Letterboxing internet videos

sfoster

sfoster

Staff Member
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Some people here seem to be fans of letter boxing, saying it produces a certain 'feel'

Has a television show ever been produced with letter boxing for this reason?

Certainly the walking dead doesn't have black bars because it 'feels more cinematic' and I believe the only reason that movies have those is because they were designed to be seen on the big screen theatre.

It seems to me if you're designing something for television, you would try to take up the full television screen real estate.

If you're designing something to be viewed on youtube, you should do the same. Intentionally giving up screen real estate to try to seem more like something that was designed for a different medium strikes me as misguided.

Your thoughts?
 
its all an illusion.. so meh, .. I like letterboxing because I can re frame my images in post! And when is a 60" TV a small screen :P Though seriously, some day youll be watching your old videos on youtube probably on a very large screen.. so might as well be prepared.
 
The thing with letter boxing is that it changes the framing. Action of screen tends to happen from left to right or from right to left, which is to say, it goes across the screen, rather than up and down. Squarer (although I realise that's not a word) aspect ratios tend to suffer from having to much happening in the up/down part of the frame, which distracts from the left/right.

Obviously, it's a matter of preference, but I don't think you should feel like because you have space, you have to use it. By that logic, all paintings would be done on the biggest possible canvas, all books would be 1000 pages long, and all plays would take place in amongst the audience.
 
NickClapper said:
Obviously, it's a matter of preference, but I don't think you should feel like because you have space, you have to use it. By that logic, all paintings would be done on the biggest possible canvas, all books would be 1000 pages long, and all plays would take place in amongst the audience.
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I think your leap in logic is flawed here. It would only make sense if you only wanted to print words on the top half of every page of a book, but not fill the bottom.. because it's more cinematic if you have to turn the page more often. or something silly like that.

or if you have a painting canvas and then left half of it blank. not using a bigger one, but leaving a big blank spot on the one that you have.

Definitely would get on a tangent that isn't relevant if I tried to discuss this analogy any further.

My point is, if you guys think this is so meaningful, why can't I think of a single television show that uses letter boxing ??
 
sfoster said:
I think your leap in logic is flawed here. It would only make sense if you only wanted to print words on the top half of every page of a book, but not fill the bottom.. because it's more cinematic if you have to turn the page more often. or something silly like that.

or if you have a painting canvas and then left half of it blank. not using a bigger one, but leaving a big blank spot on the one that you have.

Definitely would get on a tangent that isn't relevant if I tried to discuss this analogy any further.

My point is, if you guys think this is so meaningful, why can't I think of a single television show that uses letter boxing ??
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I agree, it's not a perfect analogy. Perhaps, think of it as leaving margins in a book rather than going right to the edges. And it's not about using half a canvas, it's about using the right sized canvas for what you want to do. Just because someone gives me a 2x3 canvas doesn't mean that's the shape and size of my picture.

YouTube's default canvas size isn't the same as Vimeo or Netflix or TV (and TV depends which TV you have) or Cinema. Ultimately, you have to choose what size canvas you want to work with. You might've never seen a letterboxes TV show (although that might be to do with your TV being either the right size, or adjusting the picture to fit its frame, which my TV irritatingly does) but have you ever seen a movie which isn't? I don't think anyone will pretend there's a hard and fast rule, you've just got to judge each piece as it goes. Honestly, a lot of stuff looks better with the top and bottom chopped off, and it's as simple as that.
 
Movies are typically letter boxed on home televisions but that wasn't the medium they were designed to be viewed on.

The TV definitely is not stretching the letter boxing because then it would make everyone tall and skinny and screw up the aspect ratio, or it would chop off the sides and you wouldn't be able to tell what's going on. I guess my TV is the right size for television.

Although some of the non-hd channels are surrounded by black on all sides
 
Sfoster, I somewhat agree with you. I believe letterboxing started with western-y type films where they wanted to get more of the landscape in, so they turned the film reel around the other way (which made the frame wider - having no experience with physical film, and only having read this described, I can't really explain how that works :P). Slowly it became convention, and that's what audiences grew used to. And eventually what becomes convention becomes to be what you "expect" from cinema.

And so, when 4:3 was still the aspect ratio for TV, there was a definite visual difference between the two, even if casual viewer wasn't consciously aware of it. For a long time amateur filmmakers didn't really have the option of shooting widescreen, as well. Anyway, TV shows have slowly started using wider and wider aspect ratios to make it feel like a more "cinematic" experience for the viewer - as if they're watching something of higher brow than *just* a TV show.

And I think amateur filmmakers take a similar approach.

So, it's kind of considered more cinematic, because.. it's considered more cinematic. So more people use it, contributing to that. It's a vicious cycle.

What annoys me is that people seem to use it without any real purpose or thought to "what is this saying?" and just use it simply for the sake of being "cinematic" (you can totally make a cinematic looking film in a 16:9 ratio, you just have to have actual lighting, grading, composition, etc skills - the ratio is sometimes a cheap gimmick to make up for your other flaws). When you meticulously choose everything that goes into your frame, why so whimsically choose what that frame is?
 
Aspect ratio is one of the most important choices for the look of the film. House of cards was never realeased theatrically, yet they made their own aspect ratio of 2:1.
 
there ya go ^^^^ House Of Cards a "TV" show that is lettered boxed.

Dont claim that its not really a TV show, I never watched it on anything but my TV..
 
wheatgrinder said:
there ya go ^^^^ House Of Cards a "TV" show that is lettered boxed.

Dont claim that its not really a TV show, I never watched it on anything but my TV..
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It's fits into the tv/computer demographic that I'm talking about.
Good think I didn't say cable :lol:

Okay so we've got one!
I did a little googling on it, and apparently netflix will actually crop stuff to avoid black bars in almost all of its content and house of cards is excepted.

according to this random forum anyway
http://www.reduser.net/forum/archive/index.php/t-102980.html

interesting
 
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