Post #1176491

2026-04-16 01:00 UTC

@beadsland@beige.party Try to search reaaaaally old Usenet and related (BBS?) posts from like 1985-2000. There might be people talking under the keyword "anamorphic" and maybe a few nuts who know what it is and are deliberately watching squished. There may be news/trade coverage around the time of the switch, which is going to be lightly documented online but probably well covered in major film research libraries. PSA: Google Scholar is great if you didn't know.

Replies (1)

@beadsland@beige.party 2026-04-16 01:08

@BigHeadMode Google Scholar was getting me nowhere, which is why ended up posting here, as all the articles it was turning up were about the production and distribution processes, where my question goes to public reception and subsequent reverberations in later visual arts. The switch isn't my interest. The generational imprinting is. Hence the home video angle sounds promising. For instance, have a very distinct recollection of a throwaway gag scene, in latter era nostalgic animated programming, depicting a representation of the live action martial arts broadcasts of the time, with even more exaggerated elongation of bodies on the vertical. This being a semiotic pastiche immediately recognizable to those of a certain generation. Last century Usenet will be useful to dig into. Though it may be a bit too early for the trends to even have appeared. Folk who grew up watching that stuff had to become established in media industries for the influence to begin manifesting in new media.

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