Visual Happiness
1) I was fascinated a few weeks ago by White SoxFest, which was broadcast live on the Comcast Sports Network. They had players and fans strolling down a runway, and interviewed one of the players who talked about calling fans to encourage them to support the team during the coming season. (He reported, not surprisingly, that many of them thought he was trying to sell them something).
Mike explained that lots of teams had such pre-season events where fans can get pictures and autographs, and that it was a form of sports con. It made me wonder why we didn't get media fandom conventions broadcast on TV, with actors calling fans encouraging them to watch the show.
Then I realized why. It's because unlike for sports teams, the viewers are not actually the customers for TV shows. And the actual customers, the advertisers, DO get a special convention dedicated to them, complete with media coverage. That's the Upfronts.
Of course, that's slowly changing as more and more entertainment is created by direct-to-audience broadcasters such as HBO and Netflix. Perhaps one day, as crowdfunding becomes an important component in what gets made, you actually will see participants calling fans to encourage them to support the coming season. And cons will be broadcast to encourage enthusiasm and financial participation.
2) Joss Whedon's tweet from a while back that "WE HAD THE TIME MACHINE AND WE STILL DIDN'T STOP HITLER" made me wonder how that perspective may change entertainment going forward. I think it's been incredibly obvious that Nazis were the favorite villains of Hollywood -- unquestionably bad and easily demonized. Less often were the actions and feelings of the average Germans of the time represented.
What sorts of stories are going to be told now when it's becoming clear that the competing interests in any country don't lend themselves to a single narrative when it's being completely upended by extremists? The stories of WWII have never gone away, so it would be difficult to have a "resurgence" of such stories. We've also had dystopian stories for some time (to the point where it's becoming a perceived cliche in YA storytelling). Yet all these stories seem more apt than ever now. Will entertainment take a sharp turn into happier stories and simpler scenarios? What is the new metaphor for our times going to be?
I really doubt that Hollywood will start turning out TV or films that support the protesting side. Thinking back to the Vietnam War, those types of stories were either cloaked in metaphors or came out well after the fact. About the only story I can think of which was fairly contemporary was "The China Syndrome" and it was merely coincidence that it preceded the incident at Three Mile Island. It did, however, likely greenlight the movie "Silkwood" which was a very non-fictional indictment of nuclear power. Yet I was intrigued to note this section in its Wikipedia entry:
"David Sterritt of The Christian Science Monitor called the film 'a fine example of Hollywood's love-hate attitude toward timely and controversial subject matter...When it comes to the issues connected with her, though, the filmmakers slip and slide around, providing an escape hatch ... for every position and opinion they offer. This makes the movie less polemical than it might have been, and a lot more wishy-washy.'" Also notable? Despite its various Oscar nominations "As of 2017, the film has not yet received a Blu-ray Disc release and is currently out of print on DVD in the United States."
3) In happier personal news, we have a new large-screen TV. This is something I've been wanting for a long time but this became more significant as my distance vision has, in the past year, joined my reading vision in requiring some assistance. Our open plan room with the TV at the other end has become increasingly annoying. So I started doing research. If anyone is embarking on the same journey, here's what I can tell you.
I first wanted to see what the largest TVs available for consumer use were. It is about 85 inches diagonally which is basically lifesize. It is also reaaalllly expensive. And there aren't very many such models on offer.
Money aside, this was also larger than our space could accommodate so I started looking at smaller sizes. I was willing to spend some money because we don't buy TVs often (our old TV migrated to the bedroom, replacing the 13 inch tube TV there which was bought in 1996). I didn't want the new TV to be outdated within 5 years which, given the pace at which tech keeps changing, is increasingly easy to have happen. So I started trying to decipher the innumerable codes and names for different TV features.
The manufacturers make this as difficult as possible so you can't cross compare features and capabilities. I found pro reviews very helpful in figuring out jargon but less helpful in a more practical way. That's because while pro reviews do distinguish between what an average viewer wants and a HiFi tech nerd wants, discussion of coming standards and features inevitably make the higher end TVs sound really great and anything less than those sound like settling for cheaper alternatives.
It was driving me crazy. I read reviews and looked at TVs in the store for months. The one thing I agreed with is that OLED TVs are likely both the future and also look really amazingly sharp. They are, not surprisingly pricey, especially if you want the bigger sizes. Yet reviewers also agreed that anything smaller than 55 inches was a waste of money because the screen was too small to make the quality difference particularly noticeable. I almost found myself compromising the TV's intended purpose, providing a really big screen, because I thought the images looked so great.
Of course what it's impossible to know is what your typical programming is going to look like, since all TVs run demo videos that show off only the high end of what the TV can do. There are quite a few 4K TV models out there but very little 4K programming, even on discs.
Combining features and price range I settled on about 4 TV models. One required feature was a centered TV stand. Our wall could never support a mounted television, and in any case it wasn't necessary. However, our current TV cabinet needed to be long and wide enough to support the TV stand, so this knocked out Vizio models which used feet at each end of the TV. I was planning for the TV to stretch past the cabinet's limits -- easy enough with a centered stand, but impossible with feet at each end of the set.
I read reviews from at least three different sites for each TV and also customer reviews at both Amazon and Best Buy. Our Best Buy also had 3 of the 4 TVs on display. I did like the highest rated TV but as I was standing around waiting on some info from a salesperson, I realized I was watching a cheaper model and thinking how great the images looked. I also checked the overhead lighting in the store several times to see how it might be affecting the display of the TVs. For example, was one screen really more reflective than another (our room has a lot of windows) or was it just that the TV faced a different direction so that light hit it differently?
After going home I thought to myself that an even cheaper Samsung which hadn't impressed me by comparison, might look just as good if it were running the same demo video instead of segments from House of Cards. It had basically all the same standards and features. And no matter which TV I chose, it would be an improvement from our current TV.
So I waited for a sale and bit the bullet, buying the Samsung. Another debate was the installation fee since delivery was free and Mike and I are both capable of figuring out all the connections and settings. The new TV screen was so thin I suspected it wouldn't weigh a lot more than our old one despite its larger size. Unfortunately what I had also not been able to look at in the store was its stand, since it was mounted on a wall. And therein appeared the problem which made me kick myself for not just ordering installation. I had assumed we would set the TV within the stand and then bolt it in, something which would require brief lifting and then bracing by one with finishing by the other person. But no, the stand attached to the back of the TV and suspended it.
Mike and I were able to lift the TV briefly or turn it without unpacking it. But bolting the stand to the TV would require it to be laid flat and yet off the ground by at least 1.5 feet due to the stand's L shape. So hauling it out of its box to the other end of the apartment and taking twists and turns in order to find a surface to lay it on seemed dicey. And the stand was also heavy, so it would not be easy to hold it up while screwing it in.
We ended up waiting 3 more days to get them to come and install the TV. It took them 30 minutes to bolt the stand, put the TV back in place, attach a few peripherals, explain the remote to Mike, not haul out the box as they were supposed to because "the truck is full", and not wait around until he connected Netflix even though they were supposed to make sure everything was working before leaving.
Mike said that he understood why I wasn't initially willing to pay $100 for that. However, it did mean that any damage to the TV during set up became their responsibility, we got free callbacks for 30 days if anything wasn't set up right, and that we knew the TV was functional and the screen undamaged during transport and not showing dead pixels, edge bleed, etc. Unfortunately what we discovered is that the TV would not hold a wi-fi connection, which not only meant trying to reset this but typing in a password to Netflix each time. Mike didn't want to waste time with calling the installers back and just bought a new Ethernet cable so that we could connect directly to the modem. He reasoned that this was likely to provide an even better picture anyway and less likely to buffer.
All that reading about the sets did pay off in one way. The first night with it I settled in to watch some TV. The HD image was startling. It seemed to have a slight 3-D effect even though this was not one of the features the TV offered. It looked, frankly, as if I were watching a play or a soap opera. Apparently, lots of people have made that same connection.
It also was becoming very annoying in the way movements looked jerky. I saw it in Agents of SHIELD, in Supernatural, and in Captain America. What's more the special effects in Cap in particular looked a lot faker than they had in the past, perhaps because the people looked more three-dimensional due to the lighting changes.
I happened to remember an article about this very issue though and was able to find the setting to eliminate it the next day. At that time Mike had also noticed it in some programming and found it so annoying he said that it would have been a deal breaker on the TV had we not been able to fix it.
The TV also came with a "sports mode" button on the remote which essentially brightens the screen, enhances the color, and changes the audio distribution. I've found it useful for shows that use a lot of dark or overcast scenes.
We got a coupon and a cash back reward that made a blu-ray player inexpensive. We only have one DVD player with an uncertain expiration date plus a portable one we've hardly ever used as an emergency backup. I instantly ran into the same issues in those reviews as for the TV. Do I even need something fancy or will the new TV upscale the content it gets anyway, making a 4K blu ray player unnecessary? And what would it matter since we don't own or rent any blu ray discs anyway?
We went ahead and bought the cheapest one that did wi-fi streaming because that meant that the (now) old TV in the bedroom could get Netflix in there. That's proved to work nicely. However, I saw "The Huntsman" in there on DVD and it looked crappy a good part of the time because the screen was so dark that I had to boost the color, contrast and brightness. Whether a different blu ray player would make any difference though, I don't know.
I'm also considering a Nintendo Switch since finding content for our Wii isn't possible if I want anything current. But that will probably be a Christmas buy if it happens.
4) I have another Festivid work to recommend, A Better Son/Daughter documenting Carrie Fisher. Excellent choices all the way around, and I defy you not to tear up by the video's end.
5) Not a Festivid work and very different in tone, but wonderfully edited and an awesome view of the MCU: Glitter and Gold by Grable424 and DJCProd.
Comments at Dreamwidth
.
Mike explained that lots of teams had such pre-season events where fans can get pictures and autographs, and that it was a form of sports con. It made me wonder why we didn't get media fandom conventions broadcast on TV, with actors calling fans encouraging them to watch the show.
Then I realized why. It's because unlike for sports teams, the viewers are not actually the customers for TV shows. And the actual customers, the advertisers, DO get a special convention dedicated to them, complete with media coverage. That's the Upfronts.
Of course, that's slowly changing as more and more entertainment is created by direct-to-audience broadcasters such as HBO and Netflix. Perhaps one day, as crowdfunding becomes an important component in what gets made, you actually will see participants calling fans to encourage them to support the coming season. And cons will be broadcast to encourage enthusiasm and financial participation.
2) Joss Whedon's tweet from a while back that "WE HAD THE TIME MACHINE AND WE STILL DIDN'T STOP HITLER" made me wonder how that perspective may change entertainment going forward. I think it's been incredibly obvious that Nazis were the favorite villains of Hollywood -- unquestionably bad and easily demonized. Less often were the actions and feelings of the average Germans of the time represented.
What sorts of stories are going to be told now when it's becoming clear that the competing interests in any country don't lend themselves to a single narrative when it's being completely upended by extremists? The stories of WWII have never gone away, so it would be difficult to have a "resurgence" of such stories. We've also had dystopian stories for some time (to the point where it's becoming a perceived cliche in YA storytelling). Yet all these stories seem more apt than ever now. Will entertainment take a sharp turn into happier stories and simpler scenarios? What is the new metaphor for our times going to be?
I really doubt that Hollywood will start turning out TV or films that support the protesting side. Thinking back to the Vietnam War, those types of stories were either cloaked in metaphors or came out well after the fact. About the only story I can think of which was fairly contemporary was "The China Syndrome" and it was merely coincidence that it preceded the incident at Three Mile Island. It did, however, likely greenlight the movie "Silkwood" which was a very non-fictional indictment of nuclear power. Yet I was intrigued to note this section in its Wikipedia entry:
"David Sterritt of The Christian Science Monitor called the film 'a fine example of Hollywood's love-hate attitude toward timely and controversial subject matter...When it comes to the issues connected with her, though, the filmmakers slip and slide around, providing an escape hatch ... for every position and opinion they offer. This makes the movie less polemical than it might have been, and a lot more wishy-washy.'" Also notable? Despite its various Oscar nominations "As of 2017, the film has not yet received a Blu-ray Disc release and is currently out of print on DVD in the United States."
3) In happier personal news, we have a new large-screen TV. This is something I've been wanting for a long time but this became more significant as my distance vision has, in the past year, joined my reading vision in requiring some assistance. Our open plan room with the TV at the other end has become increasingly annoying. So I started doing research. If anyone is embarking on the same journey, here's what I can tell you.
I first wanted to see what the largest TVs available for consumer use were. It is about 85 inches diagonally which is basically lifesize. It is also reaaalllly expensive. And there aren't very many such models on offer.
Money aside, this was also larger than our space could accommodate so I started looking at smaller sizes. I was willing to spend some money because we don't buy TVs often (our old TV migrated to the bedroom, replacing the 13 inch tube TV there which was bought in 1996). I didn't want the new TV to be outdated within 5 years which, given the pace at which tech keeps changing, is increasingly easy to have happen. So I started trying to decipher the innumerable codes and names for different TV features.
The manufacturers make this as difficult as possible so you can't cross compare features and capabilities. I found pro reviews very helpful in figuring out jargon but less helpful in a more practical way. That's because while pro reviews do distinguish between what an average viewer wants and a HiFi tech nerd wants, discussion of coming standards and features inevitably make the higher end TVs sound really great and anything less than those sound like settling for cheaper alternatives.
It was driving me crazy. I read reviews and looked at TVs in the store for months. The one thing I agreed with is that OLED TVs are likely both the future and also look really amazingly sharp. They are, not surprisingly pricey, especially if you want the bigger sizes. Yet reviewers also agreed that anything smaller than 55 inches was a waste of money because the screen was too small to make the quality difference particularly noticeable. I almost found myself compromising the TV's intended purpose, providing a really big screen, because I thought the images looked so great.
Of course what it's impossible to know is what your typical programming is going to look like, since all TVs run demo videos that show off only the high end of what the TV can do. There are quite a few 4K TV models out there but very little 4K programming, even on discs.
Combining features and price range I settled on about 4 TV models. One required feature was a centered TV stand. Our wall could never support a mounted television, and in any case it wasn't necessary. However, our current TV cabinet needed to be long and wide enough to support the TV stand, so this knocked out Vizio models which used feet at each end of the TV. I was planning for the TV to stretch past the cabinet's limits -- easy enough with a centered stand, but impossible with feet at each end of the set.
I read reviews from at least three different sites for each TV and also customer reviews at both Amazon and Best Buy. Our Best Buy also had 3 of the 4 TVs on display. I did like the highest rated TV but as I was standing around waiting on some info from a salesperson, I realized I was watching a cheaper model and thinking how great the images looked. I also checked the overhead lighting in the store several times to see how it might be affecting the display of the TVs. For example, was one screen really more reflective than another (our room has a lot of windows) or was it just that the TV faced a different direction so that light hit it differently?
After going home I thought to myself that an even cheaper Samsung which hadn't impressed me by comparison, might look just as good if it were running the same demo video instead of segments from House of Cards. It had basically all the same standards and features. And no matter which TV I chose, it would be an improvement from our current TV.
So I waited for a sale and bit the bullet, buying the Samsung. Another debate was the installation fee since delivery was free and Mike and I are both capable of figuring out all the connections and settings. The new TV screen was so thin I suspected it wouldn't weigh a lot more than our old one despite its larger size. Unfortunately what I had also not been able to look at in the store was its stand, since it was mounted on a wall. And therein appeared the problem which made me kick myself for not just ordering installation. I had assumed we would set the TV within the stand and then bolt it in, something which would require brief lifting and then bracing by one with finishing by the other person. But no, the stand attached to the back of the TV and suspended it.
Mike and I were able to lift the TV briefly or turn it without unpacking it. But bolting the stand to the TV would require it to be laid flat and yet off the ground by at least 1.5 feet due to the stand's L shape. So hauling it out of its box to the other end of the apartment and taking twists and turns in order to find a surface to lay it on seemed dicey. And the stand was also heavy, so it would not be easy to hold it up while screwing it in.
We ended up waiting 3 more days to get them to come and install the TV. It took them 30 minutes to bolt the stand, put the TV back in place, attach a few peripherals, explain the remote to Mike, not haul out the box as they were supposed to because "the truck is full", and not wait around until he connected Netflix even though they were supposed to make sure everything was working before leaving.
Mike said that he understood why I wasn't initially willing to pay $100 for that. However, it did mean that any damage to the TV during set up became their responsibility, we got free callbacks for 30 days if anything wasn't set up right, and that we knew the TV was functional and the screen undamaged during transport and not showing dead pixels, edge bleed, etc. Unfortunately what we discovered is that the TV would not hold a wi-fi connection, which not only meant trying to reset this but typing in a password to Netflix each time. Mike didn't want to waste time with calling the installers back and just bought a new Ethernet cable so that we could connect directly to the modem. He reasoned that this was likely to provide an even better picture anyway and less likely to buffer.
All that reading about the sets did pay off in one way. The first night with it I settled in to watch some TV. The HD image was startling. It seemed to have a slight 3-D effect even though this was not one of the features the TV offered. It looked, frankly, as if I were watching a play or a soap opera. Apparently, lots of people have made that same connection.
It also was becoming very annoying in the way movements looked jerky. I saw it in Agents of SHIELD, in Supernatural, and in Captain America. What's more the special effects in Cap in particular looked a lot faker than they had in the past, perhaps because the people looked more three-dimensional due to the lighting changes.
I happened to remember an article about this very issue though and was able to find the setting to eliminate it the next day. At that time Mike had also noticed it in some programming and found it so annoying he said that it would have been a deal breaker on the TV had we not been able to fix it.
The TV also came with a "sports mode" button on the remote which essentially brightens the screen, enhances the color, and changes the audio distribution. I've found it useful for shows that use a lot of dark or overcast scenes.
We got a coupon and a cash back reward that made a blu-ray player inexpensive. We only have one DVD player with an uncertain expiration date plus a portable one we've hardly ever used as an emergency backup. I instantly ran into the same issues in those reviews as for the TV. Do I even need something fancy or will the new TV upscale the content it gets anyway, making a 4K blu ray player unnecessary? And what would it matter since we don't own or rent any blu ray discs anyway?
We went ahead and bought the cheapest one that did wi-fi streaming because that meant that the (now) old TV in the bedroom could get Netflix in there. That's proved to work nicely. However, I saw "The Huntsman" in there on DVD and it looked crappy a good part of the time because the screen was so dark that I had to boost the color, contrast and brightness. Whether a different blu ray player would make any difference though, I don't know.
I'm also considering a Nintendo Switch since finding content for our Wii isn't possible if I want anything current. But that will probably be a Christmas buy if it happens.
4) I have another Festivid work to recommend, A Better Son/Daughter documenting Carrie Fisher. Excellent choices all the way around, and I defy you not to tear up by the video's end.
5) Not a Festivid work and very different in tone, but wonderfully edited and an awesome view of the MCU: Glitter and Gold by Grable424 and DJCProd.
Comments at Dreamwidth
.