Visitors to my site often ask me how they can contact the studios to demand widescreen for titles that have not been released that way, so I decided it is time to start a letter-writing campaign. I gathered this information from around the net, as well as by visiting stores such as Wal-Mart and Target. Some of the contacts I know to be accurate. Others may be out of date. I have not added every studio and retailer. I did make sure to include all of the worst offenders. If you have any reliable or updated contact info for any of these studios or retailers, or any others I have missed, please send me an e-mail, or post in this thread. Also, if you have any tips to write a good letter, post those too. I will include the best ones on the campaign page. Happy letter writing!
Anxious for a widescreen version of Citizen Kane? Seriously though, I applaud your efforts as well as other "Widescreen Advocates" as I realize you all have the best intentions at heart, but the constant references that Widescreen = GOOD and Full Screen = BAD is causing a great deal of confusion and may very well result in cropped widescreen editions of OAR full screen films. This is especicially true now that the JSPs of the world are buying 16x9 TVs. Is it not possible to change your battle cry to OAR = Sale, MAR = No Sale or possibly be "OAR Advocates"?
I better start sharpening my pencil, I know Wal Mart will be among the first to get it! Joshua, not sure if you would want to but I think it would be nice to have contact info for Canadian retailers too. Wal Mart here has gotten only slightly better. There are certain chains of grocery stores here that have quite a big selection on DVDs but the seem to opt for foolscreen and in Montreal the French cover (but that is another story). Don't have the info to give unfortunately but just a thought as it is R1 and some of these Chains are fairly big. I figure fighting from both fronts should be better right?
Widescreen Advocate is just a name. Notice, that our title is: Widescreen Advocate - We Believe in OAR. Also, I do have a No OAR = No Sale icon on the site, as well as a "OAR watchdog". I make many mentions on various pages of the site about OAR. I do not have an advanced topics page, that is why I don't specifically explain in great detail about things like academy ratio. This would be something I would like to do in the future, but I don't have the time to put into that now. Rolando, I would be open to putting canadian retailers on that page, so if anyone can contribute such info, please do.
I took a peak at your news page and saw an item about Disney Classic releases. You first report that "not all of them are going to be released in their original aspect ratios", then automatically classify the fullscreen releases as such, although you admit that you don't actually know the OAR of these films. One of the films, Greyfriars Bobby, which you list as not being in its OAR was filmed in 1.33:1.
I have to agree that demanding widescreen is not the answer, demanding the original theatrical aspect ratio is.
I specifically state that we don't know the OAR of some of the films. But we also know that some of the films in question had aspect ratio's of 1.85:1. I do always demend OAR, and usually that happens to be widescreen. There are very few cases of an academy aspect ratio film being modified to fit widescreen televisions. The few that have been, are almost always shown on television incorrectly, not released on DVD that way. The site is specifically focued on the prevention of widescreen on DVD. As far as the news goes I report the facts, and let the viewer decide, if we do not know for sure what the OAR is. If you happen to have any further info on a title's OAR, please e-mail me, or use the comment system, and I will report it. Thanks, Any constructive feedback is welcomed.
