Ryan Coogler offers awesome 10-minute crash course on film stock & aspect ratios (2025)

To sit among the likes of Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Christopher Nolan is a huge honor for any filmmaker. That it’s all for the cause of promoting the use of film is all the better. And that’s just what Ryan Coogler is doing, having most recently gone big on his upcoming movie Sinners, which was shot with both the IMAX MSM 9802 and UDM LensesPanavision Panaflex System 65 Studio. Hopefully that’s not too technical because Ryan Coogler is about to give us the most comprehensive lesson on film stock and aspect ratios that you can get in just 10 minutes. Seriously, you’ll never hear the word “perforations” so much again in your life!

Ryan Coogler recently paired with Kodak to offer a tutorial on the differences between all of the film stocks available as well as the usage of various aspect ratios. After a rundown that shows the distinct visual difference between, say, Super 8 and 65/70 mm, Ryan Coogler started in on aspect ratios and why they’re so important when it comes to capturing not just the visuals but the story itself.

Ryan Coogler kicked off this portion of his video by showing off a Sinners clip in 2.76:1, an aspect ratio that we’ve seen before on epics like Ben-Hur and The Hateful Eight. He also noted that Sinners is IMAX’s 1.43:1 and that the movie is the only to ever be shot in both aspect ratios. So take a walk, DeMille! This part of the video is a little hard to put into words, but once you see a clip that transforms depending on the aspect ratio it’s projected in, you see the effect that it has on the film (literally!).

But chances are you’re going to be quite limited in how you’re able to see Sinners, as not every theater has the capability to. For example, the IMAX Film with 15 perforations and on 70mm, is only available on 10 screens in the entire world. That said, Ryan Coogler took the time to note that Sinners will be available in several different formats – and based on the early reactions, it will be worth it: 4DX, ICE (Immersive Cinema Experience), Screen X (which offers an even wider experience at 270 degrees), and Dolby Cinema (showcasing HDR).

You can check out Ryan Coogler’s crash course on film stocks and aspect ratios by watching the embedded video below: