I should be 100% clear: in the right hands, 'scope aspect ratio can be a beautiful thing. Look no further than Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress for one of the most meticulously-composed films in the history of the art.
What I mean to say is that, as Rebecca hints at in comments, I fear that widescreen is too often used because bigger must necessarily be better in the studios' eyes, and I strongly believe that if one is not a great visual artist (as the commanding majority of summer blockbuster directors most certainly are not), 1.85:1 is going to make it a hell of a lot easier to find good compositions by accident than the rather punishingly rectangular 2.35:1 ever could.
05 May 2007
2 comments:
Just a few rules so that everybody can have fun: ad hominem attacks on the blogger are fair; ad hominem attacks on other commenters will be deleted. And I will absolutely not stand for anything that is, in my judgment, demeaning, insulting or hateful to any gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or religion. And though I won't insist on keeping politics out, let's think long and hard before we say anything particularly inflammatory.
Also, sorry about the whole "must be a registered user" thing, but I do deeply hate to get spam, and I refuse to take on the totalitarian mantle of moderating comments, and I am much too lazy to try to migrate over to a better comments system than the one that comes pre-loaded with Blogger.
Tim Brayton, you would love Bill Dill.
ReplyDeleteYeah, let's see if that emotion survives June 30th.
ReplyDelete