~Desired look/effect #4~

Aspect Ratio

Now it has been on m mind for a while however i didn't know exactly it was i was looking for. I was watching some A level title sequences and they all seemed to be missing a curtail ingredient and that was the screen ratio. It may not be a big deal but things like this that i cant really figure out for a long time is usually something small but has a reasonable impact on the title sequence.

Why is this so important?

I believe that screen ratio is important because the right screen can make a difference and can most of the time heave a impact on the viewer without them realising and this is one of the things professional movies implement to make their movies stand out from any old budget movie; in my eyes anyway.

To me making it 4:3 i think deprives the visuals of their meaning and this way the viewer can get a bigger picture of what they are watching. Its common logic really people who have small TV's want bigger TV's for a bigger image.

My preferred screen ratio? (16x9 Letterbox -Horizontal style)

I done my research and found out the correct term for the look i want and its call 16x9 letter box. The black strips that case that sandwich the screen so to speak gives it that cinema feeling to it. The right screen size isn't just whats important but how its presented. Of course the letterbox look wouldn't go well with 4:3 for the simple reason that the screen is compacted enough with un used space. The letterbox effect for 16x9 has a balance.

Since i'm not a professional i don't know exactly what is required to set up this kind of screen ratio but i do know what looks best and i will try my best to implement this. i used to think that the vertical lettbox effect doesn't suit any ratio aspect but looking at it a little closer i realised something. The ratio style of the screen should bet suit the genre of movie. Horror and thriller movies look good on a horizontal 16x9 letterbox because the screen isn't squashed together but still maintains the movie feeling.

16x9 vertical letterbox

Doesn't rally suit Action or comedy movies, i would prefer a letter box on action films rather than comedy films. which brings me onto m next point.

the weight the letter box and 16x9 look holds (genre)

I think that the widescreen and letterbox effect only suit certain genre because it establishes a level of intensity to the movie. Since my title sequence is thriller based that means the 16x9 letter box look will further on establish what my movie genre is. A subtle 'out-of-movie enigma code' if you will. To have a letter box effect on genre types like Comedy and Urban would take away from the genre because we don't necessarily want the audience to think its a serious film however i can most of the time tell the audience that there is a fragment of serious tone to the movie. It could be just me but they do make a difference.

16:9 VS 4:3

The 4:3 aspect ratio is the standard ratio they would use back in the 80's and this is because technology was limited and somewhat mildly primitive to current technology. Don't get me wrong 16x9 is much better than 4:3 however 16x9 int the best aspect ratio we have. Its actually 2.35:1. However its not all the time that we use the "best" we have to adjust when we use certain aspect ratios. Most cameras shoot  16:9 by default but implementing the letterbox effect will be a tad troublesome depending on how we decider to shoot the video. We need to leave enough space in the visual so we can implement it.

Here is a video which pretty much gave me additional info on this topic and what aspect ratios work the best: