Watching Aliens with H (widescreen)

[wednes]

Why would anyone ever want to watch a formatted movie if they didn't have to?

Widescreen is the only real way to watch it.

That is my thought for the day; one to grow on, if you will.

H and I are going to try and write a horror story together. Should be interesting to see what we accomplish, I don't normally write with other people because I'm way too opinionated and stubborn (I know some of you are shocked to learn this). I'm just trying to think of what kind of horror is suitable to me.

I like the kind with crazy people who do horrible things for very sane reasons...
Like se7en, only sexier and more crazy.

So tell me, what thing in a movie or book scares you the most?

Comments

[uterdic.livejournal.com]

Yes, Mr. Van Gogh? Jack Smith at the Museum here. I was just calling to let you know that the wall we were going to put your painting on is a bit too narrow. Yeah, isn't that weird? Well, we have 2 solutions for you and I wanted to run them by you to see which you like better.

1) we reduce the size of the image a little, but the integrity of the painting is still intact. Everything you intended to be seen in the image is still there, only a little bit smaller. In fact, there are plans for a wall that we want to biuld that should accomodate this painting in its entirety, but we have to get approval from the construction team before we can start making it. Well, we've been negotiating since 1978, but I think we'll reach a decision soon.

2) we cut off 30% of the image so it can fit on the wall (That's right, 30%). Nope, everything else is lost. Well, do you think people really look at the sides of the painting anyway? Everything should be right in the middle. If you really need something outside the wall size to be there, I suppoose we could rig the painting to move around, so you can see the entire thing, but not at the same time. Nope, we use this size wall for all the installations, and all the artists will have to make this decision. Well, not the artists, they have no say, but the cooperations paying us to have the art in our facility. They seem to like only having parts of the picture really big on the walls. Eh, there's no accounting for taste, I suppose.

Very well, Mr. Van Gogh, I'll get the saw from the tool shed now. I'm sure you made the right decision.

Re:

[adudeabides.livejournal.com]

*shrugs* And so we lose part of the image. Most, if not all, of Van Gogh's work would not have been effected by chopping off the edges.

The original film size aspect ratio was 1.33:1 (Acadamy Standard). In the 50's NTSC selected this as the size to be broadcasted in the States for television.

After more people started buying TVs, though, the movie peoples changed the sizes. So, now the movie industry uses 2.35:1 and 1.85:1 for their movies. Yeah, this creates a problem when it comes time to squeeze it into standard size, but the problem was caused by the movie industry trying to make money. They aren't restricted to those Pano-sizes (and there are plenty of aspect ratios, those 2 are just the most common).

So, if Mr. Van Gogh would just crete his paintings to fit the walls instead of trying to make sure he made a few more bucks, we wouldn't have to go through the troubles of pan & scan to make it fit our walls.

[adudeabides.livejournal.com]

Alternatively, Mr. Van Gogh can use Super 35. o.o

[uterdic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm familiar with all that info. My little scenario listed above was a way I had a prof in college tell us how awful (to many of us) the 4:3 aspect ratio was for film. Sometimes people don't realize how much they could be missing, but that doesn't seem to be the case here, so I say more power to you.

Cheers.

Re:

[wednes.livejournal.com]

I still think Starry Night would look fucked up as a square.

Re:

[adudeabides.livejournal.com]

Your prof needs to be reminded that 4:3 was around first. And that filmakers choose to be difficult. :p

Actually, I hear several directors prefer Super35.

Ah well - whatever floats our boat, right?. I'm content with standard, for the most part, so I'll live.