Pecker

Only watch good films.



Steve W




































Okay, I'm having a little joke here, but I just wanted to blog my experiences this half term. I've been working on a series of 'hangings'...

...(or why you should learn to stop worrying and love the black bars).

This comes up more often than I’d care to mention, so I thought I’d try to write a definitive post on the matter.

Usually the discussion starts with someone asking how they can rid themselves of the black bars on their TV. This is usually met with calls for the OP to be lynched, or at least sent to bed without any tea.

So, why should films be shown in their OAR (original aspect ratio)?...

Widescreen Cinema – A History of How Widescreen Films Have Been Shot and Viewed

Acknowledgements

My primary text for writing this short piece was John Belton’s Widescreen Cinema. It was particularly useful when researching the history of Cinerama, CinemaScope and widescreen cinema formats in general. Additional information can be found at The American Widescreen Museum website, and Wikipedia.

Information as to how directors and cinematographers shoot...

There’s a move in some high end (and increasingly mid-end) home cinema projection systems to go CIH.

There are pros and cons with most set ups, and the pros of CIH are well-rehearsed. To balance this I’m going to point out a few of the cons. Just because the cons exist doesn’t make CIH a no-go area, but it’s important that people are aware of all the potential advantages and disadvantages.

1 – Room size. A room with a small width may mean that fitting a CIH screen...

I seem to spend a lot of my time at AVF discussing where I sit at the cinema, where I sit at home, and why I make these decisions.

Firstly, where I sit at the cinema. Well, I don’t like the cinema much – not anymore. I don’t enjoy the company, I don’t enjoy the (lack of) attention to detail from the people running the place, I don’t enjoy the often dirty seats, and I don’t enjoy the expense and inconvenience.

Cinema-going used to be a joy, but it’s become a real pain....