Hilarious to see mention of 4:3 aspect ratio, I’ve been thinking about taking on my own prequel edit and have been considering going for “academy ratio” as sort of a callback to that older style closer to silent era. Similar to how The Grand Budapest Hotel used it to set a period.

Cropping also has practical reasons opening up extra cutting room and if you wanted you could even pull a few maneuvers like George Lucas and find all kinds of room blending and splitting shots to gain that much control over the pace and focus of the scene.