Aspect Ratios in Cinema: A Guide for Filmmakers

[00:00:00]This video is sponsored by Squarespace, the all-in-one platform to build a  beautiful website for your business.

[00:00:07]Although we’ve become accustomed  to watching online video content, like this video, in a 16:9 format,  films can actually be shot and presented in all kinds of different  shapes and sizes: or aspect ratios.

[00:00:21]These rectangular form factors  usually have a horizontal width to them that better mimics the  point of view of the human eye.

[00:00:28]With all of these different aspect ratios to  choose from you may wonder which of them is the best to shoot your next film in. So, in this  video I’ll try to aid that decision by first going over some popular aspect ratios that are used in  cinema and then explain why using different aspect ratios makes footage feel different by using a  few creative examples from some popular films.

[00:00:57]The dimensions of a 2-D video  frame are measured in pixels, which can be simplified and factored down  into a fraction. For example this video clip is made up of 1920 horizontal pixels and  800 vertical pixels. When we divide 1920 by 800. We get 2.4. Therefore we say that this  widescreen frame has an aspect ratio of 2.40:1.

[00:01:26]Throughout the history and development of  cinema, certain aspect ratios emerged which became standardised choices for capturing and  projecting an image. Cinema started before the age of digital editing software: where it’s  easy to crop video to any ratio desired.

[00:01:42]Back then, the aspect ratio was determined by how  cameras captured images onto film. For example, early silent films used the full horizontal length  between the perforations of a 35mm film negative, and used the horizontal space of 4 perforations.  So each frame represents a picture that is 4 perforations long, also called a 4-perf  pulldown. This gave a 4:3 or 1.33:1 aspect ratio.

[00:02:14]Over the years, changes in camera technology  created new aspect ratios. When sound was first introduced in cinema it had to be added  as a thin strip on the negative and therefore cut into the horizontal space of the 1.33  frame, creating a squarer 1.19:1 aspect ratio.

[00:02:34]This was later deemed by the public to be  too square, so it was replaced by a wider, standardised 1.375:1 or what was called an  Academy aspect ratio. This became the dominant aspect ratio for Hollywood films from the 40s and  was popular until the introduction of widescreen.

[00:02:54]Partly to address dwindling audience numbers  and to differentiate the cinema experience from the 4:3 TV format, a more expansive  1.85:1 aspect ratio was introduced.

[00:03:08]This was shot in the same way using  35mm film and spherical lenses, but this time the top and bottom of the  image was effectively cropped until they arrived at a surface area that was closer to  three perforations tall, rather than four.

[00:03:25]To get an even more expansive,  grander looking feel, required the creation of a new format that used  a different kind of lens: anamorphic.

[00:03:35]This format still covered the full  width of the 35mm frame and used four perforations of height - but it  captured this space on the negative using anamorphic lenses which stretched and  distorted the image to cover the full frame.

[00:03:50]This squeezed image could later be  de-squeeezed until it got back to an image without distortion. De-squeezing  it created more horizontal length and produced an aspect ratio of 2.39:1 which  is commonly rounded up and called 2.40.

[00:04:08]There are some slightly more niche  aspect ratios like: 1.43:1 Imax, 1.66:1, 2:1, and even the ultra wide  2.76:1 Ultra Panavision 70 ratio.

[00:04:24]But far and above the two most common  cinema aspect ratios today are 1.85:1 and 2.40:1. Most cinema releases that are  digitally projected are done so using a DCP, which is basically a hard drive with the digital  file on it. The two most common aspect ratios for a DCP are either scope - which has a 2:40 aspect  ratio - or flat - at 1.85:1. So, getting to any niche aspect ratios requires cropping the  video file within one of those two formats.

[00:05:00]But, how do we choose between all of these  different formats? Before we get there, I’d like to thank Squarespace who  sponsored this video and made it possible.

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[00:06:07]Now that we know some of the available aspect  ratios that can be used, it’s time to talk about what makes these formats different from each  other. Like picking a lens and lighting a scene, the aspect ratios that filmmakers choose  for their project is also a creative choice.

[00:06:23]The reasons for this choice range  from more concrete, practical reasons, to more difficult to define, emotional  impulses. And, although there are nuances to choosing certain niche ratios over others,  the decision of what aspect ratio to shoot in basically just boils down to a choice of how  wide or how narrow you want the frame to be.

[00:06:46]“My intent was to have the entire film  play in the gigantic 1:43 aspect ratio on a giant Imax screen. Compositionally  I really started falling in love with that concept because Superheros as  figures tend to be less horizontal.

[00:07:03]A lot of the work we’re doing is  trying to restore the full frame.” One component to this choice  are the historical ties that come with certain formats. In the same  way that shooting with a handheld camera has ties to the documentary genre  and therefore has ties to realism.

[00:07:22]Generally, the narrower the aspect ratio  is the more old world it feels and the wider it is the more modern it feels. This  tie to period is a product of the history we discussed earlier where Hollywood silent  films were shot in narrower ratios like 1.33:1.

[00:07:40]So a movie like The Artist, uses 4:3  as a pretty obvious visual cue to mimic the aspect ratio of the time period of the  silent movie format that the story tells.

[00:07:52]“He was talking like this to say, what  about doing a silent movie. I thought he was like maybe doing a silent  movie in the modern way but he said, ‘I want to do a movie in the 20s: black  and white and silent and square format.’” Particular aspect ratios can also be  chosen to represent footage taken with a particular recording device,  whether in a mockumentary style with timecode and frameline overlays  like in District 9 or to emulate the point of view of whoever is recording  from a smartphone like in Searching.

[00:08:27]Some filmmakers have used different aspect  ratios within the same movie. For example The Grand Budapest Hotel delineated the three  different time periods in the film by shooting them in different aspect ratios. The 1930s  scenes were shot in the Academy aspect ratio, the 1960s scenes were shot in an anamorphic ratio  and the 1980s scenes used a widescreen ratio.

[00:08:52]Other directors, like Christopher Nolan,  have used different aspect ratios in their films because they like to use the native  aspect ratios of whatever format they are using without cropping it to conform to a common  ratio. Dunkirk cuts between some scenes that are shot in the taller Imax format and others  shot in the longer 35mm anamorphic format.

[00:09:16]From these kinds of more overt rationale  for shooting in a specific aspect ratio, we can also choose a frame size in order  to exploit its cinematic advantages.

[00:09:26]Extremely wide aspect ratios like 2.40 or even  2.76 contain more lateral space. It makes them a better format to layer information within a  shot. Multiple planes can be used when framing, to include characters and story elements in  the foreground, middleground and background.

[00:09:48]“When you’re in Mini’s there are always  two plays going on simultaneously. There’s the foreground play where the actors are  closer to the lens and to the camera and they’re doing their things. But there’s  always a background situation and the audience really has to keep track of the  foreground play and the background play.” Because a wider screen ratio is able to see  more background information it’s better at contextualising the geography of the space in a  location. The extra width also lends itself to landscapes and expansive, epic sets to show off  the grandeur of the location by expanding it.

[00:10:27]For this reason it’s popularly used to  capture big budget epics, with large set pieces with lots of moving parts that requires  a certain photographic width to include them.

[00:10:39]On the other end, narrower aspect ratios  are better for films that deliberately want to withhold context, or frame single  characters from a subjective point of view.

[00:10:50]Son of Saul did this by framing with a narrow  1.33 frame that was glued to the protagonist.

[00:10:58]How wide a frame is can also influence the  emotions that audiences ascribe to the image.

[00:11:03]Super wide frame shots of desserts  can make them seem vast and unending, while a tight shot of a character  in an almost square frame can make a space feel psychologically  much more contained and cut off.

[00:11:19]“Obviously it’s unusual to have something in  this day and age to have something in this aspect ratio. I mean, a confined space obviously  felt like 1.33 so that’s what we’re gonna do.

[00:11:28]I don’t know where I even first heard of 1.19  but I heard about it and was like, maybe this is one opportunity where we can do this. It’s  somewhere between 1.33 and 8x10 photography.” Ultimately, choosing an aspect ratio  is entirely dependent on the context of the film. Different ratios can  be used to invoke historical ties, present a specific recording point of  view, differentiate between timelines, be used to accentuate certain cinematic advantages  or even create a kind of emotional impact.

[00:12:08]Above all, whatever aspect ratio you choose,  make sure that the choice is a considered one that leverages this element of filmmaking  to further the telling of your story.

[00:12:24]So that brings us to the end of another  video. As always, a final thanks to all of the kind Patrons who keep the channel  going with their support and receive these videos early and ad free. Otherwise, until  next time, thanks for watching and goodbye.