What Is Open Gate and Why Should You Consider Using It for Your Video Productions?
Curious about open gate video but too embarrassed to ask someone to explain it to you? Here’s a helpful video to catch you up to speed.
Outside of AI, which is hands down the most important (or, at least, polarizing) topic of our time, there’s another trend in film and video work that’s been growing in popularity over the past year or so. But what is open gate, and why is everyone so obsessed with it?
Let’s take a quick look at what open gate recording is and how it works with modern video cameras, as well as explore how you can get the most out of using open gate and cropping from horizontal to vertical for your films and video projects.
What is Open Gate?
First and foremost, let’s explain what open gate video recording is. Open gate is a type of video recording that utilizes the entire width and height of the sensor, rather than cropping into a standard widescreen format.
While most modern digital video cameras capture footage in a 16:9 or 17:9 aspect ratio, the physical sensors in many cameras are actually shaped quite differently—typically 3:2 for full-frame or 4:3 for micro four-thirds.
Shooting with open gate allows filmmakers or videographers to capture the full amount the sensor has to offer, which can be used to effectively match the same dimensions used for taking still photos.
Why You Should Use Open Gate
As for the answer to why you should use open gate, it’s not actually a cut-and-dry response. It will still depend on your preferences and needs for each of your projects. But with that being said, open gate can be helpful, most particularly for those looking to get more visual data to work with in the editing processes.
The biggest advantage here is with creators who might want to produce both horizontal and vertical video from a single file, making the footage more usable for delivering content across various social media platforms.
As you can see in the video above, there are other advantages too, as the extra vertical space also allows for more flexible reframing, digital camera movements, and higher overall resolutions that mimic the look of classic film formats like VistaVision.
If you’re curious to learn more about open gate and why you should consider using it, you can follow along with the chapters in the video above.
