baha
Dec 2004
www.pandora.com/
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Comes from a Kubrick devoted site discussing the merits of fullframe v. cropped.
quote:
Definition of Aspect Ratio
The aspect "aspect ratio" of a cinema pictue is the shape of the projected image in terms of proportions of height to width.
1 : 1.85 means a rectangle that is "1" unit tall by "1.85" units wide.
Most films in U.S. theaters are now primarily shown in two 35mm widescreen formats: "flat" 1:1.85 and "scope" 1:2.35.
The 1:1.85 ratio is achieved by the projector gate masking the nearly square 35mm frame on the top & bottom to achieve a wider-looking shape. The unmasked 35mm film is where the term full frame comes from. In the post silent film era the full frame aspect ratio was called "Academy Aperture" and had an aspect ratio of 1:1.37 until the 1950's when the Academy Aperture was cropped to the widescreen ratios, varying from 1:1.66, 1:1.75, to 1:1.85.
Most films are shot "open-matted" with an image filling the 1:1.37 Academy Aperture, but the image is composed for its later cropping in the theaters to the theatrical aspect ratio. Which effectily means that the director must ensure nothing of interest must happen in the top or bottom sixth of the screen, because it will be masked out by the crop when the film is shown in cinemas
"Scope" or anamorphic photography is different and does not involve cropping, but instead has a wide 1:2.35 image squeezed onto the 35mm frame, to be unsqueezed by a projector with an anamorphic lens.
Problem with the above is that when a movie is cropped for TV they crop from the already cropped for cinema version...so you end up with a fraction of the original shot.
That's the reason why you so often used to see boom mikes in shot, especially on TV shows...the directors frame the shot in most cases as if it is to be cropped...but, of course, for TV it didn't need to be.
Kubrick was famously someone who shot with a view that the entire picture he took should make it to the screen. He was never in favour of cropping the 4:3 35mm image and would often have pertinent info at the very top and very bottom of the shot so it couldn't be cropped.
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12-08-2008 09:36 AM
