Letterboxing

butterbescotch · Apr 9, 2012

I am torn on having a letter box or cutting the video. I mean the letter box will render your video about wider but I'm thinking of making a video with the project settings of 1280x574, would that be the same of the letter boxed 1280x720, all other things being equal?

sonnyboo · Apr 9, 2012

Letterboxing is when you have a cropped image with the actual black bars on the top and bottom.

1280x720 is 16x9 or 1.77 to 1 aspect ratio.

If you cropped the image further to 1280x574, you are creating a 2.23 to 1 aspect ratio. If displayed on a 16x9 TV, it would be letterboxed. This is similar to the 2.35 to 1 of 'scope' movies theatrically.

The question is really an artistic one. Do you need the rectangular image to be a wider aspect ratio? How does that serve the story you are telling?

Jooble · Apr 11, 2012

butterbescotch said:
I am torn on having a letter box or cutting the video. I mean the letter box will render your video about wider but I'm thinking of making a video with the project settings of 1280x574, would that be the same of the letter boxed 1280x720, all other things being equal?

Just wanted to add to this...

cropping or letterboxing to 1280x574 would give you a 2.2:1 aspect ratio, this inst used anywhere as a standard most features would use a 2.35:1 or 2.40:1 aspect ratio for an artistic 'scope' look or TV would just leave it the way it is (16:9 = 1280x720). To get either of these using 720p footage (1280x720) you would need to crop or letterbox to:

1280x545 = 2.35:1 (I usually use this one)
1280x533 = 2.40:1

wheatgrinder · Apr 12, 2012

I use this page
http://www.digitalrebellion.com/webapps/aspect_calc.html

you set the "calculate" field to height
set the "present" to 720 HDTV
and chose your aspect to calculate the height..

sonnyboo · Apr 12, 2012

Jooble said:
cropping or letterboxing to 1280x574 would give you a 2.2:1 aspect ratio

Well.... that's isn't a 100% true. There is a rare, but official use of 2.2 to 1 aspect ratio called Super Panavision

Super Panavision 70 was a 70mm version of the Panavision process meant to compete directly with the 70mm Todd-AO process. Super Panavision 70 has also been known as Panavision 70, Super Panavision, Panavision, and Panavision Super 70. With an anamorphic lens, SP70 movies could have a final aspect ratio of 2.76:1. Famous movies that were filmed in Super Panavision 70 are My Fair Lady, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Jooble · Apr 12, 2012

Fair play, didnt know 2.2:1 was used for anything. I imagine its fairly rare these days but thats ANOTHER! aspect ratio to add to the long list lol.

sonnyboo · Apr 12, 2012

Jooble said:
Fair play, didnt know 2.2:1 was used for anything. I imagine its fairly rare these days but thats ANOTHER! aspect ratio to add to the long list lol.

It's practically nonexistent today, but check out

http://www.widescreen.org/aspect_ratios.shtml

wheatgrinder · Apr 16, 2012

All this data leaves me without an understanding of WHAT I should do. I like the widescreen look, even on my little internet videos. So whats the RIGHT aspect to chose?

butterbescotch · Apr 17, 2012

@Everyone

Thanks for the informative replies.

@wheatgrinder

There's really no right or wrong aspect. Mostly it's just a universal standard. As long as the aspect correlates on your composition, I guess you'd be fine.

Jooble · Apr 17, 2012

Aspect ratios are usually down to two things...

1. artistic preference
2. re framing in post (pan scan)

But yea its up to you, most common one I see and use 2.35 for films.