ABSTRACT
The aspect ratio of a movie, meaning the ratio between the width and height of the screen, plays a defining role in how the rules of composition are applied when organizing visual elements in a shot. Since the early stages of cinema, filmmakers experimented with a variety of frame shapes, prompted by aesthetic considerations, technological innovation, as well as economic pressures; studios eventually settled on a squarish shape in the early 1930s, which remained unchanged until the introduction of widescreen aspect ratios in 1952. The rule of thirds is a fundamental principle of cinematic composition that has myriad applications. Hitchcock’s rule is an amazingly simple yet extremely effective compositional principle to guide the framing of a shot.
