I'm an ignorant DVD shopper. Convert me to Widescreen. (1 Viewer)

[Lars Vermundsberget]

I sometimes wonder what "those people" think about "us". Do "they" really think that "we" prefer to have the top and bottom parts of the picture cut off so that we can get some nice unused black space on our screens?

 

[Michael Harris]

I like to use the "Ghostbusters" example:

Pan and Scam = three Ghostbusters (pity Ernie Hudson)

OAR = you get all four

And you can blame Pan and Scam on "the man" for cutting the black guy out!

 

[Matt Rexer]

Nah, I'm not offended at all. My little page definitely represents my particular opinions on the subject (even more apparent in which AR I think is proper for Evil Dead), which not everyone'll agree with... but I was more than happy to try to pass them on to my fam.

EDIT: Also, cool first name

 

[norman j]

Some people just can't be converted.
I've tried for years to convince my wife widescreen is better, but she doesn't seem to care that part of the image is cut off-she wants all the TV screen filled. I went as far as setting up two TVs and watching each version of Star Wars side by side at the same time. I thought this would show her, but it still didn't make a difference. Since that time DVDs have come in and I won't buy anything but widescreen, so she has accepted it more and will watch them with me, but that hasn't changed her mind about it, although I think she has gotten more used to it.
I remember when I first saw a foolscreen DVD in the stores. It was the first Harry Potter, and I was nervous then that they would start to put out foolscreen only versions of some movies, which is exactly what they have done.

 

[MarkHastings]

Good one

- Sorry, but there wasn't enough room on your Beatles CD for the singing, so the songs are all instrumental.

 

[Jeff Swearingen]

There's a great segment that Turner Classic Movies has been running. I saw it the other day. Directors like Scorsese are explaining why letterboxing is important. At the same time film images are shown, with a dotted line showing what would have been pan/scanned.

 

[ThomasC]

Well, it's not a very widely known movie, but nonetheless, in one shot, the VHS of Magnolia zooms out to present the original aspect ratio because it would've destroyed what PTA was trying to tell us. The scene I'm talking about is when Officer Jim Kurring is in Claudia Gator's apartment, and the shot has them on the opposite sides of the screen. I couldn't even tell that the picture had zoomed out, because it was done so smoothly. Yes, I watched this in pan and scan, but this was before I got a computer with a DVD-ROM. I've got the Magnolia DVD in glorious widescreen now, so no need to try to sell widescreen to me. In fact, I'll get the screenshot of the scene right now. Here it is:

http://www.users.muohio.edu/choongty/magnolia.jpg

 

[John KB]

Don't directors have a say as to whether their movies can be reformatted? And if they do, why are they letting it happen?

 

[AaronMg]

Some excellent comparisons. I'll be marking this thread.

 

[MarkHastings]

I was just thinking about these comparisons and realized why it may still be confusing for people...Take the example of the six pack of beer where you pay for a 6 pack, but lose 2 cans (i.e. Fullscreen). This makes perfect sense to us, but what may confuse someone who doesn't understand OAR is, if you look at a six pack and a four pack, the six pack is bigger, but with in the case of anamorphic video, the fullscreen "looks" bigger than the widescreen image. This is what perplexes people. They don't understand how you can add black bars to the top and bottom of the video and somehow get MORE image. Without fully understanding the technical aspects, it does sound quite odd. I mean, how can something smaller contain MORE????

The following may solve that...Try to explain it in terms of books:

Imagine if you had a bookcase where the shelves were 12 inches apart...Now imagine that you are out buying a new book. When you arrive at the bookstore there are two versions of the book you want. They are exactly the same except one is 15" tall and the other is 9" tall (i.e. the 9" tall book has smaller text).

Would you rather buy the 9" tall book and have a 3" gap above the book on your bookcase (the gap being like the black bars)...

or would you rather buy the 15" book and have to run it through your band saw to cut off the top 3 inches off the book so that it fits on your bookcase?



The reason I thought of this was because I never hear explanations on OAR where they talk about shrinking the widescreen image to fit in the 4x3 frame. The confusing thing for people is more the fact that the black bars seem to be covering up part of the image and people get confused as to how you get MORE of the image when it seems like less image is on the screen...It's the book comparison that seems to make sense. Meaning, just because a book looks smaller, doesn't mean it has less words than another book that's twice its size.

With small fonts, a tiny book can have more words than a bigger book (that has large fonts).

It's this comparison that might trigger something in the persons head on why a smaller image can contain more visuals.

 

[Francois Caron]

Unless you're an "A" list director with "final cut" priviledges, you're just the schmuck who directed the movie. The producers and distributors will even recut your movie without your knowledge. So much for artistic integrity.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

Imagine a piece of classical music, played with upto half of the orchestra missing.

You'll get the tune, but you wont get the symphony.

 

[Pete SE]

Let's go back to the Beatles thing.

It's like listening to Sgt. Peppers with John and Paul's parts cut out but it plays much LOUDER.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

The one I've always found works best when the comment "I hate the black bars" comes up is "If the movie is good enough, you aren't going to care about the black bars after a while." I usually use this in conjunction with some specific examples if missing information in MAR versions, but this comment tends to work very well, since it doesn't insult the intelligence of the person you're trying to win over.

 

[Dick]

It has been argued by some critics that movies aren't a form of art, but of commerce. All of you and I disagree, but many wouldn't. Plus, there are likely millions of consumers out there who truly would NOT care whether or not a few Apostles were missing from the frame, as long as Jesus was right there in the center.

 

[Jason Hughes]

I have one that usually works well on women (not trying to be sexist here). I tell them to look at those wedding photos they have so lovingly hanged on their wall. I tell them to imagine slicing off the sides because they will now have to put it in a smaller frame. Usually, they have a look of pure and total terror on their face and then they start to understand.

Men it is much easier. "Dude, you are a fucking moron. Ofcourse widescreen is better."

 

[MarkHastings]

Yet, they'd probably be outragged if 33% of the audio was cut out

 

[EricSchulz]

Widescreen vs. Pan & Scan Comparison

This is an AWESOME visual tutorial on the difference between the two (I got the link here I think).

Another one that can be printed out is at:
WS/FS Comparison

It shows screenshots from Grease that shows the extent of the chopping very well. I work at Target and always get asked about the difference, so I printed it up and laminated it to show people that asked.

 

[EricSchulz]

btw...what is MAR?

When I first got my laserdisc player, it was a bit of a challenge to get used to WS, but I REFUSE to buy any DVD that is not in its OAR (and I have converted a few skeptics along the way!)

I remember reading about someone that took a big piece of cardboard (bigger than his TV screen) and cut out a piece so the picture was visible, but it blocked the top black bar. He painted it up to look like the curtains pulled back in a movie theater. Out of sight, out of mind indeed!

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

The great thing about the Last Supper is that, if I remember correctly, the two main disciples are on either end of the table - Peter (who denied Jesus) is on the left, and Judas is on the right. So a P&S Last Supper would have Jesus and a bunch of nobody disciples.