Moviewise | The Future of Cinema Is in the Past @Moviewise | Uploaded September 2023 | Updated October 2024, 41 minutes ago.
A video essay about how current directors have been using the Scope aspect ratio (~2.4 : 1) incorrectly.
To prove that the wide images we have been getting are not truly wide, we’ll go through the history of widescreen. First we’ll see how classical filmmakers like William Wyler, Anthony Mann, Vincente Minnelli and Akira Kurosawa used to frame their images in Academy Ratio (1.37 : 1), then we’ll see how they adapted to 2.35 and 2.55. What did they gain and what did they lose?
As time went by, however, Scope faced the challenge of television and pan and scan (urgh…). To save their images, directors devised two strategies that allowed their films to be shown on the small screen without much loss: Shoot Full Frame or Shoot and Protect. The latter was the more popular choice and it slowly lead to the downfall of Scope.
TVs grew bigger and wider, making letterbox an attractive choice to save Scope frames. Unfortunately, directors got a liking to those black bars without much minding why they were there. This lead to our age, in which audiovisual media is shot in 2.39 willy-nilly, simply because it looks “cinematic”.
And it seems the best way to get our directors to deliver us images that look full, tall and composed (at least better than bad Scope) is with the return of Academy Ratio as examples from Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight and Zack Snyder’s Justice League can prove. By the way, did you ever notice how poorly framed is Inception?
00:00 Academy Ratio
02:18 Scope
06:32 Pan and Scan
08:55 Letterboxing
11:27 IMAX vs. Bad Scope
16:52 Academy Returns
#videoessay #cinema #directing #cinematography #aspectratio
Canon in D Major by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100301
Artist: incompetech.com
Jumpin Boogie Woogie by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Artist: audionautix.com
Call to Adventure - Comedy by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1300022
Artist: incompetech.com
Copyright free images from Unsplash
A video essay about how current directors have been using the Scope aspect ratio (~2.4 : 1) incorrectly.
To prove that the wide images we have been getting are not truly wide, we’ll go through the history of widescreen. First we’ll see how classical filmmakers like William Wyler, Anthony Mann, Vincente Minnelli and Akira Kurosawa used to frame their images in Academy Ratio (1.37 : 1), then we’ll see how they adapted to 2.35 and 2.55. What did they gain and what did they lose?
As time went by, however, Scope faced the challenge of television and pan and scan (urgh…). To save their images, directors devised two strategies that allowed their films to be shown on the small screen without much loss: Shoot Full Frame or Shoot and Protect. The latter was the more popular choice and it slowly lead to the downfall of Scope.
TVs grew bigger and wider, making letterbox an attractive choice to save Scope frames. Unfortunately, directors got a liking to those black bars without much minding why they were there. This lead to our age, in which audiovisual media is shot in 2.39 willy-nilly, simply because it looks “cinematic”.
And it seems the best way to get our directors to deliver us images that look full, tall and composed (at least better than bad Scope) is with the return of Academy Ratio as examples from Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight and Zack Snyder’s Justice League can prove. By the way, did you ever notice how poorly framed is Inception?
00:00 Academy Ratio
02:18 Scope
06:32 Pan and Scan
08:55 Letterboxing
11:27 IMAX vs. Bad Scope
16:52 Academy Returns
#videoessay #cinema #directing #cinematography #aspectratio
Canon in D Major by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100301
Artist: incompetech.com
Jumpin Boogie Woogie by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Artist: audionautix.com
Call to Adventure - Comedy by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1300022
Artist: incompetech.com
Copyright free images from Unsplash
