DVD Haul
I had a successful thrifting route the other day and got like 20 DVDs and a few CDs. my local salvation army always surprises me with their selection. not many blu rays at these stores though.
this experience reminded me that is the wording around fullscreen vs widescreen so confusing. honestly, even just the term "fullscreen" is vague and unspecific. but that's fine. i know to typically avoid it. but i did accidentally get a Mission Impossible III full screen version.
 |
|---|
| recent dvd haul |
i swear i check each DVD for the aspect ratio to make sure it says widescreen or theatrical version or whatnot. but i still seem to accidentally still get a fullscreen one. disheartening.
Why do aspect ratios matter so much?
part of it is about preserving the original state of the film, and i think that is the main thing, and that matters a lot to me. i don't like cropping. but also the choice of ratio is a powerful thing. seeing images in a certain way can evoke different emotional responses. i guess that's the reason there are so many different formats for photgraphy and cinema. aspect ratio is one of the first things you need to figure out when you're about to shoot a movie.
i really love 4:3 and the framing that it restricts to. i think seeing a landscape in 4:3 produces the most awe for me. i also shoot photography in 4:3 so that is also just what i am partial to. to be honest i dont ever really care for 2.39:1 all that much. i cant think of anything off the top of my head that i have seen recently that used 2.39:1 effectively or in a stand out way where i say "i"m so glad they shot it like this" but that's not to say i don't ever like it, because i do think true anamorphic cinemascope is really nice. i feel like 1.85:1 is more "cinematic" in my mind, as in more closely associated with cinema to me. but it can also look bad since it's the defacto for TV now.
maybe aspect ratio doesnt matter all that much to most people, at least consciously, but it's still something i like to obsess over. even if it has just become a tactic that is used in FOMOF marketing (Fear Of Missing Out on Format).