Academy ratio
Encyclopedia
The Academy ratio of 1.375:1 is an aspect ratio
Aspect ratio (image)
The aspect ratio of an image is the ratio of the width of the image to its height, expressed as two numbers separated by a colon. That is, for an x:y aspect ratio, no matter how big or small the image is, if the width is divided into x units of equal length and the height is measured using this...

 of a frame of 35mm film when used with 4-perf pulldown
Negative pulldown
Negative pulldown is the manner in which an image is exposed on a film stock, described in the number of film perforations spanned by an individual frame. It can also describe the orientation of the image on the negative, whether it is captured horizontally or vertically...

. It was standardized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...

 as the standard film aspect ratio in 1932, although similar-sized ratios were used as early as 1928.

The Academy ratio is usually shortened to 1.37, and is often cited as 1.33 by laymen, despite the fact that only silent films were shot in that ratio. The ratio can be expressed in integers as 11:8.

History

Silent films were shot at a 1.33 aspect ratio, with each frame using all of the negative space between the two rows of film perforations
Film perforations
Film perforations, also known as perfs, are the holes placed in the film stock during manufacturing and used for transporting and steadying the film. Films may have different types of perforations depending on film gauge, film format, and the intended usage...

 for a length of 4 perfs. The frame line
Frame line
A frame line is the unused space that separates two adjacent images, or film frames, on the release print of a motion picture. They can vary in width; a 35 mm film with a 1.85:1 hard matte has a frame line approximately 8 millimeters high, whereas both a full frame negative and the anamorphic...

 between the silent film frames was very thin. When sound films were introduced in the late 1920s, the soundtrack was placed down a row along the inside of one of the lines of perforations, cutting into the 1.33 image. This made the image area "taller", usually around 1.19, which was slightly disorienting to audiences used to the 1.33 frame and also presented problems for exhibitors with fixed-size screens and stationary projectors.

From studio to studio, the common attempt to reduce the image back to a 1.33:1 ratio by increasing the size of the frame line met with conflicting results. Furthermore, each movie theater chain had their own designated house ratio. The first standards set for the new sound motion picture aspect ratio were dictated in November, 1929, when all major US studios agreed to compose for the Society of Motion Picture Engineers
Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE , founded in 1916 as the Society of Motion Picture Engineers or SMPE, is an international professional association, based in...

' designated ratio of 0.800 in × 0.600 in, or 1.33:1.

Following this, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences considered further alterations to this 1930 standard. Various dimensions were submitted, and the aperture plate opening of 0.825 in × 0.600 in was agreed upon. This ratio was thus dubbed the "Academy Ratio".

All studio films shot in 35mm from 1932 to 1952 were shot in the Academy ratio. However, following the widescreen "revolution" of 1953, it quickly became an obsolete production format. Within several months, all major studios started matting
Matte (filmmaking)
Mattes are used in photography and special effects filmmaking to combine two or more image elements into a single, final image. Usually, mattes are used to combine a foreground image with a background image . In this case, the matte is the background painting...

 their non-anamorphic films in the projector
Movie projector
A movie projector is an opto-mechanical device for displaying moving pictures by projecting them on a projection screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illumination and sound devices, are present in movie cameras.-Physiology:...

 to wider ratios such as 1.66, 1.75, and 1.85, the last of which is still considered a standard ratio along with anamorphic (2.35). 1.37:1 is not totally obsolete, nonetheless, and can still be found in selected recent films such as Gus Van Sant
Gus Van Sant
Gus Green Van Sant, Jr. is an American director, screenwriter, painter, photographer, musician, and author. He is a two time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director for his 1997 film Good Will Hunting and his 2008 film Milk, both of which were also nominated for Best Picture, and won the...

's Elephant and Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...

's Eyes Wide Shut
Eyes Wide Shut
Eyes Wide Shut is a 1999 drama film based upon Arthur Schnitzler's 1926 novella Traumnovelle . The film was directed, produced and co-written by Stanley Kubrick, and was his last film. The story, set in and around New York City, follows the sexually-charged adventures of Dr...

.

Technical details

The Academy ratio is not created in the camera, which has continued to use the full frame
Full frame
In cinematography, full frame refers to the use of the full film gate at maximum width and height for 35 mm film cameras. It is sometimes also referred to as silent aperture, full gate, or a number of other similar word combinations. It is the original gate size pioneered by William Dickson and...

 silent aperture gate for all 4-perf spherical filming. Rather, it is created in the married print
Married print
A married print is a film print which has had an optical soundtrack added onto the print. As the process usually is fairly expensive and resource-intensive, it usually is one of the last stages of post-production...

, when the optical soundtrack and frame line
Frame line
A frame line is the unused space that separates two adjacent images, or film frames, on the release print of a motion picture. They can vary in width; a 35 mm film with a 1.85:1 hard matte has a frame line approximately 8 millimeters high, whereas both a full frame negative and the anamorphic...

s are added. Though most non-anamorphic film prints with a soundtrack are now framed to one of the non-anamorphic widescreen ratios, from 1.66 to 1.85, some still retain Academy-sized frames. These frames are then cropped in the projector by means of aperture masks used in the projector's gate in conjunction with a wider lens than would be used for projecting Academy ratio films.

During filming, using the 4-perf frame for widescreen framing when spherical lenses are used is sometimes considered to be wasteful in terms of the cost of film stock and processing, especially in the case of television, which does not require a film print. The 3-perf pulldown process was originally proposed in 1973, developed by Miklos Lente in 1976, and further developed by Rune Ericson in 1986 to solve this problem.
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