I'm pretty sure he is joking - the 'modern' movies and using a 27 year old movie as an example kind of gives it away.
Funny thing is, it could still pass as a modern movie today
Oh man I remember that one. There really should be a classic threads section on the homepage.
I'm going to assume you're serious, so I will respond accordingly. So this is a scene from Ben Hur, one of the most brilliantly shot films ever.
Your answer convinced me.AUTISM ALERT INCOMING LENGTHY DETAILED RESPONSE NO ONE ASKED FOR YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
I'm going to assume you're serious, so I will respond accordingly. So this is a scene from Ben Hur, one of the most brilliantly shot films ever.
How would you make this viewable on a 16:9 modern TV without black bars? Well, you're going to have to crop it. Where do you crop it? Do you go with absolute center?
Well, you've cut the crowd entirely, and two chariots. The scene is now less cinematic. How about absolute left?
Gained two chariots, but now the scene is horribly unbalanced because you have no chariots to see on the right and still no crowd either. What would it look like if we used absolute right to include the crowd?
Utter dogshit. You've lost all the chariots save one. Okay, how about centered on the statue?
Probably the best option giving you the most to see in the scene, but you still don't have the crowd, you've lost one chariot, and half of another. No matter what, you've lost something. The movie is left worse for it by cropping it to fit a 16:9 aspect ratio.
Or... OR you can leave everything intact to retain the creative intent of the director. If you still insist on seeing no black bars, modern displays let you zoom in. Even mobile phones let you do this. So force it on your display.
Here's one more example from The Simpsons... the original in 4:3 as it was aired:
And the modern edit in 16:9 to fit modern screens with no black bars on the sides:
The joke in this scene is that all three variations of Duff beer come from the same pipe, but the joke no longer works in the 16:9 edit because you literally can't see the area where the pipes connect to a single central pipe. Context has been removed and it no longer functions as a gag. Now, the scene plays out as a guy just showcasing three products, it ceases to be a meaningful scene. If they had cut from the bottom instead to retain the joke, characters would have been partially cut off instead, which would have made the scene look awkward and really out of place. No matter what, this scene will be ruined.
Or you can just leave it alone in 4:3 as it originally aired.
Hey man, much respect. I know I've been wrong and changed my opinion many a time on this forum.
You forget the classic - chop a little bit off and then just stretch it. Who cares if the people look a little tall (or squat when they did it for 4:3) and the circles become ovals.
Thanks, I do know the positive points. But I was serious, although from that perspective, some content would be lost.
Reminds me of playing emulated 4:3 games stretched horizontally to fit 16:9. I don't know how folks stomach it, but it's their prerogative.
The solution (sometines) used is the "pan and scan" where they would make a wild swing of the frame left or right, up or down, to try to capture the whole scene, at least some of the time. So to defeat this, directors like Joss Whedon would DELIBERATELY block his actors at the far edges of the scenes to make the show very hard to easily crop for older 4:3 TVs. He mentions this on one of the Firefly commentaries IIRC, as that show was in the transition period from CRT TVs to the "widescreen" LCD/DLP/plasma ones.AUTISM ALERT INCOMING LENGTHY DETAILED RESPONSE NO ONE ASKED FOR YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
I'm going to assume you're serious, so I will respond accordingly. So this is a scene from Ben Hur, one of the most brilliantly shot films ever.
How would you make this viewable on a 16:9 modern TV without black bars? Well, you're going to have to crop it. Where do you crop it? Do you go with absolute center?
Well, you've cut the crowd entirely, and two chariots. The scene is now less cinematic. How about absolute left?
Gained two chariots, but now the scene is horribly unbalanced because you have no chariots to see on the right and still no crowd either. What would it look like if we used absolute right to include the crowd?
Utter dogshit. You've lost all the chariots save one. Okay, how about centered on the statue?
Probably the best option giving you the most to see in the scene, but you still don't have the crowd, you've lost one chariot, and half of another. No matter what, you've lost something. The movie is left worse for it by cropping it to fit a 16:9 aspect ratio.
Or... OR you can leave everything intact to retain the creative intent of the director. If you still insist on seeing no black bars, modern displays let you zoom in. Even mobile phones let you do this. So force it on your display.
Here's one more example from The Simpsons... the original in 4:3 as it was aired:
And the modern edit in 16:9 to fit modern screens with no black bars on the sides:
The joke in this scene is that all three variations of Duff beer come from the same pipe, but the joke no longer works in the 16:9 edit because you literally can't see the area where the pipes connect to a single central pipe. Context has been removed and it no longer functions as a gag. Now, the scene plays out as a guy just showcasing three products, it ceases to be a meaningful scene. If they had cut from the bottom instead to retain the joke, characters would have been partially cut off instead, which would have made the scene look awkward and really out of place. No matter what, this scene will be ruined.
Or you can just leave it alone in 4:3 as it originally aired.
He didn't always nail it, I remember this classic from Firefly when the joystick is missing in widescreen.
Holy shit, how did I miss that. I'm due for a Firefly rewatch, now I'll be looking for this, lol.He didn't always nail it, I remember this classic from Firefly when the joystick is missing in widescreen.
IIRC they also did a shot from low in front of his knees, thus the need to remove the joystick.He didn't always nail it, I remember this classic from Firefly when the joystick is missing in widescreen.
Malcolm in the Middle has some good ones.He didn't always nail it, I remember this classic from Firefly when the joystick is missing in widescreen.
That's the most baffling for me, I even saw a video of a guy wearing a watch, and had to look at his phone to tell time. And when asked about it, he was like "oh I wear it for fashion, I don't know how to read on it"
Because IMAX isn't the standard? Of all the movies released in a year (~600), only about 10% of them are in IMAX, and of those maybe another 5% are actually IMAX for the entire runtime, most of them are only IMAX for certain scenes and switch.
Some modern movies do use the aspect ratio that fills your TV. Watch The Avengers (2012) in 4K. It looks amazing. I think Ant-Man uses it too.
Aspect ratio and color grading are my two most favorite ways to subtely inform the audience of place. Shows with lots of flashbacks or location jumping especially can and should make more use of it. Mexicans can moan all they want about the "piss filter" but damned if it isn't as effective as the brown bag with a baguette sticking out in communicating to the audience in shorthand. Same with the hot blue/white filter for cold northern places. I love wide ratios for sweeping outdoors scenes and broad horizontal action. Interiors can do better with a taller ratio but I find that it makes a lot of action scenes feel crowded or unnecessary frame height can make it feel slow. That handheld "shaky cam" style probably benefits from a closer taller ratio as well.
Yeah, there were only 4 IMAX hollywood movies released last year that were that format for the entire thing.
See, in this example you get more camera motion following the center of attention (the guy jumping) which makes for a more dynamic shot and easier to draw focus, whereas in the more open format he is sort of lost in all the CG clutter around him. Not necessarily one better than the other but I feel that the wider aspect allows for more considered motion and action in these types of shots.I do think that IMAX shot movies need a letterboxed (or canvas??) IMAX version. BvS and Justice League look amazing on the IMAX ratio especially on OLEDs since the black bars become pitch black and in a dark room you see nothing but the giant image.
Nolan, Villenvue, and other modern directors choose IMAX cameras over the wide lens cameras, and the 4ks and streaming devices need to provide a better option for them. People dont like wide screen movies zoom and cropped in, they dont like the IMAX ones chopped up either.
