Category: Media

Sideways Video – A Rant on Aspect Ratio

 

Television has set the standard of common resolutions and aspect ratios for years, but not everything seems as smooth as it should. For one as we are becoming increasingly more web-centric in our distribution models why are we sticking by these ancient limitations of size and shape.  Isn’t there something inherently more flexible with the web? Let’s challenge those norms and create something new with video.

Why do we have 16:9 aspect ratio TV sets but most computer monitors are 16:10? TV and computers both migrated toward widescreen layouts around the same time, but why such a subtle difference?

Another funny think about resolutions and the web is that there is no consistency. Take a look at this chart showing common resolutions of visitors to this site:

picture-3

Some common Laptop resolutions and old school 4:3? How about netbooks?  iPhones and Blackberries add even more diversity.

I was sitting at a gas station the other night with my Flip and shot this, sideways. Why not? What I was trying to capture was better suited for a more portrait-like frame and it felt almost natural to hold the camcoorder like a small digital camera. Not to mention I can display a higher resolution video in the confines of the 450px column width on this site.

I’d like to see more creative uses of video, like this. What do you think? Is this just crazy talk?

Obama Wordle

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click to view large

Using Wordle I created this. 

It’s President Obama’s Inauguration speech, with the words that he used more frequently appearing larger.  Initially, I used a rough palette based upon this poster.

I then exported it as a pdf from Wordle.

Then I looked for a palette that was a bit closer to the original poster.  I found this one on kuler and munged it a bit in Illustrator.  If you click the image above I have a nice desktop background ready size available for your use.

While I’m not normally a politics nerd I watched the whole ceremony today and felt two distinct emotions.

Relief and hope.

Hudson’s Heroes

The recent emergency landing of US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson river has made me think of three things.

First, after reading this story, it is entirely possible for people to keep their shit together in this day and age.  There were few people who acted in a ignorant manner, but the common sense of the majority prevailed for once.

I love this quote from an article over on NyTimes.

Nick Gamache, 32, a software salesman, had moments earlier sent his wife a text message that read, “Planes on fire love you and the kids,” so he was naturally in a hurry to update her. But he paused as the pilot told him to carefully step into the raft.

Could you imaging being on the recieving end of that txt?  What the wife must have thought when she saw that, sitting at her desk at work, at home with the kids, or out running errands?  How mind blowing.  

Then to hear on the news that there was in fact a crash landing.  Crazy.

Second thing that amazes me most is the amount of video footage there is of the actual crash itself.

While I’m well aware we live in an time where almost everything is monitored this still blows my mind.  Upon the first time hearing of the crash I just knew that given enough time some form of footage would appear.

Third and final is the lack of appreciation our society places on older people.  While Captian Sullenberg is only 57, thats a few shy years from the forced retirement age of 60.

If a dude who is that close to retiring can land a fricking plane, in the middle of a river what else are people his age (and older) capable of?

We should all respect those with wisdom and experiences far greater than ours.  

For those who are interested Jason Kottke has more on the crash, including a few other videos.