Besides all-in
brawling amongst the alphabet,
letterboxing is also one of the two
techniques by which
cinema is brought to
the small screen.
The entire picture is reduced in size so as to fit
horizontally across the
television screen resulting
in black areas above and below.
This is the preferred method for artsy-fartsy movies because none
of the cinematic grandeur is lost.
The black bits make the perfect spot for subtitles too.
Opposite of pan-and-scan.