CROOKLYN: Squished Picture?
Brian Dear
2/3 of the way into CROOKLYN, we go south where the girl is left at
some relatives house. All of the scenes at this location have a
very annoying "compression" that one usually sees on TV when they
try to squeeze the title credits of a widescreen movie into the
TV's aspect ratio. At first I thought it was a problem with the projection
in the theatre. Many people in the audience were grumbling about
the distorted images on the screen (people looked super tall and super
thin). But then during a quick cut back and forth to Brooklyn,
it became clear that only the footage "down south" was had the annoying
compression. As soon as the film cut back to Brooklyn, everything was
fine.
So -- is this Spike Lee trying to be artistic, or what? I was very
confused. It was a good film, and had great music. But the picture
problem was very mystifying.
Anyone else experience this?
-bd
Taoist Sage
: 2/3 of the way into CROOKLYN, we go south where the girl is left at
: some relatives house. All of the scenes at this location have a
: very annoying "compression" that one usually sees on TV when they
: try to squeeze the title credits of a widescreen movie into the
: TV's aspect ratio. At first I thought it was a problem with the projection
: in the theatre. Many people in the audience were grumbling about
: the distorted images on the screen (people looked super tall and super
: thin). But then during a quick cut back and forth to Brooklyn,
Spike Lee deliberately filmed these scenes to sort of show how life in
the south look distorted to Troy (the young girl). It did seem to last a
long time but overall I think it was a clever technique.
Sage
Adam Neil Villani
Brian Dear <coc...@crash.cts.com> wrote:
>
<screen squishing>
>So -- is this Spike Lee trying to be artistic, or what? I was very
>confused. It was a good film, and had great music. But the picture
>problem was very mystifying.
>
>Anyone else experience this?
I didn't see the movie, but I read a review where they talked about this.
Apparently Lee did this on purpose to show her feeling boxed in in the South.
When I saw "the Crow" Friday night, at the Box Office, they had a sign up in
the window notifying people that there was a scene shot with an anamorphic
lens (though they didn't use that word), and that it was the artistic intent
of the director. From the sound of it, Lee seems to have confused people more
than expressing conveying the emotion he intended.
---------------------
Adam Villani
ad...@cco.caltech.edu
I love Genghis Khan.
--
Disclaimer: Everything I say conforms exactly to Caltech's official
position on the subject, whatever it may be.
M. Hedlund
coc...@crash.cts.com (Brian Dear) wrote:
> 2/3 of the way into CROOKLYN, we go south where the girl is left at
> some relatives house. All of the scenes at this location have a
> very annoying "compression" that one usually sees on TV when they
> try to squeeze the title credits of a widescreen movie into the
> TV's aspect ratio.
[...]
> So -- is this Spike Lee trying to be artistic, or what?
When I saw it the theater had put up signs at the ticket booth and the door
informing viewers that the effect was intentional and the projectionist was
not asleep (do not adjust your television...). I believe the sign said the
scenes were shot with an anamorphic lens; the specificity led me to believe
the sign might have been provided by the studio, not the theater. Perhaps
your theater owner simply was not duly diligent in posting what the studio
provided.
Knowing that it wasn't a projectionist error, I thought the effect worked.
I won't say I liked it, but he got the idea across.
Lord Arthur Goring
>some relatives house. All of the scenes at this location have a
>very annoying "compression" that one usually sees on TV when they
>
>confused. It was a good film, and had great music. But the picture
>problem was very mystifying.
>
>Anyone else experience this?
>
It was Lee's intention to "compress" the film for a certain period of time.
Yes, it bothered me a bit at first, but it was quite effective...
--
/--------------------------------------------------------------------------\
| Lord Arthur Goring | "Mary had a little lamb ... |
| e0ew...@credit.erin.utoronto.ca | ... with mint jelly! - Dot Warner |
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------/
Robert W Handy
: 2/3 of the way into CROOKLYN, we go south where the girl is left at
: some relatives house. All of the scenes at this location have a
: very annoying "compression" that one usually sees on TV when they
: try to squeeze the title credits of a widescreen movie into the
: TV's aspect ratio. At first I thought it was a problem with the projection
: Anyone else experience this?
: -bd
I work at a Leow's Theatre here in D.C., and from what I was told by my
supervisor, that was intentional of Spike Lee. Apparently, the movie was
filmed in that "mode" for only a short time. I'm not sure what his
thinking was, but I *do* know that it was intentional.
The Juliard
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/ C \ "Have you experienced the power of CLUB WILHAN? "
\_l_/ ____Try it sometime____
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert W. Handy Air Force Pentagon rha...@pafosu1.hq.af.mil
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ben Hoffman
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ANV>.@SUBJECT:Re: CROOKLYN: Squished Picture? N
ANV>.@FROM :ad...@cco.caltech.edu N
ANV>.@MSGID :<2r9f9v$d...@gap.cco.caltech.edu> N
ANV>From: ad...@cco.caltech.edu (Adam Neil Villani)
ANV>Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies
ANV>Subject: Re: CROOKLYN: Squished Picture?
ANV>Date: 17 May 1994 03:56:47 GMT
ANV>Message-ID: <2r9f9v$d...@gap.cco.caltech.edu>
ANV>In article <Cpwn7...@crash.cts.com>,
ANV>Brian Dear <coc...@crash.cts.com> wrote:
ANV>>
ANV><screen squishing>
ANV>>So -- is this Spike Lee trying to be artistic, or what? I was very
ANV>>confused. It was a good film, and had great music. But the picture
ANV>>problem was very mystifying.
ANV>>
ANV>>Anyone else experience this?
ANV>I didn't see the movie, but I read a review where they talked about this.
ANV>Apparently Lee did this on purpose to show her feeling boxed in in the South
ANV>When I saw "the Crow" Friday night, at the Box Office, they had a sign up in
ANV>the window notifying people that there was a scene shot with an anamorphic
ANV>lens (though they didn't use that word), and that it was the artistic intent
ANV>of the director. From the sound of it, Lee seems to have confused people mor
ANV>than expressing conveying the emotion he intended.
I found it annoying. It reminded me of Woody Allen's HUSBANDS
AND WIVES where he used a jerky movement between scenes. Someone, at
the screening where I attended, actually got up from his seat to
walk back to the projectionist to tell him to pay attention to his
job!
While watching Crooklyn with my wife, she said it was probably
a rough cut which would be corrected when shown in a real theater.
I showed her the press kit that mentioned the anamorphic lens.
From ben.h...@bcsbbs.com
Neal Priestly
>some relatives house. All of the scenes at this location have a
>very annoying "compression" that one usually sees on TV when they
>try to squeeze the title credits of a widescreen movie into the
>TV's aspect ratio.
That is exactly what happened. It was shot with cinemascope lenses and
shown with standard lenses.
>At first I thought it was a problem with the projection
>in the theatre. Many people in the audience were grumbling about
>the distorted images on the screen (people looked super tall and super
>thin). But then during a quick cut back and forth to Brooklyn,
>it became clear that only the footage "down south" was had the annoying
>compression. As soon as the film cut back to Brooklyn, everything was
>fine.
>
>So -- is this Spike Lee trying to be artistic, or what? I was very
>confused. It was a good film, and had great music. But the picture
>problem was very mystifying.
Yes, Spike was trying to make a point. Unfortunately the effect was too
jarring and broke the audience out of the flow of the film. The studio
didn't think to tell anyone about this scene, but our film department
mentioned it to us... We posted a notice at the entrance to the theatre
after the first couple showings (after listening to complaints from people
sure that we were imbeciles who could not properly show a movie) that
Spike did this on purpose, it is an effect not an error. People still found
it jarring. (Do not adjust your set....)
>
>Anyone else experience this?
Unfortunately, everyone did.
>
>-bd
-Neal