TV Advert Ratio's

[Melvin England]

Can someone explain to me why television advert makers quite often choose to film their adverts in cinemascope and academy ratio's instead of just sticking to the widescreen TV format ? Seems pointless to me as the product that a company is promoting and costing an arm and a leg to produce, isn't being splattered across the whole screen !

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[Ed Gordon]

They do it to help those of us watching a DVR recording can skip the commercials more easily.

They do it to annoy those cell phone users who insist the wide screen should only be shown in PillarBox.

The do it to make their commercial look like a high budget motion picture. If they film the commercial in wide screen and black and white, it makes there film look like a prestige production like Roma.

All kidding aside, I have no idea why they would, or why they would not, other than the same reasons film makers chose to shoot in scope.

[Melvin England]

You brought a smile to my face, Ed. How very true.

How very true could also apply these days, as you say, to film makers still filming in cinemascope. Most of the cinema screens these films are designed for are not even in scope ratio, so instead of being W I D E, they are just smaller and flatter to fit on the 1.85:1 ratio these new screens are built at.

Infuriating. Why bother ?

Long gone are the days when the trailers etc were one width, then suddenly one saw the screen get wider.... and wider... and wider for the main feature.

Roll on the introduction of cinemascope ratio televisions......

(Will it ever happen, one wonders ?)

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[Rob Young]

"Roll on the introduction of cinemascope ratio televisions......"

Philips tried it;

Philips Cinema 21:9 56PFL9954H 56in LCD TV Review | Trusted Reviews

It didn't catch on.

[Osi Osgood]

Gosh, I would have bought one! Especially if they had even larger ones!

[Rob Young]

I believe they went up to 58inch before giving up on them.

[Ed Gordon]

And once we've all agreed on bringing cinema widescreen to the living room, it's time to talk about my plans for TV makers to make 8K sets that are tall instead of wide, so we can watch 1.43:1 IMAX at home properly…

See: Why OLED panels make now the perfect time to bring back 21:9 ultrawide TVs

[Brian Fretwell]

"Roll on the introduction of cinemascope ratio televisions......"

Philips tried it;

Philips Cinema 21:9 56PFL9954H 56in LCD TV Review | Trusted Reviews

It didn't catch on.

Yes, I remember Richer Sounds selling them off at bargain prices.

[Martin Davey]

I suspect that all TV commercials are filmed electronically at 16:9, a film shoot being very rare. The bars are put in during post production to give an impression of a big budget, a device started in the 1980's with pop videos. The same applies to dramas and cheaply made, direct to streaming movies.

[David Strelitz]

About 10 years ago, at IBC, the second largest broadcast exhibition/convention in the world, Sony, because they could, showed a massive 80x8 approx screen occupying the width of their massive stand. They showed a fixed camera football match covering the whole length of the pitch with all four corner flags in view.

The cinematic experience crept into Wedding production for the Bridezilla brigade who paid extra to have black borders.
Whilst some TV ads are obviously made for cinema, the strict UK and specs, don't care about borders as long as the aspect ratio is 16x9 and all the other technical levels are conformed to. It's artistic "innit".

[David Strelitz]

I suspect that all TV commercials are filmed electronically at 16:9, a film shoot being very rare. The bars are put in during post production to give an impression of a big budget, a device started in the 1980's with pop videos. The same applies to dramas and cheaply made, direct to streaming movies.

Most high end cinematic video cameras ie from Sony, Alexa, Red etc offer multi mode sensors. Production has moved on from the early days of shooting on 4x3 16x9 safe with black tape on the viewfinder and monitors.