So basically, why isn't there more standard definition widescreen porn. Probably because the majority of porn viewers wouldn't get anything out of it and in any case, there are probably only a handful of director who are capable of using a widescreen aspect ratio in anything remotely resembling artistic skill.

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OK, I just went and checked #16 and it is a 16:9 aspect ratio. Hope this helps.

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The popularity of 16:9 mainstream movies is due to the fact that movies are meant for movie screens and, therefore, are shot in an aspect ratio that's appropriate for a movie theater.

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Don't worry though. Tony Comstock will be here in less than 30 seconds to explain it all to you in explicit detail :)

Quaze

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Darth-Morpheous
adultdetective.com

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The problem is how many porn directors have the basic technical skill to avoid having high-resolution butt pimples fill up that screen?

Currently, I believe that there are less than a dozen directors/videographers who are skilled enough to use employ these new technologies with an advantage.

Heck, the vast majority of porn shooters can't even get sound levels and lighting right on crappy NTSC cameras, let alone the butchery that occurs in the edit bay.

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Actually, after watching Hustler's Taboo #2 and #3, I think widescreen is actually an advantage. A BIG one in fact, but it does take a whole lot more skill to use. I'm not convinced many porn directors could use it half as effectively as richard hamilton does

Edited by - masamune on 6/5/2005 3:21:46 AM

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Personally, I'm not too eager for HD. Most everyone has skin flaws and I think at the moment, the subtlety we have is a good thing.

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I would recommend the latest ISLAND FEVER because the director Joone really knows how to handle the new technology.
But many of the ADTers would say all three ISLAND FEVER DVDs are totally boring.

That you don't see much Gonzo in this ratio has two reasons.
A simple consumer camera can't shoot in 16:9.
And it doesn't fit the needs of a Gonzo setup as Kami explained.

BTW, I think lots of TV-shows loose with the new ratio just as Gonzo would do.
16:9 is appropiate for wide landscape shots and similar things.
Dialogue and sex fits best into 4:3.

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Why has mostly been covered. People don't like letterbox bars (in porn or anything else, but this is changing), you have to use the frame differently, some consumer camera have funny limitation, like they'll do 30P or 16:9, but not 30P/16:9. Porn is mostly a "do what works" genre full of (paradoxically) risk averse people, when someone starts making bank on 16:9 it will become common place.

A couple of technical things on the presentation side that I've only become aware of in the last year:

When you present wide screen on tape, you have to burn the letterbox bar into the image. This is not so with a DVD. In fact, a DVD is remarkably versatile in bridging the 4:3 - 16:9 gap.

If you make an anamorphic 16:9 disc, the audience can choose whether they want to watch the image letterboxed (full original frame with black bars top and bottom), squeezed (full frame squeezed horizontally to fit the 4:3 SDTV frame), or cropped (the 4:3 frame from the center 66% of the 16:9 frame).This can also be flagged to default to the director's choice, so you could shoot 4:3 frame inside 16:9, set the disc to play back full screen on a 4:3 TV set, but if some cat has a widescreen TV, he can choose 16:9.

The idea of giving the view control over aspect ratio and crop might be abhorant to some, but I'd rather shoot the way I want to shoot, but give the view the option of not having letterbox bars (16:9 on 4:3) or curtains (4:3 on 16:9).

And BTW Quaze, on the strength of your work Xana and Dax was shot 30P, and my customers are raving about how good it looks. Thanks!

-T.C.

Comstock Films:Real Life, Real People, Real Sex

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The problem is that you can't get a "true 16X9 image" from current DVD's. DVD is a 4:3 format. Anamorphic widescreen images are achieved by stretching pixels horizontally to simulate a 16:9 format. However, stretched pixels doesn't equal more picture information. The only thing that creates more picture information is more pixels.

In order to get more pixels, the only answer is HD, from camera all the way to display device. Once anything SD is introduced, you've lost the pixels that were added earlier.

Disclaimer: Before anyone jumps in and says that PAL will allow for more pixels than NTSC...you're correct. For purposes of this discussion, I'm talking NTSC only, because 99.9% of US TV's are incapable of displaying PAL.

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And resolution is only one way of defining picture information. While it is an important one, it's not nearly the most important one.

Edited: Normally I would add that this thread should probably be moved to Tech Talk, but in fact, this doesn't have to be the case.




cobalt60 said:
"Never underestimate the Power of Good Lighting to someone trying to masturbate."

Edited by - Walter Burns on 6/5/2005 3:57:50 PM

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Nothing between reverse cowgirl for showing a cock going into a pussy or ass, and the classic framing of RC is probably best suited to a square frame (if such a think existed).

What I like about shooting 16:9 is that it is better suited for showing sex partner in relationship to one another. The classic framing of reverse cowgirl might be fine for fellow who want to see as little of the man as possible, but a slightly obligue and elevated angle on the same fuck still give plenty of "proof" that yes, the couple is actually having sex, while seeing more of their bodies, and how those bodies are relating to each other. Once you have that, you'll generally find stong motivation to move to various close-ups, which for me are the source of the telling details that make it fun to watch people have sex.

The wider frame does make that much harder to keep lightstand legs and lampcords out of frame, especially when shooting in the round. Bring plenty of black tape.

-T.C.

Comstock Films:Real Life, Real People, Real Sex

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I tried to say that in my earlier post when I wrote:

The first draft of my earlier post did a better job of being more explicit on that point. But when I edited myself to be more clear on something else, I became vague with respect to the aspect ratio of the disply.

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1) to show off environments in landscape view
2) to allow over-the-shoulder shots and dialogue between two actors

Porn really doesn't usually have environments to show off nor does it depend much on dialogue.
Also, the action is much more constrained. Two bodies close together as opposed to far apart for dialogue.
And a widescreen shot will show more of the man, which has little place in gonzo- feautures, maybe.

I think widescreen will be awesome for lesbian porn though, especially 3 girls
hint hint

Edited by - masamune on 6/5/2005 5:26:51 PM

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Fuck it, don't stop crying - here's my shoulder.

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They experimented with many different aspect ratios before settling on the two that are used in about 99% of all movies, 1.85:1 & 2.35:1.

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As far as shooting it for porn I don’t see the problem in shooting it, would be great for the sideways shots spoon, missionary etc… It would be easy to crop away the dead space but isn’t this what wide screen is suppose to do the opposite off? Oh well. Like Kami said we would get wee looking people when they go cowgirl. But hell you can see that lamp shade more maybe even the whole lamp yahoo!!!
Yani Z
www.yaniz.net

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-T.C.

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I want to watch my films in the intended ratio - even my porn films.

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For example, currently we're shooting 16:9, but with a little consideration to the 4:3 frame. My preference is that if someone watches one of our flicks in a 4:3 TV that they do it letterboxed, and that's the presentation format the disc will default to.

But if someone really, really hates letterbox, they can watch the same disc pan&scan, and still enjoy it.

Of course if they have have wide-screen TV, they'll get to see our flick, in the aspect ratio it was intended to be show, filling their entire TV.

-T.C.

Comstock Films:Real Life, Real People, Real Sex

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Darth-Morpheous
adultdetective.com

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Anamorphic widescreen images are achieved by stretching pixels horizontally to simulate a 16:9 format.

(1) DVDs in whatever format the director shoots them in

(2) Clear picture quality

(3) Scenes that are well-lit and properly framed; cameras that are jitter-free

(4) Consistent volume levels from scene-to-scene

(5) DVDs (and/or the editing process) that have not been compressed to the point that rapid movements (like stroking to cumshot) are not blurred and fuzzy (sometimes even pixelated and/or "jaggies"). Honestly, there's a lot of VHS material that had better picture quality than some of the stuff being released.

(6) Although infrequent, DVDs that don't have picture distortion at the top and/or bottom of the screen (almost exactly like badly duplicated VHS product that wasn't tracking properly... and I mean duplicated at the manufacturing level, not the illegal stuff).

If we can't get the basics down, there is absolutely no point in making widescreen and HD porn. Crap is crap no matter how good the delivery system

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amateurallure.com

her-sweet-hand.com

screencap of 16:9 reverse cowboy

http://img180.imageshack.us/my.php?image=capture7nu.jpg

Edited by - water on 7/1/2005 2:23:15 AM

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--- Rebecca vs. Taryn Thomas ---

http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/2486/contactsheet0tf.jpg

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Even if they are NOT cropped 4x3 images (which I suspect they might be), there is plenty of badly shot "full screen" (4x3) porn. Any director worth his merit would know how to shoot wide and take advantage of all of the extra visual information that is available to him/her.

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Beautiful Lies (Sin City) -feature
Super Naturals 2 (Digital Sin) -all sex
Pussy Worship (Adam and Eve) -lesbian
Private XXXtreme: Hot Property (Private) -gonzo,feature(anamorphic, i think)
Taboo 1,2 and 3 (by HUSTLER) -vignette, fetish, all sex

CLick my avatar to access reviews.
As I understand it, Digital Sin/New Sensations is starting to use widescreen heavily, at least the titles directed by Tyrone Shuz. He's a very skilled camera operator and uses the longer ratio to a great advantage. I recommend Super Naturals 2- the widescreen format actually becomes essential in this movie because Shuz uses a mirror in some of the scenes and it's needed in order to show the girl and her full reflection in the same shot, while still keeping the framing clean.

Edited by - masamune on 7/1/2005 12:05:05 PM

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http://img49.imageshack.us/img49/4921/widescrnvanessa20nz.jpg

Edited by - masamune on 7/1/2005 3:01:39 PM

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http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/8538/245552fs1kq.jpg

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