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4:3

The old television and early film frame: nostalgic, intimate, boxed in.

Use when: Retro looks, archive pastiche, portraits that fill the height.

Prompt instructions

Scene: [your subject] in [your setting]. First frame: 4:3 frame, nearly square, the subject filling the height Shot 1 (0:00 to 0:05): one continuous shot

Seedance 2.5 reads labelled blocks with timecodes.

SubjectSetting

Say it like this

4:3 frame, nearly square, the subject filling the height.

Watch out

Most video models do not generate 4:3; generate wider and crop, or set it in the edit with pillarbox bars.practitioner: Director Chair field notes on video prompting

1:1 squarePrompt VHS tape

Nineties home video: lo-fi, glitchy, nostalgic.

Prompt 16mm film

Rough, documentary texture: real, handmade, raw.Prompt

Sources

Own words; the term from general film vocabulary, as also used in Flim's filters (its ratio filter) Checked 2026-11-13.

ShotDeck: real film examples of this aspect ratio (paid, link only)

Flim: film, ad and music-video stills of this aspect ratio (free tier, link only)

For agents: this card as markdown, as JSON.