A Sense of Proportion: Aspect Ratio and the Framing of Television Space

Abstract

‘Aspect ratio’ is frequently overlooked or naively characterised. Yet it plays a fundamental, determining role in forming and framing television’s spaces. A balanced reappraisal of television’s varied aspect ratios and their unique dramatic and aesthetic possibilities can enhance our close analyses and our understanding of television’s ‘art history’. This paper challenges myths, misunderstandings and preconceptions about TV’s aspect ratios and their spatial properties. Countering prevailing pro-widescreen rhetoric, it then traces some of the dramatic and aesthetic qualities of 4:3 that have been lost in the movement to 16:9. Finally, it celebrates those works which radically defamiliarise aspect ratio.