“Movies started out as an extension of a magic trick, so making a spectacle is part of the game”*…
Widescreen feels cinematic. When black bars come down and a show goes into widescreen, it feels more like a movie. More intense. More epic. The shape of a screen changes how we feel about it, and wide just feels different.
But that feeling is an invention. We had to be taught it. And really, we had to be sold it.
Quartz’s Adam Freelander does a deep dive into movie history from Thomas Edison to Cinerama and Pan-and-Scan to “TV Safe” Shooting (or Open Matte, Shooting Flat, etc) and back to the very device that you are watching this video on — the entire aspect ratio explained…
[image above: source]
* Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
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As we let them entertain us, we might recall that today is the first day of Saturnalia, a Roman holiday first celebrated on this date in 497 BC on the occasion of the dedication of the Temple of Saturn in the Roman Forum. The poet Catullus called it “the best of days” – Saturnalibus, optimo dierum!
Originally only a day long, it grew to three days, and persevered as a practice into the 4th century AD. It opened with a sacrifice (usually a pig), followed by a public banquet, then lots of private merriment and the exchange of presents… indeed, it is believed by many to have been the model for Christmas festivities.
The remains of the Temple of Saturn in the Roman Forum
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