Experts state that during the analog era, frame ratios were set in horizontal scales such as 1.15:1, 2.76:1, and that the 4:3 screen ratio was adopted to avoid problems in showing films shot for cinema on television towards the 1970s. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Cem Tutar emphasizes that the design of smartphones has led to vertical video shooting coming to the forefront, while noting that mainstream cinema is still approaching these shooting scales with reservation, despite the vertical format being prominent in amateur shoots.
The cinema industry approaches vertical shooting with reservation
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Cem Tutar, Faculty Member at Üsküdar Üniversitesi Faculty of Communication, Department of Visual Communication Design, made evaluations regarding the usage areas of vertical-scale video shootings that have entered our lives with new media technologies.
Frame ratios were set in horizontal scales
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Cem Tutar, noting that new media technologies not only indicate a new regime of seeing but also a new break in the perception of perspective inherited from the Renaissance, said, “Looking at cinema, one of the classical mass communication tools at the beginning of the 20th century, it is seen as an audio-visual art form that uses and reinterprets the codes of preceding art forms, especially theatre, in terms of formal codes and content. Analog cinema is a cinema fixed and displayed on a light-sensitive celluloid strip. In shooting films in horizontal format as a formal code, the viewing method stemming from the position of both eyes, technical and economic reasons, habits created by stage and seating arrangements in Western performing arts, and the idea that horizontal compositions would facilitate storytelling prevail. Therefore, throughout the analog era, frame ratios were arranged in horizontal scales such as 1.15:1, 2.76:1.”
The 4:3 screen ratio was adopted
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Cem Tutar stated that by examining the reasons for the adoption of the horizontal frame in cinema, one can closely observe how the human sense of sight is constructed through socio-cultural and economic reasons, and added, “By the 1950s, the influence of television on the regime of seeing emerged. The National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) based its standardization of television monitor height and width on 4:3. Considering the economic relations between the television and cinema industries, the 4:3 screen ratio gained general acceptance towards the 1970s to avoid problems in showing films shot for cinema on television. The 16:9 format, which is based on the physiological structure of the eye and the fact that humans have a wider field of vision horizontally compared to vertically, offers a panoramic view.” he said.
The cinema approaches vertical shooting scales with reservation
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Cem Tutar stated, 'The final turning point in the production and distribution stages of visual materials' frame ratios occurred with smartphones,' and concluded his words as follows:
“The design of smartphones to be held vertically has led to vertical video shooting coming to the forefront. Considering that amateur video production and consumption have largely been done via mobile devices in recent years, it can be said that the characteristics of the technical device have affected the formal properties of audio-visual material in this context. It is possible to say that mainstream cinema is still approaching these shooting scales with reservation, despite the vertical format being prominent in amateur shoots. Leaving aside the experimentally emerging vertical cinema, motion picture production in this format is still used on social media platforms and in short amateur video shoots. As we live within a digital cultural sphere today, new media tools are seen to be constructing the act of seeing through new formal codes. This newly created visual aesthetic field not only represents a stage where the formal narrative codes of the past are deconstructed but also historically characterizes a new form of relationship established between technical tools and people.”