Aspect Ratio

What this is about

The ratio is a composition decision, not an export setting. A wide frame invites two people in one shot and makes landscape read as space; a vertical frame forces the eye onto a face and leaves almost nothing beside it. Projects that need both formats have to decide before the shoot whether to frame wide with room to crop, or to shoot the vertical version separately. Discovering the second format after the shoot usually means reframing every shot and losing composition in the process.

A term only helps when everyone on set means the same thing by it — so what follows is how it is used, not a dictionary definition.

What runs differently here

Where this differs from the general case:

• Decide the ratio before the shoot; it changes blocking, lens choice and where people stand
• If a vertical version is needed, plan for it on set rather than cropping everything later
• Shooting with crop reserve costs framing precision — a compromise, not a free option

With TillyGen

When the deliverables in TillyGen name a vertical cut alongside the main version, the camera department learns about it during planning, not afterwards.

Change one constraint and the consequences travel through the whole plan: affected shots are flagged, the call sheet is regenerated, and nobody keeps working from yesterday's version.