Can Aspect Ratio help tell the story? | Part 2 - Getting to the Nitty Gritty

Can Aspect Ratio help tell the story?

Part 2 - Getting to the Nitty  Gritty

 In Part 1 we talked about three general shapes for videos and a basic premise of what type of story they lend themselves to.

Premise: Squarish is best suited to show people and stories that focus on them. Wide is best suited to conveying story elements and should be used for "plot driven" stories. Very Wide is best suited to display place and should be used when the setting plays an especially important roll in the piece.


Before we go any further I'd like to point out that we are assuming that people will be viewing things in the current time & on current devices. This means they all have the same basic shape, which is 'Wide'. I mention this because any frame that isn't the same shape will have a letter box of some sort (AKA:  the dreaded "Black Bars") to fill up the rest of the screen when in fullscreen mode. In other modes the screen will probably be full of logos, ads, and other stuff that you don't need while watching. The dreaded "Black Bars"  will come into play a bit later.

Squarish

1) Squarish

The idea goes something like this. 'Squarish' works well for showing people partly because it nicely frames a head & shoulder shot giving lots of expressiveness to the face and a little context with the shoulders. It can be conversational or dramatic without being overpowering.  This is where the "Black Bars" come in.  Watching a square frame on a wide device puts the negative space (Black Bars) on the sides.  This means when there's a person in the frame it can, sometimes, give the impression that the person is looking at something that's obscured from us.  These relatively large portions of the screen that are obscured can be exploited to enhance a sense of mystery, a sense that something is being hidden or is just out of sight. Many stories aren't about the external objects that challenge the characters, they're about the people and how the deal with challenges.

Wide

2) Wide

'Wide' frames work well when adventure or plot are driving the story. You can see more of the situation around the characters. This is great when the situation or environment is the primary driver of peoples actions within the story. If the characters are; lost in a hostel environment, in a vehicle, or in a social situation where they are expected to fit in this additional information about the environment can be helpful in telling the story and keep the danger ever present.  In regards to "Black Bars" there are none so it will seem that the viewer is getting all the information that's available. Which could also be used to catch viewers off guard when something is relieved.

Very Wide

3) Very Wide

At one time 'Very wide' frames where used to set movies apart from Television. TV was 'Squarish'
  and the only way to get the spectral of cinema was to go to a theater and see it in it's original 'Very Wide' format. A lot of it's use is still tied to that idea of the spectral of cinema. It's meant to be epic and important and awe-inspiring. It can be these things (when done well) but it excels when the story already has these elements and the frame isn't being used as an attempt to inject them into a story that doesn't already have them.  'Very Wide'  is good for stories with epic characters and epic scenery, especially epic scenery. Simply because you can see more of it.  Think of a mountain chain or a mile long space ship. They fill up a very wide frame but, in a square frame their impact would be lessened by the extra scenery at the top and bottom of the frame.

In a very wide frame the The characters take up such a small space (in wide shots) that their surroundings can become a character of it's own. If you have a "man against Nature" story the nature can look bigger stretching out from side to side with a small figure in the dwarfed in the frame. This format will create long 'Black Bars' at the top & bottom on most devices. This can give a feeling of being detached, or it can give a feeling or an overview or seeing the bigger picture.

Conclusion

This is mostly bullshit. Mostly because there are advantages and disadvantages to each frame size, but they can easily be outweighed by other things. One of the biggest is who is creating the experience, and how much thought & skill did they bring to bear on the project. If you give a master film maker a frame shaped like a star, they'll still tell a captivating story.  More important than the shape of the frame is how you use it and how that makes the viewer feel.
 
So, what if it is BS? If it makes us think more about the experience we're creating, that's not a bad thing.


 *Note All Photos from my latest visit to The Summerfolk Music & Craft Festival. To see more photos from Summerfolk 2018 follow my flickr Photo Stream.

Click Subscribe and never miss a post.
Want to see more?   I'm also on  Flickr, Vimeo,  YouTube, & Twitter.