Size matters... or maybe not
Mar. 26th, 2006 04:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynI've been surrounded by conversations about aspect ratios a lot lately, having just finished a Firefly vid that uses both series and movie clips to equal degree and because the subject was raised as a potential topic at Vividcon this year. In the past year or so, I've sweated over aspect ratios to an annoying degree, especially when working on movie vids. But the funny thing is, almost no one I know ever notices different aspect ratios in the vids, even when the differences are quite dramatic (say, for instance, a series like The X-Files, which has on DVD the first four seasons in full screen, the last seasons in widescreen TV format, and the theatrical movie in widescreen film format). Since this keeps cropping up, I'd like to poll vid viewers and makers to see what they think about it.
Most of my non-fannish friends who enjoy vids don't notice aspect ratios at all. Only some of my fan friends notice them, and most of those who do are vidders themselves. But even that's not consistent -- one friend who's the most filmically visual person I know never, ever notices aspect ratio changes in vids. I'd like to get as big a sampling as I can, and I don't think my vid-watching friendslist is that huge, so if you felt like pimping the poll in your LJ, I'd love you to death and will buy you a virtual drink at the fannish bar.
For purposes of the poll, I'm going to assume you have a basic familiarity with the concept, and that you at least occasionally watch vids. Aspect ratios here are meant as full screen=the usual size of most TV shows up until the mid- to late-'90s; widescreen TV=the "letterboxed" TV shows common today such as Angel the series after first season, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, and so on; and widescreen theatrical is the kind you see on movie DVDs, typically called a 16:9 ratio, and much more "letterboxed" than a TV series widescreen.
[Poll #698286]
Most of my non-fannish friends who enjoy vids don't notice aspect ratios at all. Only some of my fan friends notice them, and most of those who do are vidders themselves. But even that's not consistent -- one friend who's the most filmically visual person I know never, ever notices aspect ratio changes in vids. I'd like to get as big a sampling as I can, and I don't think my vid-watching friendslist is that huge, so if you felt like pimping the poll in your LJ, I'd love you to death and will buy you a virtual drink at the fannish bar.
For purposes of the poll, I'm going to assume you have a basic familiarity with the concept, and that you at least occasionally watch vids. Aspect ratios here are meant as full screen=the usual size of most TV shows up until the mid- to late-'90s; widescreen TV=the "letterboxed" TV shows common today such as Angel the series after first season, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, and so on; and widescreen theatrical is the kind you see on movie DVDs, typically called a 16:9 ratio, and much more "letterboxed" than a TV series widescreen.
[Poll #698286]
