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Desperate Housewives Box Art!!! (1 Viewer)

AnnaMaria

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Feb 10, 2005
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There seems to be some contempt from widescreen viewers towards full screen ones. Well, more than contempt, actually anger that someone might dare to disagree with them.

Of course the best way to watch a movie is on a 60 inch wide screen with surround sound in a quiet theater setting.

But not all of us can afford a 5000 dollar TV and even if we could we don't all have the place to put it, because lets face it, those things aren't easy to move.

So some of us still have the old fashioned square TV that sits in the corner of our living room where the kids run around screaming.

Widescreen on a square tv may show all the picture, but it shows it from a distance.

As a viewer I'm more interested in where the action is, than where the action isn't. You lose the intimacy with the characters. It's harder to feel and see the expressions on people's faces. It feels more like your watching someone across the street through a window rather right in your living room.

I went to one of the sights showing the differences between wide and full. One example was from a Jodie Foster film. The full screen cut out a glass. A glass is not going to make a difference to my viewing pleasure. The glass had nothing to do with the actual story.

Admittedly there is something lost when you're dealing with big battle scenes, but most movies and TV shows don't have big battle scenes. And a show like DH is about people's relationships. It's more important to see the characters faces than the pretty trees in the background.

One day when I have that wide screen tv, I will want widescreen. But even then I won't refuse to watch full screen if that's the only thing a tv show comes in. After all, I'm interested in the show, not in the background.

Someone compared it to buying a censored CD. Well, some people (me included) would prefer the censored CD simply because I would prefer to not listen to the swearing (or have my kids listen to it, over and over again). So the two issues don't even compare.
 

Robert Ringwald

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If all you want is a story, maybe you should stick to books. Films are visual for a reason. Not only are they there to tell a story with characters, they're also great at using the medium to tell the story. For example, John Carpenter shot Halloween in 2.35:1 partially so that it would be claustrophobic in how it was presented.

DVD is meant to preserve movies and television in quality audio/video in a way no other format can.

It's simple. If you're not worried about the visual presentation, ZOOM the image.

We're upset because cropping Desperate Housewives to 4:3 removes the choice of watching these shows the way they were designed to be seen. You can easily crop it yourself at home. We can't zoom out of a 4:3 image to get the whole picture...
 

AnnaMaria

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Feb 10, 2005
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You have a point about zooming. I can't seem to find a zoom on my DVD player so I haven't tried it. I suspect there would be a lot of fiddling as the scenes change.

As for just wanting the story, did you miss the part where I said I wanted to see the characters and how they react? That would be a visual thing.

I'm not saying that widescreen isn't better, I'm just saying that there are advantages to full screen especially if you have an average tv.

And I was reacting to some of the arrogance and name calling I see on this board. Not everyone likes the black bars and the distance it creates. It doesn't make them wrong. Nor is it foolish to want to be up close to the characters.

Sure the creators of the movies created it for widescreen. They also created it to be seen ten feet high but that is unlikely to happen in someone's home. If they create a closeup they actually want you to be up close, so in a way, full screen creates that sensation better than widescreen.

It would be nice to one day have all tv's be widescreen and at a reasonable price, but that day isn't here yet.

And even if that day comes there will still be tv shows (such as old ones) that won't fit the widescreens and people would still be complaining.

I'm not saying anyone is wrong for preferring widescreen, I'm just saying there is a reason for the other preference. It's kind of like cropping pictures. You cut out the extra to focus in better on the subject.
 

Gord Lacey

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Jan 3, 2001
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I spoke to the publicity person again today and he said I'll have an answer by the end of this week. I assume he means Thursday, since Friday should be a day off.

Hopefully we can get some answers, or a revised press release with a new aspect ratio.

Gord
 

Mike Frezon

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Hi AnnaMaria! Welcome to the HTF!


Its not about widescreen versus full screen. Part of the "mantra" here at the HTF is that we believe in the presentation of a film or TV show in its OAR--original aspect ratio. No "cutting out extra" to "zoom in on the action". When I read your story about the glass in that Jodie Foster movie, I thought of an important scene involving a glass of water in a recent film in which concentric rings forming on the surface of the water gave away the looming presence of an off-screen character. I'd hate to have that cut out of a film simply because of an arbitrary decision made by some studio hack.

And, yes, we don't advocate 16:9 presentations of 4:3 material either. It's all about the way the production team intended for it to be seen.

With some programming (Desperate Housewives included) which is being initially broadcast in BOTH 16:9 (HD) and 4:3 (SD) formats, there is now some confusion about DVD presentation.

The first three paragraphs of the HTF Mission Statement:

The Home Theater Forum is a place where those who enjoy watching movies in their homes can discuss all aspects of (re-)presenting films the best way they can. These discussions concern the film art itself, its products as well as the technical ways to create a theater-like experience inside a home.

We the members of the forum are interested in the film product to be recorded and reproduced as closely as possible to the way the original creator(s) of that particular film intended. We respect the integrity of all artists involved in creating the original film as well as those who helped bringing the product to a form suited to be used in a home theater environment.

The main goals of the discussions on the Home Theater Forum are to learn and to share: to learn more about the cinematographic art-form and the best techniques to present the films, and to share our knowledge with anyone who sincerely wants to benefit from the knowledge of his or her fellow members.
 

MatthewLouwrens

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When Terry Gilliam was filming 12 Monkeys, there was one scene in the future where Bruce Willis is sitting on the left of the screen preparing for the time-tranel. On the right of the screen, there is a cage with a hamster in it, running on the hamster wheel. To Terry Gilliam it was absolutely essential that the hamster be running on the wheel, and rejected multiple otherwise-perfect takes because the hamster wasn't running. Why was this important to Gilliam? I don't know. But it was (the incident actually gave the excellent in-depth making-of documentary The Hamster Effect its title). Certainly in my many times of watching the film, I never even noticed the hamster until I learned about it.

My point is that we cannot second-guess what is and isn't important in a shot. In the scene with the glass, someone had to make a conscious creative decision whether or not to put a glass in the shot. And that is the choice they made. And we should not dismiss it as not important.
 

Eddy-C

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Jul 11, 2003
Messages
549
In truly great films/tv shows everything in the shot should be important. People get paid millions of dollars to decide what colors look good or bad together in a frame and what furniture should be on the set. None of it is meaningless.
 

ravma

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Nov 9, 2004
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89
YEAH! I will DEFINATELY be buying this now. I'm so excited! Buena Vista: THANK YOU!
 

Rolando

Screenwriter
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Feb 19, 2001
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1,338
Never seen it but I am glad the wife and I will be able to check it out in it's OAR on DVD. Thanks Gord!
 

Rian

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Aug 21, 2004
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Thanks for the news Gord! Now I've got to put it on my ongoing list of TV Shows on DVD to buy.
 

Dennis*G

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Oct 7, 2003
Messages
524
Good news that the debate is over and the OAR won. Now I want to yell at ABC to quit broadcasting a 4:3 version!!
 

Mike Frezon

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Joined
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Location
Rexford, NY


Yup. That really would be the answer, wouldn't it?! The only reason the issue is muddled is because of the dueling ARs on the two different, simultaneous ABC broadcasts. If they just went 16:9 all the way (black bars for the 4:3 sets)...there wouldn't be any questions about which AR was correct.
 

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