#7 Size Matters

This time, I´d like to write about something quite important, and that´s size of the frames and size of the "screen" (you know, that window on YouTube). Because it´s something I didn´t think about much and now I have problems with it.

When I started drawing the frames for my next video (all frames are drawn by the way, now I am scanning it to computer, cleaning it in gimp, and maybe in future, adding some colours and nice backgrounds if I care enough to paint them). That´s a sentence with a very long interruption in the middle, let me start again. I drew all the frames on transparent papers of size A5. And for YouTube, your video should be in 16:9 format (they recommend 1280x720 pixels).

After drawing all the frames and scanning a few, I have realized, that A5 size paper is not, in fact, 16:9. Without bothering anybody with details, the 16:9 format is wide and A5 paper is not wide. Below is a picture showing how a 16:9 frame looks like (the red line) and how one of my A5 frames look like.

It´s not very clear to me how to solve this. Stretching all my frames to get them wider is a ridiculous thought, because it would deform all the shapes, so that´s not a way. Making the frames larger (in computer) and then cutting a top strip and bottom strip is not a solution either, because the part of the frame I would have to delete would be too big. Leaving a white strip on each side of every frame (just like in the picture above) might work. Unless you have some action happening in the left or the right edge of the frame. Like I do. See below.

As I see it, there is only one way. I have tried to avoid it but I can´t. Leaving the frames as they are and having those ugly black strips on the left and right side. It´ll look like a French film from the 60s that doesn´t fit any modern screen, but I think I might get away with it if I call it vintage style video. From now, I am doing a vintage style video.

P.S. the frames on the pictures in this post are yellow. The only reason for that is to create contrast so that it´s clear that the frame is smaller than screen. The real frames are not yellow and it will not be yellow in the final video. Just explaining if anybody cared.