29-05-2022, 11:08 PM
(This post was last modified: 29-05-2022, 11:13 PM by wonkey_monkey.)
(29-05-2022, 10:00 PM)Larry the Loafer Wrote: Mobile screens are far narrower than 4:3 in portrait mode, so my assumption is that it's a nostalgia thing; go letterbox to look cinematic, go pillarboxed to look vintage.
I think the point is that the closer the image is to a square, the bigger it can be (on average) on all screens, regardless of orientation.
As for the thing about "widescreen" talk shows and the like, I've never understood the appeal of 2:1. It's barely wider than 16:9 - it's not like it's really enough to change the composition of shots or anything like that - all it does is add thin black bars (which are half as thin again, if you haven't changed the default "overscan" mode of a telly), which strikes me as just a fake signal to the viewer that this is a high quality thing that they're watching.
4:3, 16:9, and 2.35:1 are all different enough that they do have a big effect on the composition of shots.