What if you had the opportunity to inform 25 people about widescreen? (1 Viewer)

[Pete_S]

Coming up in two or three weeks I'm going to have to do a persuasive speech for my lousy college speech class. The first thing that came to mind was a discussion of the superiority of widescreen over pan-and-scan. What I need is facts, examples, and quotes from people who are... well... quotable. People who have some prestige, I guess.
Obviously the HTF is a great place to get started looking for info, but if anyone here knows of some good sources of info right off-hand, I'd really appreciate any help you might be able to provide. Also, if you have any ideas I can incorporate into the speech, I'm all ears.
So far, I plan on printing some materials from widescreenadvocate.org to pass around, but obviously I'll need more points of reference. Thanks in advance for helping out!

 

[Steven Good]

see my sig--

no one ever said it better than Roger Ebert.

 

[Tony-B]

Great topic idea!!!
Anyways, some sources that could be of use to you might be www.widescreen.org, the Die Hard dvd, which has a comparison on it (if you plan to use video), and there is a section in the booklet for Beauty and The Beast that describes the difference. Sorry I couldn't think of more. I wish you luck in pulling this together!!

 

[CaptDS9E]

Great Idea for a topic. I remember spending days thinking of something for a class presentation and i always came up with something stupid. Except for when i did the history of video games and on the blackboard i drew a diagram every single system up to that point Got a A+ on that one

Capt

 

[Brenton]

Here's a tip. If you're giving this presentation for a class, keep the technical mumbo-jumbo to a minimum. It can start out as "Ever since the 1950's, films have been made wide. Like this [indicate approx. size with hands]. Your TV, on the other hand, is not so wide. Like this [indicate size]. When a film is packaged to be sold for home viewing, such as videocassette or DVD, there are two chief ways of making the wider picture fit in the not-so-wide screen..."

If you rattle off stuff about Academy Standard, and soft mattes, and 2.35:1, and anamorphic, you're going to lose a lot of them and "convert" no one.

 

[Rob Lutter]

I actually just did a persuasive speech on this topic for my college speech class... I got an A
Video samples from DVDs that have Pan/Scan and Widescreen are a plus (I had a couple DVDs that had both) along with an explanation of the size of TVs (4x3) vs. the size of movies (1.85 and 2.35).

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Feel free to use the first quote in my sig.
I would emphasize the respect for artistic integrity, that it just is never a good thing to violate art of any kind. Talk about composition and the framing of shots in films and of course give examples of WS vs P&S.
It might also help to tell the history of WS and how it came about and how P&S got started and why. Try to make them see the issue clearly so they may understand fully, and as stated, don't try and overload them with talk of the math of aspect ratios, it might just confuse them.
You can also quote the best analogies for WS i've ever heard and one's that I use often...
Would you buy the original Mona Lisa and crop it just to fit a smaller frame? Or remove every other word from their favorite book? Or every other lyric from their favorite song?
Give them the URL's here and the Wide Screen Advocacy Page as well.
I think this is a brilliant idea! If you can get through to them, they'll tell other's, and those will in turn tell other's...
Good luck!

 

[Tony-B]

Here's a tip. If you're giving this presentation for a class, keep the technical mumbo-jumbo to a minimum.

I second that opinion. You could also say, "Have you ever noticed that movies in a theater are shaped like a rectangle? Have you ever noticed that your TV set is more like a square? What happens when you try and fit a rectangle inside of a square? You can't fit it in, unless you cut off the sides of the rectangle, or shrink the rectangle down to fit inside of the square."

 

[Damin J Toell]

I would emphasize the respect for artistic integrity

Is it respecting the artistic integrity of those who work in television to call their work "furniture"? If Pete wants to convince people to respect one artform, it's probably not the best idea for him to quote an insult towards another one.

DJ

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Damin,
does it say that 'Television is crap.'? No.
That's not what the quote is referring to. The word 'furniture' refers to the physical object of a tv set, not what is played on it. You should have known that, it's pretty self explanitory IMO. It means don't be ruled by a piece of furniture, be ruled by the art that is played on it.
I feel that the quote as a whole contains the very embodiment of what OAR is all about, that's why I chose it for my sig.
Do you really think that I would disrespect the work that goes into television? You got the wrong guy my friend.

 

[Damin J Toell]

The word 'furniture' refers to the physical object of a tv set, not what is played on it. You should have known that, it's pretty self explanitory IMO.

I don't find it to explain itself in that way at all. The two previous sentences certainly don't refer to the physical structures of "theaters" and "cinemas," do they? So why would "television" refer to the physical object?

BTW, your edited response is quite an improvement from the original.

DJ

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

You saw that huh? :b
Well to be honest Damin, your response sorta pissed me off just a tad, and your latest doesn't really help either. I mean why take apart my response to Pete?
Listen, that's what that quote says to me, and others seem to like it. I'm just trying to help the guy out, so cut me some slack o.k.

 

[Damin J Toell]

I mean why take apart my response to the man.

For the same reason you posted in the first place: to provide him with the requested assistance. I don't think your quote is useful to him, and I said so and provided my reasons for it. Am I not allowed to disagree with anyone, even if I think my disagreeing opinion is of use to him?

This is getting pretty far off-topic...

DJ

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Damin,
relax. I took offense because you didn't offer anything insightful for the main topic of discussion, you just seemed to have a problem with my post that's all.
Were all cool here.

 

[Damin J Toell]

I took offense because you didn't offer anything insightful for the main topic of discussion

My insight, if somehow not previously clear, is thus: don't insult other forms of art if the goal is to get your listeners to respect the form of art that is the subject of your speech. I think this is as valid an insight for the main topic as "don't get too technical" or "show samples."

DJ

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Damin,
every reply in this thread are mere suggestions, whether or not he chooses to use them is completely at the discretion of the original poster. If he sees meaning in my suggestion, he'll use it, if not that's up to him, i'm fine with it either way.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Yes, but Damin, I DIDN'T disrespect any artform, that's where our differences of opinion lies.

 

[Damin J Toell]

every reply in this thread are merely suggestions, whether or not he chooses to use them is completely at the discretion of the original poster. If he sees meaning in my suggestion, he'll use it, if not that's up to him.

So that means that I can't express an opinion on the suggestion of another poster in this thread, even if I believe my opinion is itself a helpful suggestion to Pete? Geez...

If Pete sees meaning in our suggestions, he'll use them. However, the last 6 posts in this thread have presumably been of no help whatsoever to him.

DJ

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Well Damin, the origin of the derailment certaintly wasn't started by myself. You needlessly picked apart my post initially.

To the mods, I apologize for all of this, it didn't need to happen in a thread like this one.

 

[Rob Lutter]

And back on to topic...