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<strong>Appendix</strong> 6<br />
Aspect Ratios, Anamorphic<br />
Image, and Wide-screen<br />
One of the earliest decisions you need to make before production is the aspect ratio of the fi nished<br />
project. There are several ways to make a motion picture wide-screen. Most fi lm frames are one and<br />
one-third times wider than they are tall. This is an aspect ratio of 1.33 : 1. This is often called onethree-three.<br />
Another way of expressing this aspect is 4 × 3, in other words, four units wide for every<br />
three units high. This was the aspect ratio for the fi rst forty years of motion pictures and has been<br />
the standard for television until recently. The easiest way to make the picture wider is to mask off<br />
some of the top and bottom. Wide-screen has become popular and today the average fi lm in the<br />
United States has an aspect ratio of 1.85 : 1. If you were to look at the original negative, there would<br />
be a full 1.33 : 1 frame with an area at the top and another at the bottom that you were never meant<br />
to see. This area is sometimes masked off in printing, but more often it masked off right in the projector.<br />
In Europe, the 1.66 : 1 aspect has been more popular. But there, too, the real size is 1.33 : 1<br />
with the rest masked in the projector. Various aspect ratios are illustrated in Figure A6.1.<br />
There are even wider aspect ratios; 2.35 : 1 is often used, but at this point you are throwing away half<br />
the picture. In an effort to keep the fi lm frame as large as possible, the anamorphic lens was developed.<br />
The anamorphic lens is only curved in one axis. The shooting anamorphic lens squeezes the<br />
image horizontally keeping the picture the same height but packing almost twice as much horizontal<br />
image onto the negative. The projection anamorphic lens unsqueezes the image, making the projected<br />
picture two-and-a-third times wider than tall while showing the entire frame.<br />
Letterboxing<br />
Wide-screen movies are often “letterboxed” on video. It’s interesting to note that when watching a<br />
1.85 motion picture letterboxed on a 4 × 3 television, you are seeing exactly what is on the fi lm: a<br />
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