Why was widescreen ever created in the first place?

G

Gregg

Well-known member
The main subjects of most movies and TV are humans. Humans are vertical most of the time and this is why photographers shoot most pics vertical so they can get the entire person in the shot without having tons of wasted space on the sides of the shot.

So why was widescreen for film ever created?
 
Our vision is more wide than tall, that probably had a lot to di with it, or to let more people into the movie theater, if it was vertical, you can't have that many seats. There was probably one camera format that started it all...
 
Right, even standing a couple feet back from somebody you don't see the whole person, you only see them from waiste up or so, and you see things off to the sides of the person. We can see almost 180 degrees, probably more like 165 to 175, while our vertical vision would be less. You know, we can't see up and down at the sametime, but we get that 165 - 175 degrees horiztionally.
 
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In the movie theatres it was a way to compete with TV. When the studio owners were worried about loosing moola, they tried some things to woo the viewership. TO say they were different, and more value. That is why we have the much better aspect ratio!
 
David Jimerson said:
If you look at movies before TV caught on, you'll see that they're mostly 4:3.
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Prairieboy said:
In the movie theatres it was a way to compete with TV. When the studio owners were worried about loosing moola, they tried some things to woo the viewership. TO say they were different, and more value. That is why we have the much better aspect ratio!
Click to expand...

I've been reading "Shot By Shot" by Steven Katz and I just got to that section. We have some smart people here
 
smart no, just happened to pay attention that day way back in film school. Must of left the pup early the night before for some reason. Cinema studies the morning after pub night was very, very tough.
 
Check out the Widescreen Museum Introduction to the history of wide screen cinema, which states,
"... the real reason for the birth of a multitude of widescreen and large format systems was the 1952 opening of a movie made in a process that had its roots in a World War II aerial gunnery trainer. This Is Cinerama shook the industry to the core. The public and reviewers loved it. Its giant screen filled with three oversized 35mm images and an incredible new sound system called Stereophonic were a marvel to behold, and the studios immediately rushed to find something that could do what Cinerama did."​
Source: http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/widescreen/intro.htm
 
Prairieboy said:
smart no, just happened to pay attention that day way back in film school. Must of left the pup early the night before for some reason. Cinema studies the morning after pub night was very, very tough.
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Hehe.. my first year in school included the program's monster, 6 credit class, History
of Narrative Film. The class was fantastic but man was it tough.
 
Greggl said:
Hehe.. my first year in school included the program's monster, 6 credit class, History
of Narrative Film. The class was fantastic but man was it tough.
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I had one of those as well. And you are right...monster....many papers...and a lot of reading...

But a great GREAT lecturer....made every topic relevant and interesting.
 
well you see in panorama with your eyes.

close one and you got standard tv, both of them open widescreen.
 
SilverWolf said:
I've been reading "Shot By Shot" by Steven Katz and I just got to that section. We have some smart people here
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Heh heh... if we know a piece of info that you know... that makes us smart? :)
 
wide screen is cool because it is more like our vision, as also mentioned, and ...

it's closer to the golden mean which lead to the golden rectangle / aspect ratio wherein "Artists as diverse as Leonardo da Vinci, Piet Mondrian and Salvador Dali .... [believed] ... they could create a feeling of order and balance."
http://www.beezlebugbit.com/school/mean/goldenmean.htm
http://fotogenetic.dearingfilm.com/golden_rectangle.html

supposedly it lends itself to harmony ... to me ... the wider the aspect ratio the more dynamic it is ... composing something to live in the left or right third of a rectangle has more impact and is more interesting than framing something in center or even the left or right half of a square ... I think because the equal division implies symmetry, even though both sides are different, because its easy to see them as mirrored. In thirds the opposite mirror is less implied because of the greater distance to the other side. Also I think the eye is less likely to move back and forth, again because it has further to travel in a rectangle from left to right or vice versa.
 
no has mentioned the "golden ratio"

16x9 is a "pleasing" shape that is seen throughout history in art and architecture, I think there's even a book just about that.

EDIT: damn, jack did say it. nm
 
Yeah, what Jack said about the rectangle is true... I've heard that before...

Yeah, 16:9 is ALMOST the exact "perfect" pleasing shape for one to look at.
 
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