What are the characteristics of the current standard, in which direction is the trend developing and what needs to be considered when comparing landscape and portrait format?
A standard TV has an aspect ratio of 16:9. Old TVs even have 4:3 and the aspect ratios of IMAX, movies or photos are also different. For example, if these mismatched shapes were output from a different output format, black frames may appear above and below the image as filmstrips. With the increasing use of smartphones, the vertical use of videos is becoming more and more important, and as a result, videos in portrait format are also being promoted in social media applications. Younger audiences rarely switch to landscape when using their smartphones, mainly due to discomfort and the subjective feeling that the 16:9 format “looks nicer.” (Pogue, 2018)
The production of content in portrait format has increased not only in commercials, but also in the music industry, where music videos have been recorded over the years specifically for this format. Here it must be explained that the content cannot simply be “transferred” but the format is captured directly. (Pibert, 2021)
Smartphones offer new possibilities and significant changes in the production and use of moving images. Mobile devices make it easy and fast to capture, edit, and stream footage while maintaining quality. Partly due to “Vertical Films”, an Austrialian project with ten vertical films and also dedicated vertical format festivals, it is likely that there could be a significant rethinking of film and moving image. (Napoli, 2016)
Currently, there is a problem that may not be solved in the short term because televisions, movie theatres, and computer screens are not split vertically, but young people will not use their smartphones to watch videos horizontally. Where will the trend go and how will these aspect ratios “coexist”?
bibliography:
Pibert J. (2021). Vertikale Musikvideos. Filmpsychologische Analyse der Wirkung des Hochformats in Lena Meyer-Landruts DON’T LIE TO ME
https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/16697/ffk_2021_6_216-228_Pibert_Vertikale_Musikvideos_.pdf?sequence=4&isAllowed=y
Pogue D. (2018). Video Looks Most Natural Horizontally, but We Hold Our Phones Vertically – We see horizontally but tend to hold our phones vertically. 18.11.2022
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/video-looks-most-natural-horizontally-but-we-hold-our-phones-vertically/
Napoli M. D. (2016). The “Mobile Effect” on Screen Format: the Case of Vertical Videos
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311945562_The_Mobile_Effect_on_Screen_Format_the_Case_of_Vertical_Videos
Gundelach J. (2020). “16:9? Das ist eher was für Ältere” (Umfrage)
https://www.wuv.de/Exklusiv/Specials/Vertikal-gemacht/%2216-9-Das-ist-eher-was-f%C3%BCr-%C3%84ltere%22
Mulier L., Slabbinck H.,Vermeir I. (2022). This Way Up: The Effectiveness of Mobile Vertical Video Marketing
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1016/j.intmar.2020.12.002
Vertical Film Festival – World’s first competition for vertical film & video by Adam Sebire and Natasha Sebire
https://www.adamsebire.info/vertical-film-festival/about/
