Continuing on from my previous “noticing” on aspect ratios and how they are dealt with when they are transformed (Blog posts found HERE and HERE) I continued noticing and reporting my findings.

This time it is to do with video games, specifically playing games designed for 4:3 on a very different screen.

First the background infomation. Crash Bandicoot was released in 1996 for the Playsation. However it is playable on Playstation 2 and 3’s via internal emulation of the old hardware. In addition to being able to put the disc in a newer console, you can also purchase a digital version from the Playstation Store to play on a Ps3 or a portable PSP/PsVita.

The topic at hand is playing a ps1 game (in this case Crash Bandicoot) on a PsVita: The PsVita has rectangular screen that is wider than even a 16:9 TV, so putting a 4:3 image onto will cause trouble.

You are given several options, each with their own upsides and downsides.

This is the “Original” setting, which is a pixel for pixel copy of the original image, it is perfectly proportioned and is not cropped at all. However as you can see, it doesnt even reach the edges of the screen either horizontally OR vertically and the image is tiny, especially when its already on a handheld device.

This is the “normal” setting, which stretches the “Original setting” until it hits the edge of the screen. due to it being 4:3 on a very wide display, it obviously hits the top first. This version is still un-cropped and in proportion, but it is bigger than the other option. The only downside is that the image has been expanded, but is no clearer, but this is negligible on such a small scale, especially for a 1997 game which was always jaggy and pixely.

This is the “Fullscreeen option” which enlarges the image until it hits the left/right edges of the screen. While it does make it the biggest option, an incredible amount of screen space has been cropped off to make it fit the PsVita’s rectangular screen. Even on the title screen menu options have disapered and if you were to actually play the game, some sections would be impossible because Crash Bandicoot himself would be off-screen.

The final option is “Stretch”, while the others have all kept the same proportions for the screen and copmonsating with either cropping or blackspace, this option stretchs the image horizontally to both keep everything in frame AND fill the screen. No detail is lost, but everything is enlongagted sideways. This is easier to see in gameplay, where “square” boxes become obvious rectangles.

As a consumer of media who is mindful of aspect ratios and altering the original artwork I am extremly glad Sony allows these options. For this particular incident I will always choose “Normal” since the proportions are correct and nothing is cropped, although sometimes I get pandantic and revert to “Original” for the 1:1 pixel recreation of the 90s.

In Thursday 28th of May’s tutorial part of the class was showing prototype Brief 4’s to Rachel and the class.

The feedback we received for our artefact was already discussed in another blog post, but I also found it very interesting to see other groups.

All the groups took vastly different approach to making a media artefact, some were Websites or blogs (similar to our original concept), or videos (our final concept) or audio only.

One that stood out to me was the group that made a video on the classification board. It was done in a documentary style and was very informative and well put together.

At first glance “Sound” and “Noise” seem to mean the same thing. However, especially in producing Media they have very different meanings.

Sound refers to the audio that is intentional (such as Speech, music, sound effects), while noise refers to audio that is unintentional (EG wind in outdoor areas). This difference is related to “Listening” Vs “Hearing”: Listening refers to actively paying attention to a sound, and concentrating on it. Hearing refers to the sound registoring  in your ears, but not paying close attention.

For example, whilst in class we were listening to the teacher, but we could also hear the music playing outside. The difference being we actively focused our attention on what was being said, and could probably recall what had been said, while we were aware of the music, I personally wouldn’t have been able to say what the lyrics were even a few seconds after.

There are many different types of microphone, with the main varients being Dynamic and Condensing. Condensing

Zooming refers to moving an object in a shot towards to camera without the object or the camera moving, but rather lenses being manipulated.

Zooming is rarely used in a serious manner because it takes the audiance out of the film, because it is so obviously removed from immersion, since zooming is something human eyes cannot do, in order for us to look closer at something we need to move closer or bring it closer to us.

The concept of enlarging an image without any movement removes immersion, so it can only be used in specific circumstances. These could be if the shot is seen through the “eyes” of camera (such as a robot in the film) or used for comedic purposes.

One such exampe is in the comedy televison program Arrested Development in the season 2 episode “Meet the Veals” a serires of zooms are used for comidic effect to show the tension as G.O.B and George Senior are almost caught (George Senior is wanted for “minor treason”). For added comedy a zoom is also used on G.O.B’s puppet Franklin.

In Quentin Tarintino’s Django Unchained (2012) a camera zoom is used to introduce the character of Calvin Candie. The effect is deliberately jarring and “movie like” because it was Tarintinos intention to make Candie over-the-top, as well as paying homage to the 70s B-movies which inspired Tarintino (and made extensive use of Zoom effects, due to it being a new technology at the time).

Aspect ratio refers to the dimensions of a screen in a ratio of width:height.

Over the history of screened media many aspect ratios have been used. Most modern TVs are a 16:9 ratio, whilst older screens tended to be 4:3 which gave a much more “square” screen compared to the wide rectangular shapes used today.

The history of aspect ratios used in cinema is more complex, in the early days of flmmaking many directors chose their own aspect ratio, ranging from perfectly square to extremely wide. Although as films became more standersied a few aspect ratios became the norm, these differed from via region.

Aspect ratio becomes an important issue when displaying media on a screen of a different aspect ratio than the one it was originally intended for. The options are to either have “blank space” where the original image wouldnt have filled on a different screen, having the image cropped so that it fills the screen, orstreching the image.

All 3 have advantages and disadvantages. With the first the entire image is displayed, and it has the correct dimensions, but depending on the screen could have more “spare room” than actual media. The second fills the screen and leaves proportions of the image intact, but can cut off the top or sides of the screen, which could severely change the media. The third option fills the entire screen, and has the entire image, but stretchs it vertically or horinzonally, distorting the image.

Personally I prefer the first option, I will always prefer to experience media as the original artist intended and compromise with a smaller screen size than crop or distort the image.