what aspect ratio is this?

James Miller did something very similar with the FS100, which made me fall in-love with the camera and hence I bought it.

 
jambredz said:
thanks Egg Born. Now I'm wishing I had shot something with that aspect ratio in mind to frame stuff better. But i used what i could from the footage I had. Def not something I'd be doing usually at all. Just wanted to try something different.
Click to expand...

I didn't realise it wasn't shot especially for the format. Your shot selection was very good then. The boats and other large structures looked really good but the shots I found most interesting were the shots with a group of two or three guys central in the frame with wide expanses either side. It was both intimate due to the short vertical ratio (similar to 4:3 intimacy) yet expansive placing them inside of a wider world (pardon the pun) with essentially a full 1.77 frame either side of them (actually a 4:3 frame sandwiched between two 16:9 frames is 4.8 so pretty close!). In a 1.85 frame or even to an extent a 2.35 widescreen aspect a similarly framed shot would have simply resulted in neither the subject or the background being sufficiently dominant in the frame. You would ordinarily have to put the subject in one of the side thirds so that the background to either the left or right could be sufficiently revealed. In this aspect ratio you almost get an effect like those escher illusions. If you look at the subject the world disappears, if you look at the world the subject disappears into it. Interesting...

Definitely a worthwhile experiment. You could for example create a 4:1 frame within a shot of regular aspect. For example on a transcontinental train trip shooting out the window with the blind pulled down to create the 4:1 ratio to get the effect of the expansive tracts of nature; or using the gun slit of a german bunker to create a 4:1 framing to capture the full scope of a normandy beach landing.
 
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very good analysis Eggborn. These shots were framed for 1.77:1 (16:9), but they were well framed from the get go so it wasn't very difficult to cut out a good section of them. You bring up very interesting points especially the real world "frame within a frame". I'm finding composition and framing to be more and more interesting nowadays and find myself more keenly taking notice of how things are shot and subtle aspects of framing as opposed to the grand camera "look at me" camera movement. I now find a well framed shot on sticks...especially wide angles (not superwide weird looking), to be very appealing.

another reason I did this aspect ratio was because I wanted that sense of claustrophobia or being locked in to contrast the emancipation theme. But i didnt really wanna get into detail (in the description) about why i did what i did...just wanted people to watch.
 
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Yeah, I've seen it before too. It's an interesting dynamic how the 4:1 ratio shows both more and less at the same time. Another interesting thing to note is that is suggestive of the vision of a plains dwelling herd animal, especially with a wide lens and infinity focus. Don't know if this could be used to tap into something primal or not...
 
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