Summary of “Shape of New Media”

Article's Central Argument

This article examines how widescreen, analog ?lm-making strategies such as letterboxing have become commonplace in digital texts such as online advertising, Web-based ?lm series, and even digital animation ?lms from Pixar. These techniques ape cinematic tropes in order to blend (or mask altogether) the transition between transitional choices such as video games based on ?lms or televised sports (e.g., The Godfather or the Madden football franchise, respectively).

There is no soundstage or cinematographer to consult with regard to framing aesthetics. Digital mattes are composed in both formats from the ?rst storyboard with the home-video release in mind. In a February 1930 American Cinematographer article criticizing the usefulness of the Grandeur 70mm process, cinematographer William Stull's remarks echo those of Edeson but announce even more speci?cally the stylistic changes necessary when shifting between widescreen and Academy ratios.

Structure Of Argument

If wide ?lm-makers have a choice between cutting into close-up or shooting in long shot, the wide ?lm-maker will opt not to cut because early widescreen ?lm-makers believed that close-ups were no longer needed. The subsequent coverage of the action is divided into closer framed shots that maintain screen direction and hypothetically will drive the action with tempo in postproduction editing. The Big Trail opposes this paradigm, according to both Edeson's and Stull's assessment of the new technology's aesthetic demands.

The question must be asked, then, what spatial aesthetic strategies are appropriated from traditional (analog) widescreen ?lm-making in digitextual forms such as online ads, computer mediated texts, and digital ?lms? Further, how do content providers navigate the production of widescreen texts that are being viewed on 4:3 television or computer/PDA monitors?

The logic here is that through the appropriation of cinematic aspect ratios and replication of cinematic screen space (i.e., widescreen), other formats are elevated to a higher-brow visual look. ...