Ari_Ch4

     What I've been reflecting on since reading chapter 4 is aspect ratio. It is something I don't typically take notice of in a film, but I want to do so more because I think it's a really interesting method of personalizing your work and, as the textbook puts it, supporting your story. According to the textbook and my own experience, it is fairly common for the aspect ration to stay the same for a majority of the film, but specific ones can have it change to help the audience understand that the scene they are witnessing is intense and impactful.

    While usually done in live action cinema, the first example that comes to mind is the animated pilot for Lackadaisy. The first few minutes of the film are in a standard aspect ratio (I'm not exactly sure which one, it's on YouTube and takes up the whole video box, so possibly 1.85:1), but about six minutes into the episode, the aspect ratio fades in to be thinner at the top and bottom of the screen. This is done specifically right before a car chase scene in the episode, and remains there throughout the more actionable portion, as the situation continues to escalate with a shootout and explosives. The aspect ratio bars actually slowly squeeze in even further on one character near the very end of when they appear, around 15:48, as said character focuses on aiming his gun and debates whether or not to shoot. He takes a breath, lowers the gun, and the aspect ratio returns to how it was at the beginning of the episode and remains there for the rest of it. These choices were made specifically to highlight these more action-packed scenes and force the audience into feeling the tension at the very end of the action scene. They are aided by the excellent musical score and sound design of this pilot, as well as an animated version of what I believe is called a Dolly zoom around 9:27. I highly recommend watching it if you are passionate about film, animated shows, or are just interested in cats smuggling alcohol during the Prohibition. 

    Sometimes these bars are added for other reasons, though. According to this blog post, there is a practice called "letterboxing" that involves adding aspect ratio bars, or letterboxes, to the film so that it can fit different screen sizes without the film itself being affected in any way. This post also talks about the artistic choices behind letterboxing that I mentioned earlier, as well as the fact that it can be implemented for consistency across platforms. I wanted to add this second source, just in case me rambling about an animated pilot I like doesn't count.