same way as tape 1.

What is letterboxing?
Simply, the movie camera shoots a large 'square'. Since movie screens are rectangular, they only show the middle 'rectangle'. Sometimes things like boom mics are in the shot on the top of the square, knowing that the movie theater will cut that off. When shown on older TV, which were square, letterboxing is fitting that original movie frame square to the TV, but using black bars on the top and bottom to cut that off. This version accidentally forgot to add those squares. So the left and right edges are cut off properly but not the top and bottom. So far only the Italian release of "Zombie" by Midnight Release includes a scan of the full frame Argento cut, including everything on the top/bottom and sides of the frame. If you have a 35mm print, its almost open matte, but the far left edge is cut off by the audio track.

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0...

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCompare5/...