Fiction Adaptation Unit: Pre-Production - Cinematography

When filming Mike’s project we used a 2.35:1 cinemascope aspect ratio, giving a lot of space on either side but sacrificing the height of the shot.

I’ve been thinking about what aspect ratio I want to use and was leaning towards the same as Mike’s but realised some of my shots would end up with unwanted negative space.

1.6:1 is widescreen computer displays, 1.77:1 is HD and 1.85:1 is the standard theatrical AR.

So what do I go for?

A little more research led me to this video that explains how the 19 film On The Waterfront was supposedly shot in such a way that if you watched it in the three mentioned ratios it wouldn’t ruin the viewing. Each shot was framed to accommodate each ratio.

I wish I had come across this video earlier as I would have definitely tried this out but with my shoot being tomorrow I feel it’s a little too late.

The film itself will be uploaded to Youtube which adopts the 16:9 (or 1.77:1) AR but I would like a more filmic look to my project so I may go with 1.85:1.

The Sony EX1-R allows you to set an aspect marker to several ratios including 1.85:1 so I can frame my images to these markers. The Sony films in 16:9 so as long as I keep within the markers I can add a letterbox effect in Final Cut Pro to remove the image outside of the area.

Below is a image I found showing the sizes of the different aspect ratios:

The difference in ratio only applies to what you're viewing it on, so watching an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on a computer or widescreen TV will give the letterbox effect but you can adjust most modern TV's now to different ratios to get the best look. 

All in all I am either going to shoot in 1.66:1 or 1.85:1 but the Sony doesn't have a marker for 1.77:1.