Educating the masses on OAR, business card style (1 Viewer)

[Carlo_M]

Excellent work. For simplicity's sake I would also recommend replacing OAR with widescreen. If you make a HQ version of this and put it in some format, I will print these out and hand them out myself to people not in the know...

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

I'll make some changes to it when I get home tonight like the changing OAR to Widescreen and post a HQ version of it for download. If there is anything else that you think should be changed or altered (colors, wording etc) let me know now and I'll do that too.

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

Another thought.
What if I change the tagline at the top to "Weren't there 4 Ghostbusters? You would never know if you watched a Full Screen version" or P&S, whichever. Maybe that would be better and relate to more movies other than Ghostbusters since that actually is only out in LBX format on DVD.
Thoughts?

 

[Anthony_J]

If you're going to make changes, I'd also take into the consideration the slams on Walmart, etc as stated earlier.
Change it to "Full Screen doesn't want you to see... " instead. It seems much less vindictive/hateful and more informational that way. Also, if you don't slam the store, they might overlook a small deposit of the cards in the DVD aisle.
After all, the retailers/renters only do what the majority of the people want them to do. That's the beauty of free enterprise. (Unless they're Microsoft)

 

[David James]

While OAR is longer and harder to say, it is more accurate, and I think more pursuading, than wide screen. After all, don't we want OAR regardless of whether it's widescreen or not? It also might be nice to somehow include those famous words "formated to fit your TV screen" on the full screen side. Hmmm, considering all the infomation maybe it's better to drop the business card idea in favor of a sandwich board

 

[MickeS]

You are right about the Ghostbusters one. It is a great OAR DVD and shows clearly how much of a benefit the format serves. The only reason I picked it is because I always had this picture ingrained in my head of only seeing 2 or 3 ghostbusters during the movie everytime I watched it on TV. This always seemed weird to me since way back when I didn't understand OAR and P&S. I do think it serves the purpose well though

I agree completely about Ghostbusters! It's a great example of how OAR is better, even if it's not on DVD in P&S. It was the first movie for me too that made me realize that what I saw on TV (or in that case, VHS) was not what was shown in the theater. It always annoyed me.
Ghostbusters is a movie that plenty of people have seen, and I think they've noticed too that it doesn't look right, even if they couldn't put it in the correct terms (I sure couldn't at first). Just like me, they might start appreciating OAR more based on that.
/Mike

 

[Carlo_M]

David,
yes OAR is more accurate of a term, since not everything is filmed in what is commonly known as "widescreen" (everything wider than academy ratio).
BUT...
I think these cards aren't intended to be handed out to HT and movie buffs. They are for the "masses" and they will understand widescreen much more readily than OAR. In fact, go around your office right now and ask if people know what letterbox or widescreen movies are. Then ask if anyone knows what OAR means. You'll get much more of a response about letterbox/widescreen than you will with OAR--which I haven't heard OUTSIDE of HTF. that's why he chose that term and why I think he should use it on the cards. It's for simplicities sake.

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

Ok, I'll change it to Widescreen vs. Full Screen (or Frame) since that is what most dvd's say when declaring what version they are and that is what the public is used to, although not 100% accurate. I'll take out the company slams (although they all do deserve it with some of the decisions they are making lately) and make it more of an info card than an anti-(insert company here) card. I'll make the "Formatted to fit you TV screen" more prominant as well since practically everyone has that phrase ingrained in their head.
Other than that I think we will have a pretty decent, simplistic way of explaining why those silly black bars are actually good. If they still choose Fullscreen then at least they know what they are missing. Egon and Winston

 

[WilliamG]

Just wanted to chime in here regarding the so-called "company slams" on the card ...
I went to my friendly neighborhood Wal-Mart over the weekend and noticed that they were selling BOTH versions of The Mummy Returns side-by-side. There were these cut-out 'star'-looking things with handwriting. One says "LOOK-WIDESCREEN!" ... the other says "LOOK-FULL FRAME!"
At least they're marketing them together.
**RATS!** I just remembered - I didn't think to count how many there were in each 'stack' to see if one was out-selling the other!!
IMHO- I LOVE THE CARDS!!! Hey they get the point across

 

[Jim A. Banville]

J6P doesn't care about seeing the WHOLE picture. He just wants his TV screen filled! Tell 'em all you want that he is missing info that was in the original movie and he might say,"Yeah, they cut off part of the picture", but when it comes down to it, they want their WHOLE TV screen filled, missing info or not. You must CARE about "movies" to be concerned with OAR. J6P just wants to watch it and be done with it.

 

[Carlo_M]

Jim,
Yes there will always be people who want their "TVs filled up"--but you have to give people a chance to show that they can and do care about films. Hey, 10 years ago I had no idea what widescreen, OAR, 1.66, 1.85, 2.35 were. We have to put the information out there and let people decide which they prefer...but at least arm them with the knowledge to properly make that decision. Among my friends and family, I must have educated a couple of dozen "Former J6Ps" if that's how you want to refer to them as.
Sure, there's always the people who won't care, but you'd be surprised just how many will see the light of day and come to understand that "less is more" in this case. They just have to be exposed to it.

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

Tell that to the dozens of people (mostly friends at the moment) that I've converted to OAR, including myself. Of course not everyone is going to be convinced or want to switch. Some people DO prefer fullscreen but there are so many that prefer it just because they think that widescreen means that the picture is cutting off the top and bottom, not the sides. You do have to give J6P some credit.
WilliamG,
That is cool about Walmart showing some effort. Two of the ones I've gone to near me have been split. One had nothing but fullscreen and the other had fullscreen instock but an empty spot for widescreen. Any effort by any store is better than just getting fullscreen to avoid complaints of black bars.

 

[teapot2001]

Another suggestion: Emphasize the sides of the picture by coloring them. As you have it, the Pan and Scan part of the picture is receiving the attention.
~T

 

[Shad R]

I would like to see a comparison of League of their Own, with Tom Hanks. Those pans on VHS are HARSH!

 

[LukeB]

Considering it's meant to inform about ratios, you might want to fix the screen captures so they are not vertically stretched. A lot of times screen captures will do that from DVD programs. As is, the Ghostbusters are super-thin and you're actually making P & S to be less evil than it is. The ratio of Ghostbusters as is is about 2:1, when the film is really 2.35:1. You MIGHT want to fix that up if you really want to get your point across!

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

Was going to fixed the superthin ghostbusters. I'm not sure why it did that in the first place. All of my other screenshots came out fine. Oh well, will fix that in.
Thanks for the sudgestions, now to work on it.

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

Here is the new revision based on the sudgestions here. It is also higher quality and in 720x480 none the less.

 

[Jon_B]

Looks good.

Jon

 

[Henry Carmona]

I like it, but I support your previous idea about having one version on each side.
I think it could be a little confusing the way you have it now.
One side could have the widescreen version with whatever you want to say, and the other side a pic of Pan 'n Scan versoin or the first example you posted with the widescreen sides slightly shaded.
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"Charlie don't surf."

 

[David Lambert]

Actually, I disagree with Henry.
Jason, you're new Ghostbustes version is almost perfect!
One suggestion to make it easier to read: The test feels like it should read in this order:

• When it is:
  Say goodbye to Egon
  "Formatted to fit your TV screen"
  You lose Winston

Suggest you color the "Say goodbye to Egon" and "You lose Winston" text with a bright yellow (shows up well) and drop these to the bottom, around the knees of the characters.
Then the text will feel like it reads in the proper order. Your point will be better made.
I tried this myself and it looks great. Except I can't erase the original white-color wording at the top, so I have to depend on you to do it with your original shot.
My only other wish is that I wish that http://www.widescreen.org
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DAVE/Memphis

MORE TV ON DVD, PLEASE!