Characters are frequently climbing up hills, or framed in the shadow of mountains. As a result, Kent builds her compositions vertically rather than horizontally.
The Nightingale is a beautiful film, featuring a number of striking establishing shots and some wonderful scenery, but the aspect ratio creates a situation where the screen is almost as tall as it is wide. This creative choice also informs how Kent portrays Australia itself, eschewing the sorts of panaromas that one expects from a western. Instead, The Nightingale presents the frontier as incredibly dense and overwhelming branches cluttering up paths, leaves in travelers’ faces, forests that are so deep they might swallow a person whole. The Nightingale is not interested in the frontier as a vast and limitless horizon, a huge stretch of land so vast and ripe with potential that it would struggle to be contained within Cinerama or VistaVision. Most obviously and immediately, it affects how Kent portrays the wilderness into which Clare and Billy are wandering. Kent shoots The Nightingale in a 4:3 aspect ratio, which is an interesting choice on a number of levels. Interesting to read of another Western that took this path, because the one that came to my mind was Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale (2018). I find it very interesting, and something I've always overlooked 4:3 not 4:9 ✅ I'll be thinking about these things for every movie I see from here on. Then I wondered if it was just me overthinking it, maybe that aspect ratio had nothing to do with what I was feeling.īut why do you think a modern film would use this aspect ratio? Why would a director pick the square over the rectangle? If someone knows of an interview with a director discussing their choices about this I'd be grateful.Īre there other films you know of that are intentionally presented in this way? It also made me try to think of other ones that mightve been better (or felt differently) if they were 4:9 instead of widescreen.Įdit: thanks for all the helpful insights. The squareness added to this feeling of being stuck in a small, single space which enhanced the setting for The Whale. I thought about it off and on throughout, would the viewing experience be different if it were a rectangle? It thew me off for a minute because I wasn't used to seeing black bars on the sides of the picture at a theater.
#Fracture movie aspect ratio tv#
I usually think of the square format to be more like older media from tv shows from the 90s on today's TVs. Then, I saw The Whale (no spoilers) today and it's projected in what looks like more of a 4:9 square aspect ratio instead of 16:9 or 21:9 widescreen rectangle. I'm sure that I watched something that came out recently where the aspect ratios changed between scenes, square to widescreen and back. I don't know much about it, and never thought much about it until recently. I apologize in advance for probably butchering the terminology of these aspect ratios.
0 kommentar(er)
