Greg Smith's "Shaping THE MAXX: Adapting the Comic Book Frame to Television".
Interesting stuff right?
But could(should) it be done?
Well, that's what today is all about.
For those of you who haven't read it: In his article Smith argues that Television should experiment with new frame sizes; that TV shouldn't be limited to the 1:33-1 ratio of frame size. Smith also argues that TV should use more frames within the frame of the screen - and that producers should be aware of how effective this has proven in comics as well as in the animated adaptation of The Maxx.
These ideas are very interesting (to say the least); however... they are also risky. Financiers and investors (almost the same thing) do not want to bet their fortune on something unproven, they want something that has been done before. This is both positive and negative, as there is stability within the industry which this comes at the expense of artistic license on the part of the creator of the work.
What producers of content need to do is to show that using different frames is effective as a storytelling technique. Maybe if there were more people creating media that doesn't conform to the standard frame ratio, and more content that uses frames within frame, we would see more programming like "The Maxx".
Smith makes a good point: Creators need to be courageous with what kind of art they make, and audiences should be accepting of new art forms.
Final question: Would "The Cape" have been canceled if they had tried to use some of the techniques Smith writes about? Or would it have been a more interesting way to tell the story, leading to its success as a show?
Unless people start experimenting, we'll never know.
For those of you who haven't read it: In his article Smith argues that Television should experiment with new frame sizes; that TV shouldn't be limited to the 1:33-1 ratio of frame size. Smith also argues that TV should use more frames within the frame of the screen - and that producers should be aware of how effective this has proven in comics as well as in the animated adaptation of The Maxx.
These ideas are very interesting (to say the least); however... they are also risky. Financiers and investors (almost the same thing) do not want to bet their fortune on something unproven, they want something that has been done before. This is both positive and negative, as there is stability within the industry which this comes at the expense of artistic license on the part of the creator of the work.
What producers of content need to do is to show that using different frames is effective as a storytelling technique. Maybe if there were more people creating media that doesn't conform to the standard frame ratio, and more content that uses frames within frame, we would see more programming like "The Maxx".
Smith makes a good point: Creators need to be courageous with what kind of art they make, and audiences should be accepting of new art forms.
Final question: Would "The Cape" have been canceled if they had tried to use some of the techniques Smith writes about? Or would it have been a more interesting way to tell the story, leading to its success as a show?
Unless people start experimenting, we'll never know.
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