Viewinder Film School

Film School: A Guide to Aspect Ratios

What are aspect ratios, and what can they mean for visual storytelling?

What Does This Have To Do With Storytelling?

As Fandor demonstrates, the power of aspect ratio is that the screen’s dimensions can tell us anything from the time period of the story it frames, to the mood of the characters and the action it’s our window onto:

Now You See It looks at more examples, to help answer the question every film-maker must about Aspect Ratio: Which Should You Choose?:

StudioBinder also looks to examples to help answer this question about Aspect Ratios in Film: How to Choose The Most Cinematic Aspect Ratio:

The Technical Stuff, Explained

In production, aspect ratio is often determined by the camera’s sensor size. In Depth Cine offers an overview of the more popular industry standard sensor sizes:

Media Division offers a more comprehensive look at the various sensor sizes, including how and where they have been most popularly used:

Ryan Coogler, the director of Black Panther (2018) and Creed (2015), breaks down each film format his film Sinners (2025) was filmed and released in (via Kodak):

How Blockbuster Film-Makers Respond To All This

We now come to IMAX and The Dark Knight (2008), among others. Christopher Nolan began his eventual graduation to shooting entire films in IMAX by learning to frame within his frame for Panavision and HDTV (16:9) aspect ratios. Denis Villeneuve‘s Dune films were shot in IMAX, but released in both IMAX (1.43:1) and cinema (2.39:1) aspect ratios. And as far back as the 1990s, James Cameron was shooting his films for release in 2.39:1, 1.78:1, and 1.43:1 aspect ratios (some of which even added 3D). All three directors manage to optimise their films for release across a range of formats – without using pan and scan (via From The Frame):

From the video above – ‘ground glass’ (aspect ratio guides) used on Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991), Oppenheimer (2023), and Dune: Part Two (2024):

More on How Dune: Part Two was filmed in IMAX, for release in a range of formats (via KDCloudy)…

… while the IMAX aspect ratio of Dune: Part Three (2026) created opportunities for cropping its trailer for Instagram and YouTube. Here they are, superimposed:

Hoyte van Hoytema, cinematographer on Nolan’s Oppenheimer, explains why centre-framing the action (which also happens to allow for subsequent crops for other formats) is essential when filming for an IMAX screen (via Variety):

In response to Nolan’s The Odyssey (2026), Flora provides further detail about the challenges of framing for IMAX:

Vashi Nedomansky breaks down the famously effective centre-framing of Mad Max: Fury Road (2015, which we look at in more detail here):

How TV Responds To All This

Different shows and different screens don’t always match dimensions. Whether it’s YouTube versus Instagram, landscape versus portrait, or widescreen cinema versus television, images are often cropped to fit different formats, and moved around to show the most important part of each frame. This technique is called pan & scan – and, as Patrick H. Willems explains, often you may be seeing only part of movies you watch:

Sometimes, the “upgrade” is actually a downgrade, What Disney Plus calls “Remastered Aspect Ratio” of early episodes of The Simpsons is actually an image that is cropped and/or stretched from 4:3 to 16:9. So the “remaster” is just less of, or a distortion of, the original:

Original 4:3
Remastered 16:9
Original 4:3
Remastered 16:9

Then there’s the exception that proves the rule: CinemaStix recounts the curious case of Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993), the animated movie which was originally commissioned for home video release (4:3), but midway through production a widescreen version was ordered for theatrical release (16:9) – so in this instance, it’s the widescreen theatrical version which crops the full-frame TV version, not the other way around:

The “HD remaster” can often include more destructive alterations than simply cropping. Exhibit A: The Great Tragedy of the Buffy HD remaster (via Passion of the Nerd):

Try It Yourself

If your project’s final delivery is to different formats – say, both “horizontal” for YouTube, and “vertical” for Instagram – or if you’re simply not sure and want to maximise options for deciding in post, perhaps your camera offers an open gate recording option. DP Review explains what it is, and how and why you might use it:

Delving deeper into the mechanics of capturing true “widescreen” footage – specifically, at an enthusiast or prosumer level – is Anamorphic on a Budget‘s detailed explainer, The Effects of Sensor Size and Focal Reducers:

More on focal reducers:

Film School: Focal Reducers / Speed Boosters

Ryan Coogler, Christopher Nolan, and other film-makers talk film formats:

Film School: Film-Makers Talk Film Formats