# 4:3 (1.33 and Academy 1.37)

Frame / Aspect ratio / Cinema. Checked 2026-11-13.

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

- Use when: Retro looks, archive pastiche, portraits that fill the height.
- Phrase: 4:3 frame, nearly square, the subject filling the height
- Page: https://directorchair.ai/ratio/ratio-4-3
- JSON: https://directorchair.ai/api/ratio/ratio-4-3.json

## 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)

## Prompts

### Nano Banana Pro

```
[your subject] in [your setting]. 4:3 frame, nearly square, the subject filling the height.
```

### Nano Banana 2

```
[your subject] in [your setting]. 4:3 frame, nearly square, the subject filling the height.
```

### GPT Image 2.5

```
A photograph of [your subject] in [your setting].
People and framing: 4:3 frame, nearly square, the subject filling the height
Exclusions: no extra text, no watermark, no logo.
```

### Seedream 5

```
[your subject] in [your setting]. 4:3 frame, nearly square, the subject filling the height.
```

### Seedance 2.5

```
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 2.0

```
Scene: [your subject] in [your setting].
First frame: 4:3 frame, nearly square, the subject filling the height
Shot 1: one continuous shot
```

### Kling 3.0

```
[your subject]. The scene is [your setting]. 4:3 frame, nearly square, the subject filling the height.
```

### Veo 3.1

```
4:3 frame, nearly square, the subject filling the height. [your subject] in [your setting]. Framing and subject stay as in the start image.
```

## Look further

- https://shotdeck.com/ : real film examples of this aspect ratio (paid, link only)
- https://flim.ai/ : film, ad and music-video stills of this aspect ratio (free tier, link only)

## Goes well with

- 1:1 square: https://directorchair.ai/ratio/ratio-1-1
- VHS tape: https://directorchair.ai/texture/vhs-tape
- 16mm film: https://directorchair.ai/texture/film-16mm

## Source

Own words; the term from general film vocabulary, as also used in Flim's filters (its ratio filter)

Text CC BY 4.0, Director Chair (directorchair.ai). Reference clips and their card texts belong to their makers.