Introduction
The aspect ratio is the proportion of the height and width of the image that a person sees on the screen and the frame size filmmakers shoot their films on. When everything was shot in film, most movies had an aspect ratio of 4:3 or 0.95 in. by 0.735 in., which is close to a square shaped box, that is why older TV looked like boxes due to movies having an aspect ratio of 4:3 and there was no wide screen aspect ratio at that time.
Since the world of cinema is constantly changing, filmmakers are trying to look for ways to further immerse the audience, resulting in aspect ratios evolving over time as well. Moreover, different aspect ratios are still used to give audience different moods based on what the director is trying to communicate through the film.
Inspiration
I have always been interested in film and cinematography — looking into how aspect ratios of film can affect how scenes feel and is a way for a filmmakers to communicate with their audience through the cinematography. The visualizations that informed my work are of different kinds of aspect ratios in film and what the size numbers represent. I also read multiple articles on aspect ratios and what they represent when used in films, along with notable examples filmmakers utilize each aspect ratio to communicate something to the audience.
Materials
I created this timeline breaking down the evolution of the aspect ratio in film and TV using TimelineJS. TimelineJS is an open-source tool that allows user to create interactive timelines simply using just a Google spreadsheet. The features available to be added to the timeline are description and photos connected to each time period, along with customizing fonts, background colors, and more. After adding all the elements needed to the spreadsheet, user then can go ahead and publish the spreadsheet to the web and paste the link to generate the timeline.
Results
After doing deep research, reading multiple articles, watching videos, and utilizing visualizations, I have gathered all the important information on a history of aspect ratios in film and TV in this timeline along with the evolution of home TV. These are the important events that lead to the evolution of aspect ratios which shifted the way on how filmmaking is being approached. Even though each website gave me multiple versions of periods on where aspect ratios are being shifted; however, I selected the ones that are the most impactful to the film industry and the world of TV. As a result, I have included 10 events in this timeline, which includes (1) 1892 “Original Silent Film Format” (2) 1932 “Academy Ratio” (3) 1952 “Cinerama”(3) 1953 “Cinemascope” (4) 1954 “Vistavision” (5) 1955 “Todd A-O” (6) 1957 “MGM 65” (7) 1959 “Super Panavision 70” (8) 1970 “IMAX” (9) 1996 “HDTV”. This timeline concludes how the aspect ratio evolved over time and how home TV changed from an original size of — 4:3 to HDTV with a ratio of 16:9, along with the reasoning behind the ratio.
The reason why today’s standard TV is of 16:9 is because it is the geometric mean of the most two common extremes of the ratios — 4×3 and 2.39. In each time period, the aspect ratio was changed in a way to offer something new to the movie goers and to keep the movie theater alive. During the 1950, the TV was getting all the attention and the movie theater audience was decreasing significantly; therefore, the first widescreen film was introduced — to offer the audience the experience they cannot have at home. This then hit the market and became huge, which sparked off a decade long war for widescreen film formats, resulting in today’s IMAX screen, which is of a 1.43:1 ratio and runs 70mm film horizontally. A known movie played on IMAX is “The Dark Knight Rises” (2012).
All these aspect ratios are used interchangeably by filmmakers in order to give their audience specific moods based on the scenes. For example, The Grand Budapest Hotel directed by Wes Anderson was shot in 1.33, 1.85, and 2.35. Each ratio represents each decade in the movie since the movie jumps through three time periods. Wes Anderson matched the ratios with what they were popular in the decade they were set. This technique gives the feeling of shifting between time periods from scene to scene with changes in the aspect ratios throughout the film.
Reflection
As a person who has an interest in cinema and filmmaking, I was fascinated to find out how everything in films has its purpose and meaning. I decided to look deeper into the history of aspect ratio in film and TV as I have noticed how multiple aspect ratios were used throughout a film and as well as seeing new films using the 4:3 aspect ratio, which was the first aspect ratio ever introduced. During the research, I have found different articles that highlight different periods of the evolution; however, I made sure to include all periods that contain major shifts in the aspect ratio in which heavily influenced today’s cinema and TV. I gathered information from all over the sites and decided to stick with 10 periods that were extremely influential to the cinema world. The problem I faced was the process of separating events into different time periods. Some articles combined two events in one period so I had to make sure if they are worth being combined or if each event deserves its own period and should be elaborated further. What I wish worked with the timeline is being able to add more than one image to each time period. I struggled to pick what image I should use — if I should use an image that explains how the camera works when filming for that specific aspect ratio or should I use an image that compares between two aspect ratios.
In conclusion, this project and research truly changed how I see films. From now on, I would be noticing and paying attention to the aspect ratios used in films and the meanings behind them. I hope to further look into aspect ratios and cinematography for each time periods because it is fascinating to me how little things in film has its purpose but not everyone notices.
Sources
https://www.freelancevideocollective.com/understanding-aspect-ratios-for-filmmaking/
https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-aspect-ratio-definition/
https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/film-studies-101-aspect-ratios/
https://filmora.wondershare.com/final-cut-pro/change-aspect-ratio-in-fcpx.html