 Proper Cropping
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Jul. 1st, 2009 @ 08:41 pm 
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Twitter Sonnet #35
Only the farmer you need is missing.
He always buys bait in the pier cafe.
Proper world wars often break for fishing.
Parrot networks are loud, lofty and fey.
Harpies never do anything alone.
They'll drink boxes of tea in one sitting.
The night is as boring as a bald bone.
While an idle, hungry fire's spitting.
A cow can keep a building very warm.
But it's much smarter to keep it frozen.
Some tasty fish swim in a handy swarm.
Stranger meat's delivered by the dozen.
The world is almost as flat as flat bread.
And wet as Weary Willy's nose was red.
I forgot to mention yesterday how happy I was that Al Franken finally got the Minnesota senate seat. But, jeez, you wouldn't know it from the news channels to-day--all I see when I switch between CNN and MSNBC is Michael Jackson coverage. Yeah, it's a sad story and everything, but enough already.
I'm starting to run out of steam, but I actually got quite a lot done to-day so far--I've already drawn and inked a page, gone to the bank, and unloaded the dishwasher. I have a bottle of sake I want to finish off, maybe I can to-night.
I've been watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer for a couple months now and last week I reached the end of the third season, so now I'm switching between Angel and Buffy. I'm kind of considering abandoning Buffy though--next to even just the first couple episodes, Buffy is clearly nowhere near as good as Angel. Though, to be fair, Buffy at college was a quickly abandoned storyline for a reason and the mayor turning into a lousy cgi monster had to be one of the worst payoffs in television history, so this isn't exactly Buffy at its best.
I am surprised to find third season Buffy in widescreen--I guess I really haven't watched it since it first aired, when the network probably cropped the image. The odd thing, though, is that it often doesn't seem to have been composed for wide screen. Whedon seems to forget what was actually in one shot when he switches to the next--like here--
Oddly halved, nervous Buffy face doesn't quite match up when we cut to--
Buffy face in false contemplation.
I guess it doesn't seem strange after all the cameos by the boom mic in the third season, but Whedon seems to mess up at least one shot in every premiere--a film crew member's sneakers accidentally make it into a shot on the series premiere of Angel, and who can forget this accidental showcase of Alan Tudyk's mime skills from the Firefly premiere;
But I guess I can't imagine the stress of running three television series at once. None of these problems seem as bad as Willow's haircut, which I think actually mainly speaks well for the show. Gods, I miss second season Willow. She calls a guy a "cutie patootie" in a third season episode. Ugh. Willow brand cute must have been a difficult balancing act, but she tumbled right off the tightrope on that one.Current Mood:  tired Current Music: "Close to Me" - The Cure |
The odd thing, though, is that it often doesn't seem to have been composed for wide screen.
I remember a long-ago interview in which Mr. Whedon argued that the DVDs should be in...non-widescreen, which I forget if that has an actual name or not, on the grounds that the DVDs should be True to the show As Aired, or something equally silly and verbose. And a long-ago comment by some other long-ago reader snarking that yes, and incidentally keeping the images TV-sized As Aired cleverly disguises all the mistakes the production team undoubtedly piled around the margins and left in, knowing the image would be cropped for TV. So in summary: heh.
and who can forget this accidental showcase of Alan Tudyk's mime skills from the Firefly premiere
Heh.
Though, to be fair, Buffy at college was a quickly abandoned storyline for a reason
Aw. I rather liked the college setting, and was disappointed when S5 dropped it like a hot rock. Which isn't to say that the overarcing plots that year weren't really awful, because, character stuff exempted (and the Buffy one-night-stand plot that went on and on and one exempted from that), they were.
and the mayor turning into a lousy cgi monster had to be one of the worst payoffs in television history
What?! BEST FINALE EVER. BEST SEASON EVER. BEST EVER. YES THE CGI WAS SUCKED BUT IT DIDN'T MATTER.
Buffy is clearly nowhere near as good as Angel
I was just disgusted with you there until I remembered that the first couple of seasons of 'Angel' were actually quite good - or, as good as the seasons of 'Buffy' they ran against, at least. 'Angel' and 'Buffy' deteriorated in tandem, albeit 'Angel' with a bit of pep to it.
I remember a long-ago interview in which Mr. Whedon argued that the DVDs should be in...non-widescreen, which I forget if that has an actual name or not,
4:3. And actually a friend of mine on Twitter told me last night that only the BBC showed Buffy in widescreen--apparently it really was meant to be shown in 4:3, which explains the oddly central framing of Willow in the first screenshot, of Buffy in the second, and consistently throughout the widescreen episodes I've been seeing. The copies I've been watching have Danish subtitles I have to turn off--apparently Denmark got the BBC version.
And a long-ago comment by some other long-ago reader snarking that yes, and incidentally keeping the images TV-sized As Aired cleverly disguises all the mistakes the production team undoubtedly piled around the margins and left in, knowing the image would be cropped for TV.
True. Though it wouldn't have hid the boom mics in season three or the sneakers in the Angel premiere.
What?! BEST FINALE EVER. BEST SEASON EVER. BEST EVER. YES THE CGI WAS SUCKED BUT IT DIDN'T MATTER.
I think my problem was in that I was really enjoying the building mayor/Faith relationship and the finale kind of chucked it for an action sequence. Losing Harry Groener as the mayor was also a minus for me.
I was just disgusted with you there until I remembered that the first couple of seasons of 'Angel' were actually quite good
Heh. You may maintain disgust--the last season of Angel was actually my favourite season of both series put together.
You may maintain disgust--the last season of Angel was actually my favourite season of both series put together.
We are not even the same species!
Though I admire the writing staff just for even trying such a radical mutation on their formula. And obviously I have the requisite fannish love for such things as Cordelia's exit, and Illyria, and The One With The Office Party.
ILLYRIA RULED. //would use defunct Illyria icon (Hi Brian!)
I was really enjoying the building mayor/Faith relationship and the finale kind of chucked it for an action sequence. Losing Harry Groener as the mayor was also a minus for me.
MY FAITH YES. Andyeah, they really did take the rather complex character of the Mayor and have him just go "I'm going to be a completely evil....BADLY RENDERED CGI SERPENT!" which, what (altho I did like that what did him in was his reaction to Buffy taunting him with Faith's knife). Probably in terms of story conventions rather than TV ones, Faith should have died at the end of S3 (MY GIIIIIIRL) and Angel should have died at the end of S2, altho Faith's arc(s) on AtS are some of my favourite writing Whedon's ever done.
And Mayor was srsly best villain ever on Buffy. All the other ones were cardboard. I really thought they were going to do an Enemy-Within fight-the-power Buffy-v-Buffy showdown at the end of S7, but noooooooo, we got Caleb instead. Man did I hate Caleb. //digressive ranty rant
altho Faith's arc(s) on AtS are some of my favourite writing Whedon's ever done.
I'm looking forward to watching those episodes again (assuming AtS means Angel the series?).
And Mayor was srsly best villain ever on Buffy.
I think I may agree. What started off as being a kind of gimmick--"oh, the phoney politician is real evil!" turned into a nicely subtle layering.
Aw. I rather liked the college setting, and was disappointed when S5 dropped it like a hot rock. Which isn't to say that the overarcing plots that year weren't really awful, because, character stuff exempted (and the Buffy one-night-stand plot that went on and on and one exempted from that), they were.
I liked college too! Actually that was when I started watching Buffy in realtime (I was too snotty to even really look at the show til all the fuss about Earshot, which looks positively quaint today, and then caught up on S3 reruns and watched from S4 on), so I have a bit of a soft spot for it. Butyeah, the 'high school is hell' metaphor was so well-done in the first three seasons they never really had anything that matched up to it. College is hell? (S4) Adult life is hell? (S5-6) Continuity is hell? (S7) It was like Sunnydale 90210 or something -- all the characters had graduated from high school and naturally would go on to other things and fall away from each other, but no, they all still had to be in the same 'small' town reacting to the same things.
Which isn't to say people -don't- stay in the same small towns with their high school friends all their lives, just, usually that's done through lack of opportunities or sheer inertia in modern America, and there was just never anything as cohesive as high school to explain why the other characters all stuck around. I think Willow got a kind of limp 'stay and fight the good fight' moment to explain why she wasn't going to OXFORD, but it just really didn't work (at least not for me). And the need for US TV to constantly have a reset button diluted some of their best thematic season finales -- the students rallying at the end of S3, Buffy and her friends joining together in S4, even Buffy herself dying at the end of S5. ('She was brought back with an evil freaky powerful spell! And there's some kind of evil freaky spirit hitchhiker! And Spike says she came back wrong! And it's....like a really bad cellular suntan.' Oooooookay whatever.)
WATCH OUT FOR THE HERD OF TEAL DEER
Willow got a kind of limp 'stay and fight the good fight' moment to explain why she wasn't going to OXFORD, but it just really didn't work (at least not for me).
Yeah, it's funny how Whedon has the guts to kill off a main character at the end of a season (Doyle, Wash), but not to send them to school oversees until the actor demands it.
WATCH OUT FOR THE HERD OF TEAL DEER
??
* on
* SUCKY
The froth from the corners of my mouth must've dripped on the keyboard there.
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