Chapter 6
I. I. aspect ratio
a. relationship of screen width to screen height
b. standard aspect ratios
i. regardless of the size, it is four units wide and three units high
ii. 4 x 3 is mostly used for television shows because of the common shape of televisions
iii. 16 x 9 is usually called HDTV
iv. 5.55 x 3 is usually called widescreen
v. 7 x 3 is usually called Panavision
vi. most US films are shot and projected in widescreen
II. II. framing
a. 4 x 3 is better for close-ups and medium shots
b. not a major difference in height and width, so there is not much negative space or "dead zones"
c. widescreen, or 16 x 9, is used for films that want to capture backgrounds or landscapes
i. easier to film dialogue scenes because more than one person can fit in the frame
d. difficult to format 16 x 9 for a 4 x 3 screen
e. techniques to switch between sizes
i. windowboxing: simplest technique, reduce the size of the picture and place it in the center of the widescreen frame
ii. pillarboxing: fitting a full-sized 4 x 3 image in the middle of a 16 x 9 frame
1. fitted into the center of a 16 x 9 screen so that the top and bottom coincide with the 16 x 9 picture space
iii. letterboxing: used to make a widescreen presentation
1. show the whole width and height of the original format and mask the top and bottom of the screen with black, white, or colored bars
iv. cutting, stretching, and squeezing
1. more drastic ways of making wide-screen images fit the aspect ratio of standard video is to simply crop the wide-screen image on either side
2. digitally stretch or squeeze the image to fit a specific aspect ratio without the telltale dead zones on the sides or on the top and bottom of the screen
3. pan-and-scan process: most important portions of the wide-screen frame are scanned and made to fix the 4 x 3 aspect ratio of the standard video screen
a. series of shots is analyzed for various aesthetic criteria and then reedited so that they will show up effectively on the small screen
f. secondary frames
i. artificial masking
1. blacking out both sides of the screen
ii. organic masking
1. less obvious method of masking by filling the sides of the screen with natural scenic elements
g. screens within the screen
i. creating a secondary frame of any aspect ratio within the principal frame and leaving the space around the secondary frame empty
ii. moving camera
1. can easily overcome the basic restrictions of the fixed aspect ratio
III. III. aesthetics of size
a. size constancy: we perceive people and their environments as normal sized regardless of whether they appear in a long shot or a close-up on a large movie screen or small video screen
b. object size
i. knowledge of object
1. relation to screen area
a. judge size by how much screen area is occupies
b. if it takes up a large screen, it is perceived as relatively large
2. scale
a. we make continual judgments about object size by seeing the object on-screen in relation to other (usually known) objects that appear in the same shot
ii. image size
1. close-ups
2. standard and small screens need close ups
3. inductive sequencing
4. shot sequence must be very dense, cramming a lot of shots in a relatively short time period
5. brief running times
6. stories must be told in a very short time span or at least in relatively short segments
7. dense audio track
8. need to pay particular attention to the audio track because of the extremely limited visual space
c. image size and relative energy
i. image size influences how we feel about certain screen events
ii. large images feel more overpowering than a small video image
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