Breakfast All Day Podcast 8/7/20
Come a little closer … we’ve got a secret (or two) we want to share with you on this week’s Breakfast All Day Podcast. Alonso, Matt and I review “The Secret: Dare to Dream” as well as “The Secret Garden.” But first! We talk about Seth Rogen and Seth Rogen in “An American Pickle,” as well as the existential drama “She Dies Tomorrow,” which feels extremely resonant today. We’ve got a ton of news, including the arrival of “Mulan” on Disney+ next month and plans for a shortened Sundance Film Festival next year. And over at our Patreon, we review the Olivia de Havilland film our subscribers chose for us — “The Adventures of Robin Hood” — in this month’s Off the Menu segment. We’re taking next week off for a variety of reasons, but we look forward to seeing you again on Aug. 21. Until then, be well.
A very brief history of aspect ratio:
In the very early days of photography in the first half of the 1850s everything was hand made and hard to do. This resulted in a lot of practical experimentation. The easiest aspect ratio to use is square, 1:1. It was tried. On the other end of the spectrum were the extreme aspect ratios employed to do panoramas.
When photography started to get popular it was noted that standards would drive costs down. A compromise of 4:3, slightly wider than it is tall, was adopted. The parts of the image that the eye primarily focuses on is in roughly this aspect ratio. So this was judged to be the “best bang for the buck” point.
Movies, when they came along, adopted 4:3 for the same reasons. And early TV adopted it because it worked and it allowed most movies to be broadcast without alteration. It also allowed standard movie equipment to be used to make TV shows.
But, as you note, differentiation became important to the movie business as TV’s popularity rose. So they went with various “wide screen” aspect ratios for essentially marketing rather than technical reasons. Lots of different rations were tried. When TV went digital the opportunity to go with a different aspect ratio, one that was not 4:3, presented itself.
16:9 was adapted as a compromise. A more extreme aspect ratio, one that would have permitted the unmodified broadcasting of movies made in the most popular aspect ratios, was technologically feasible but it would have jacked up the price of HD by what was decided at the time to be an unacceptably large amount. 16:9 kept costs manageable and was felt to be “good enough”.
So, stripped down to the essentials, this is how we got to where we now are.
Re: On the Subject of Aspect Ratio and Technological Revolution in Media
Christy,
I enjoyed the group’s conversation about the alteration to cinema brought about by the use of new video based communications technology. Very interesting. What it made think about though. Is how much technological changes and revolutions. Have been integral to the ‘history of art’. Throughout the centuries pretty much. My own perspective on that history came about mostly. By having to ‘memorize’ floor plans and geometrical organization of medieval cathedral structures and things. That were constructed in various centuries. In the cities around Europe, where it was ‘all happening’ at specific times in history. Our teacher in university had this idea. That our architecture training was meant to operate somewhat like poetry studies. Where one really needed to memorize at least a few dozen of the major floor plans of actual built structures. That were littered around Europe and built at various times in history. So that one had a sort of reservoir of basic designs. That were there in one’s random access memory inside of one’s brain. That could be summoned to mind, in any given situation (for example, the situation where someone asks you to imagine a new bathroom design, or a kitchen I presume). And instantly, your mind would travel back to medieval Florence, when the Medici were trying to push the envelope of the built environment.
One could probably debate now as to the merits or otherwise of this teaching principle. Which our teacher at university had created. However, a lot of undergraduates passed through his classes. And a lot of those indeed, did have some hand or part to play. In the re-construction and re-imagine-ing of cities like Dublin in Ireland. Maybe, our teacher wasn’t completely nuts. And I’d have to admit. That sometimes when I listen to a conversation in real life. Where somebody quotes a part of a sentence. Or a line from a poem. That one had lodged in the back of one’s brain somewhere. That one had to learn to recite in school. It comes back in a flash, and it can make one remember. That is something that I do find puzzling. I think there was a line of Shakespeare that I heard not long ago. And that happened. It does beg the question. In the context of modern cinema. What are the lines of verse or dialogue. That came out of the mouths of characters in the big screen in the 20th century. That might still be falling out of the mouths of people who are having conversations. A few centuries from now? Will someone in the year 2400, utter to somebody else? Here’s looking at you kid.
Re: Dangerous Diseases and Urban History
We think that we live in times that are strange right now. However, what I didn’t realize. What I did not understand so much. Back in the times when our teacher had asked us to memorize these floor plan designs for famous structures built in European history of architecture. What I wasn’t aware of back then. Was the kind of turmoil and chaos that used to happen in the places, in which that famous urban architecture was conceived. Funded by various patrons of the arts, who had all kinds of interesting stories about themselves. It was in the 1990’s and we just didn’t have things like ‘long form’ historical drama television content back then. Not the way that we do nowadays. Where one can explore the longer time frame, in which a story about a famous family or dynasty can unfold. You’ve probably come across the names of these famous families and dynasties. In European history. That show up now in long form television content. And what one tends to find in those stories. Is how the creation of these new building projects. The kinds of projects that I had to ‘learn off by heart’ in my school days. How those new building projects, also fitted into those stories about those dynasties. Those times of great unrest and technological revolution.
One of the Irish economists named David McWilliams speaks very often about the economic history of medieval Florence. He is one of those people who will hang out in Dublin with other folks. Who come from backgrounds such as movie and television making. And one could see the way in which a conversation about economics, politics, arts and history. That probably happened over decades amongst these intellectuals. Eventually finds it’s way into productions that are made to be viewed and enjoyed by audiences. Of the smaller screen form.
The British television industry made a few seasons (one in which Dustin Hoffman played a Florentine merchant of the middle ages), of a series about the Medici families. In the middle of that story was the dome of the cathedral in Florence. Which we had all learned off by heart. A long time ago. It is cited by all kinds of people, in texts about engineering and construction. The politics of the era is what economist McWilliams often talks about in Ireland. Such as the arrival of black plaque pandemic in Europe. Imported through cities such as Venice. And from there it moved to Florence and so on. It affected the balance of power between Rome and the northern States. Naples got dragged into that huge spat. Because it happened to have a large army. That it used to defend itself against Turkish Ottoman’s on one side. And French invaders on the other. Cities of Milan, Venice and Florence were always falling in and out of alliance. They protected smaller city satellite that joined their jurisdiction, and then fell out again. Mercenary armies were constantly marching around. Making trouble. Bankers were paying for these armies, so that they could make trouble and get paid.
The Pope had it’s own Papal State and another army. That was sometimes joined to one city. And sometimes to another. And the Pope used the city of Florence for all of his banking services. While at the same time, invading the city in which the bank was located. From time to time. There were always chests of gold bullion getting dragged up and down the Italian penninsula by armed escort. And daughters were constantly being paired to sons of other nobility. Neither of whom wanted anything to do with the other. And hearts seem to have been broken. Pretty much right, left and center.
Re: The Shared Artistic Experience
In the middle of all of that. There were the renowned names in the arts, architecture and performance. Who were all trying to work. In the middle of pandemics, and social revolution. And just general chaos. Always struggling to make projects happen, with very unstable financial footing. And every kind of conspiratorial politics that you can imagine. Right there in the middle of religion, cults, civil unrest and social break down. You’d find someone there like Botticelli. Trying to paint and imagine some female muse that he had once met. From his memory, to paint a fresco. And the female muse, who might have died sick months earlier from the plague too. It was quite frankly, all a wrecked. A reall wrecked state of affairs.
What I did not understand. From my position in the 20th century, in the decade of the 1990’s. When I had learn off by heart. So much Shakespeare lines. And some many lines of drawings of structures, that were conceived of by Michelangelo. Or somebody. What I did not understand then. Was the conditions in which the artists had existed. When they had tried to carry out their work. It seemed to me. That listening to some actual economic historians talk about it. Having listened to my own teachers on urbanism. And learned from some of the long form ‘television’ dramas that I have seen. What seems to happen. Is that ‘art’ often occurs. Right in the middle of all of this. In the middle of places, where corpses are buried in mass graves. In times where one side of the country is at war with another. And where massive fortunes and wealth are being fought over in the middle of all of that. Where brothers and sisters are literally being turned against one another. In some tragic circumstance. And corruption is found at the most highest places in the lot of it.
I quite frankly, did not understand any of that. When I studied about the history of art.
Re: The ‘Star Wars’ of it all
One thing does ring true to me. When I think back upon all of it. One thing does ring true. I remembered that we used to study these tiny ‘bee hive’ huts that monks living in the west of Ireland used to live in. These were places that ‘saint-lihood’ and scholarship had retreated to. During the dark days that followed after, the fall of the Roman empire. This is what the directors of the movies ‘Star Wars’ were aiming for most recently. When they went to Ireland. In order to film Luke Skywalker there. As he was being pursued around in his old age. By a young apprentice who wanted to understand more about ‘the force’. From the old Jedi teacher.
Even that, is somewhat based on history. Because it was in these remote places on the western edge of Europe. Where scholastic knowledge and understanding. Had been sheltered and protected. For a number of centuries (mostly while a lot of Scandinavians were roaming around the place, and trying to make trouble). It was for this reason, that we notice in later centuries. That ‘power’ and influence in western Europe. Centers back into cities and places like Rome in modern day Italy. When the religious organizations try to re-construct something that the empire had created. In much earlier centuries. The ability to ‘read and write’ and stuff as basic as that. The use of currency and trade over longer distances. Had ceased to happen. For a lot of time. After the Roman empire had crumbled.
And that brings me back to cinema and to new technology. It is impossible to imagine now in the modern era. The extent to which things like ‘books’, were a truly wild technological innovation. Of the period of the later medieval period. You think again of that movie that they created. As part of the ‘Star Wars’ series. What sprung out of that fragment of learning and of knowledge. That was preserved in those remote corners of the European continent. Was a re-constructed network of universities. That existed all across Europe. And were mainly connected to the orders and to religion there. What happened in many of these university places? Before the ‘printing press’ was invented? Well apparently. Because ‘books’ were so expensive, and considered to be so rare. There were monks and holy men who lived in these universities. Who’s job it was simply to remember entire books. Off by heart.
Re: The Shared Experience, Or the ‘Spoken Book’
What used to happen inside universities. In lecture halls and rooms. Was that a lecturer would recite a book that they had memorized. And the attendees at the lecture hall in the university. Would endeavor to commit as much of this to their own memories. As they could. Obviously, some people were identified out of that process. Who had brains that operated like large ‘filing’ systems. Who could contain and retrieve a vast amount of learning and knowledge. And those generations who had sat and listened to older lectures (that were ‘spoken books’). They went out and did the same. For generations that came after them. The human brain was being utilized as a kind of long term storage and information retrieval device.
When the technology of the printing press came along. You can see now, how much of an impact that it had suddenly made. The ‘word’ or the communication. Could travel more widely and faster. Than a single human being, who either carried an expensive and rare text. Or carried a ‘spoken book’ they had commited to memory. Could do. That is what the technology of the printing press did at that time. And we’d find it impossible today. To imagine what an upheaval of the existing order. That such a technological revolution had caused. We’d find it impossible to imagine now. How that must have been. It wasn’t only books on poetry and plays. It was also books about engineering and science. All of that escaped out of the bottle, in one go. It was out there. It was suddenly, un-controllable. And apart from the escape of nasty items. Such as the ‘black plague’ must have been. To western Europeans at that time. The thing that probably up-ended the existing order. A lot more. Must have been the printed text.
It is in that context. That one would have to put the arrival of the ‘moving’ picture form. That Thomas Edison had come up with. And early stage actors such as Charlie Chaplain. Had figured out how to mobilize. Chaplain had been a relatively successful stage comedic actor in London. Under the old system (what we’d probably call nowadays, acrobatic comedy). And his success and identity would have been fairly widespread. By the standards of that era. He would have been known as an actor, who was in a lot of humerous stage acts. However, it was not enough. That it enabled Charlie Chaplain. To even manage to reserve a table at a fancy restaurant in London. To take one of his dates out to, for a meal. And it was part of that discrimination. Against the occupation of the actor. The lack of status in society of the thespian in Victorian London. Which must have motivated the early ‘silent movie’ star. To go and embrace the new ‘moving picture’ technology in the United States.
Only to find himself, that Chaplain was unable to make that transition. Between silent movies, and audio based ones. Strangely, Chaplain was able to make one huge technological leap. And not another. Ironically too. Chaplain ended up spending much of his holiday time. In the west coast of Ireland. And not a long distance at all. From where the ‘Star Wars’ films were made of late. In wonder though, in the context of all of this technological change and history. To what extent or not. Is the modern transition to electronic ‘mobile’ capture technology. Important? Are we simply looking at a faster dark room. And lowering in the costs of image processing? What business innovators such as Howard Hughes were doing essentially. Except in a digital era?