ASPECT RATIO CHANGE in Lazareth
When one of the main characters discovers the truth about the world around her, we decided to do an aspect ratio change. The movie goes from a cinematic widescreen 2.40 to a more grounded and less romantic 1.85. Aspect Ratio changes can be distracting and take away from the scene or performance, so we devised a way to hide it in the shot. Ideally the audience won’t notice the change, but will feel the movie has taken a turn.
The idea came when scouting the location where the scene takes place: a train passed by and the director and I thought it was a super dramatic moment that we could use to mark the mid point in the movie and this deep change in the character. We then spent weeks trying to find the ideal truck to achieve the shot in the following sequence, where the truck window becomes the framing device achieving the 2.40 aspect ratio, and when the camera pushes in, the bars open revealing a full 1.85 frame:
