For my next project I ws thinking of toggling between 4:3, 16:9 and 21:9 for both artistic reasons and the actual construct of various locations I'm shooting at. Does anyone think this is a good or bad idea. I've seen a Sprite commercial that did this.

WARNING: I wil only be changing the aspect ratio through cutting off tops and bottom in the editor. I won't actually be able to shoot in different aspect ratios.

One last note does anyone think that it would be better to jsut skew the video to fit various aspect ratios. I know it sounds blasphemous to skew video btu then I could keep all the quality in.

Hmm.... I'd be interested to see how it turns out. I've considered it myself.

The thing is, the aspect ratio has to change for some solid and non-arbitrary reason. The way flashbacks will be a different color tint, for example.

Good point. I enver really considered that. The movie is sort of about the man's perspective though. I thought that any scenes that take place in an auditorium i could do wide. Because well the stage is wider for one thing. Other than that I'm not to sure.

You certainly could try it. But there's a good chance it won't work. What kind of camera are you planning on using. Because that is very important when putting the image into 2.35:1
you're going to need very sharp detail considering how far away you'll have to place the camera to get the desired wide effect you want. Please don't skew the images. I can't think of any reason you would want to do that. I assure you it WONT look good. You're going to have to use tape or some other reference on your moniter or camera for frame up's. Certain films lend themselves to certain aspect ratio's depending on the mood, and action within the frame. To switch ratio's from location to location is not a good idea. And unless your onto something no one else has been in the history of film.(not commercials) it's likely to look amateurish, even if your shots are good. If your camera has a changeable lense really consider getting yourself a wide angle lense to pull of some of those locations you can keep a uniform aspect ratio and get the feel you want for the scene.

I do have a wide angle lens and telephoto lens so I think this will all work. I was thinking that by putting it into widescreen it would create a movie like feeling. Something the main character could associate with since he's an actor. I'm still not certain if I'll do this yet.