Writing in 2022, Ross Lipman elaborates upon some of the ways in which digital technology has contributed to changing movie-watching habits, including the shift from the theater to the home as the main site of moving image consumption. Here, I want to build upon Lipman’s argument to zoom in on an issue that he touches upon in his discussion, but that I believe is worth exploring further: that of the re-mediation of historical film formats. In particular, I will argue that it is necessary to go beyond the analog/digital binary to account for the context of projection, a key issue especially when dealing with widescreen formats. To do so, I will offer an overview of widescreen aesthetics to discuss the positioning of the spectator in relation to the frame and show how some widescreen compositions lose meaning on a TV (or worse, laptop) screen. After presenting some historical notes on the popularization of widescreen formats in the 1950s, I will provide some examples of how widescreen composition is heavily dependent upon a spectator who sits in a movie theater rather than at home. Through the analysis of some key CinemaScope titles, I will argue that the implied spectator of many widescreen films is caught in a tension between immersion and distance that is completely dependent on their position in the theater and that cannot be replicated at home, regardless of how carefully one designs their movie watching experience.
Home (Wide)Screens: CinemaScope Aesthetics in the Streaming Age
Negri, Sabrina
2023-01-01
Abstract
Writing in 2022, Ross Lipman elaborates upon some of the ways in which digital technology has contributed to changing movie-watching habits, including the shift from the theater to the home as the main site of moving image consumption. Here, I want to build upon Lipman’s argument to zoom in on an issue that he touches upon in his discussion, but that I believe is worth exploring further: that of the re-mediation of historical film formats. In particular, I will argue that it is necessary to go beyond the analog/digital binary to account for the context of projection, a key issue especially when dealing with widescreen formats. To do so, I will offer an overview of widescreen aesthetics to discuss the positioning of the spectator in relation to the frame and show how some widescreen compositions lose meaning on a TV (or worse, laptop) screen. After presenting some historical notes on the popularization of widescreen formats in the 1950s, I will provide some examples of how widescreen composition is heavily dependent upon a spectator who sits in a movie theater rather than at home. Through the analysis of some key CinemaScope titles, I will argue that the implied spectator of many widescreen films is caught in a tension between immersion and distance that is completely dependent on their position in the theater and that cannot be replicated at home, regardless of how carefully one designs their movie watching experience.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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