Aspect Ratio’s on TV – Continued from a while ago

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In a previous Blog post I talked about Aspect Ratios and there history, and gave a brief discussion about how they are dealt with when transferring to screens of different aspect ratios than the original.

Over the past few weeks I have been taking conscious effort to notice how different media is dealt with when the aspect ratio is an issue.

4:3 programs on TV (usually reruns) are usually displayed with 2 black bars going vertically up each side when displayed on a 16:9 screen. One such example of this that was prevalent was episodes of The Simpsons from earlier seasons which are displayed this way.

But other methods are used as well, another common method I observed was to still leave the image un-cropped, but instead of simply having Black Bars a faded, blurred version of the image is used. This allows the original footage to be un-altered, as well as the screen to be completely filled (even if its just filler). The advantages of this are removing the stark contrast the Black Bars give, the edges of the screen are the same colour palette as the actual video, it also moves which prevents “burn in” on older Plasma TVs. I observed this method on the ABC show Good Game, where it was used to show footage of older video games made for 4:3 screens.

As far as I know, I did not encounter any 4:3 media that had been cropped to fully fit a 16:9 screen on television.

 

Sound Vs Noise

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At first glance “Sound” and “Noise” seem to mean the same thing. However, especially in producing Media they have very different meanings.

Sound refers to the audio that is intentional (such as Speech, music, sound effects), while noise refers to audio that is unintentional (EG wind in outdoor areas). This difference is related to “Listening” Vs “Hearing”: Listening refers to actively paying attention to a sound, and concentrating on it. Hearing refers to the sound registoring  in your ears, but not paying close attention.

For example, whilst in class we were listening to the teacher, but we could also hear the music playing outside. The difference being we actively focused our attention on what was being said, and could probably recall what had been said, while we were aware of the music, I personally wouldn’t have been able to say what the lyrics were even a few seconds after.

Found Footage: Illustrated Auswitz

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Part of this weeks class using the notion of “found footage” in media, where you incorporate media materials from pre-existing source and re-purpose them for your own.

This technique was used in the short Film “Illistrated Auswitz” which we recently watched in Intro to Cinema.

The film (which can be viewed HERE) involves a survior of the infamous Nazi concentration camp recounting her experiences during the holocaust, the sound of her voice is accompanied by footage from “The Wizard of Oz”, with scenes setup to match what she is talking about, the childlike wonder of the film deeply contrasts the horrors of which she speaks and it creates a haunting and affecting film.

“Illustrated Auswitz”shows how found footage can be used to create meaningful films, that are the polar opposite in tone than the sourced materials.

The history and social context of the ZOOOOOOOOOM

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Zooming refers to moving an object in a shot towards to camera without the object or the camera moving, but rather lenses being manipulated.

Zooming is rarely used in a serious manner because it takes the audiance out of the film, because it is so obviously removed from immersion, since zooming is something human eyes cannot do, in order for us to look closer at something we need to move closer or bring it closer to us.

The concept of enlarging an image without any movement removes immersion, so it can only be used in specific circumstances. These could be if the shot is seen through the “eyes” of camera (such as a robot in the film) or used for comedic purposes.

One such exampe is in the comedy televison program Arrested Development in the season 2 episode “Meet the Veals” a serires of zooms are used for comidic effect to show the tension as G.O.B and George Senior are almost caught (George Senior is wanted for “minor treason”). For added comedy a zoom is also used on G.O.B’s puppet Franklin.

In Quentin Tarintino’s Django Unchained (2012) a camera zoom is used to introduce the character of Calvin Candie. The effect is deliberately jarring and “movie like” because it was Tarintinos intention to make Candie over-the-top, as well as paying homage to the 70s B-movies which inspired Tarintino (and made extensive use of Zoom effects, due to it being a new technology at the time).

Aspect Ratios

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Aspect ratio refers to the dimensions of a screen in a ratio of width:height.

Over the history of screened media many aspect ratios have been used. Most modern TVs are a 16:9 ratio, whilst older screens tended to be 4:3 which gave a much more “square” screen compared to the wide rectangular shapes used today.

The history of aspect ratios used in cinema is more complex, in the early days of flmmaking many directors chose their own aspect ratio, ranging from perfectly square to extremely wide. Although as films became more standersied a few aspect ratios became the norm, these differed from via region.

Aspect ratio becomes an important issue when displaying media on a screen of a different aspect ratio than the one it was originally intended for. The options are to either have “blank space” where the original image wouldnt have filled on a different screen, having the image cropped so that it fills the screen, orstreching the image.

All 3 have advantages and disadvantages. With the first the entire image is displayed, and it has the correct dimensions, but depending on the screen could have more “spare room” than actual media. The second fills the screen and leaves proportions of the image intact, but can cut off the top or sides of the screen, which could severely change the media. The third option fills the entire screen, and has the entire image, but stretchs it vertically or horinzonally, distorting the image.

Personally I prefer the first option, I will always prefer to experience media as the original artist intended and compromise with a smaller screen size than crop or distort the image.

Presenting my Media Self Portrait

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During Thursdays class we had to present our Media Self Portraits to the class and give feedback to ourselves and others.

I presented first, which was a bit daunting because I wasn’t sure how mine compared to the quality of other people’s videos. The feedback I received for mine was positive, and I am happy with how everything went.

Giving feedback to others is also tricky, because if you dont know someone personally it is hard to give criticism or suggest alternate ways to do things. It is also difficult to gauge whether choices in the Media Self Portrait were stylistic choices or unintended/poorly handled design choices aiming for something else.

Project Brief 2_ Media Self-Portrait v2.0

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This is my Media Self Portrait, my intention was to give broad glimpse at me, while using stylistic techniques that demonstrate my personality.

The opening “title” was achieved by drawing it by hand, and taking 62 photographs as my drawing progressed and inserted them into the video for a fraction of a second. I added the sound effect of rapidly typing because usually the title screen of a film is done in computerised text and the sound of typing was ironic and fitted nicely with the jerkiness of the paper moving around.

The next sequence, is not as good as I would have liked it to be. My intention was to have an overhead camera view (achieved by sticky taping my phone to the roof) and I wanted to narrate my self doing various things. However due to the requirement of no shot exceeding 20 seconds, I couldn’t do what I envisioned, as well as the slightly embarrassing fact that I didn’t like the thought of my neighbours hearing me do all the voice recording.

After that, there is a series of videos displaying things about my self, with a backdrop of some music I created using GarageBand. The first of which is me jumping into a pool, which is to do with my love of the outdoors and specifically swimming. The second is a close-up shot of injecting the needle of an insulin pump, I am type-1 Diabetic and although it sucks it is a large part of my life, with this shot my intention is to make the audience uncomfortable. The final clip is me playing Crash Bandicoot 2 on a handheld gaming console, this contrasts the previous clip because its something I enjoy. The music is the same track throughout, but I edited its pitch/speed to match the “tone” of each clip.

I ended my Self Portrait with “fin” which is a tradition of mine when making videos, because it gives a sense of artistic value and fanciness even when it is majorly un-suited. This ironic sense of quality appeals to me, as I like putting tounge-in-cheek humour in my work.

Kuleshov Effect and editing.

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In todays lectorial the importance and power of editing was discussed. The concept of editing being the process of giving meaning to things via the context of what comes before or after.

This is called the Kuleshov Effect, in which by placing two unrelated images or shots in sequence, meaning is derived by the audiance. The first example of this was shown by Lev Kuleshov (for whom the effect is named), where he showed audiances an image of a man looking at the camera followed an image of a bowl of soup. Then the same image of a man looking ahead followed instead by an image of a dead child. Then finally once again the image of the man this time followed by an image of a woman lying on a couch.

Audiences perceived different emotions from the man, even though it was identical images each time. Audiences felt that the man felt, hunger, sadness and lust all from the same image, where the only difference was what he was shown to be looking at. This shows the importance of editing, as something as simple as this can give powerful meaning to media.

Further more, the lectorer (who’s name I’ve forgotten) also different meaning can be achieved from simple sequences of photgrpaphs that can change based on the composition. The example given was to show a picture of the fictional Joffery Baratheon followed by a picture of Christopher Pyne. Immidetly the audiance reaction is that the two are being compared to each other and similarity is implied, even though if looked at from a purely litteral standpoint it is just 2 slides.

Another sequence showing the same image of Joffery, but this time followed by a different image of Christopher Pyne was not met with the same reaction, instead the implication is that Pyne is reacting to Joffery.

This is because of the placement of the people in the images, in the first sequence both Joffery and Pyne are in similar positons in the image, as well as having similar facial expressions. Whilst in the second there is contrast between Joffery looking towards the left and leaning forward to Pyne who is looking towards the right and leaning back into the screen. Once again meaning is derived from completely unrelated images of a fictional character and a politician.

This shows the power of editing in being able to add meaning and weight to media, and its upmost importance in creating narrative or a message to be conveyed.

De Bono’s Hat feedback system.

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When critiquing each others “Self Portraits” we used 4 of De Bono’s Hat feedback system. The 4 different types of feedback we used were.

  • Yellow Hat: Positive, optimistic feedback. Where you talk about what worked well.
  • Red Hat: Feelings or initial reactions. Where you give your gut reaction to the work.
  • Black Hat: Negative feedback. Where you talk about what didnt work well.
  • Green Hat: Alternative ideas or suggestive feedback. Where you give ideas that could be a different way of doing things.

This system allows multiple types of feedback and avoids undescriptive answers such as “its good” or “its kinda good”. Using the multiple Hat system you can gain a plethora of feedback both positive and negative, as well has peoples gut reations and alternative ideas. All of which are important, and much more valuable than whether its “good” or not.