Editing Negative pulldown (section)

{{Short description|Manner of exposing motion picture film that determines aspect ratio}}
{{tone|date=March 2023}}

[[Image:4 perf 3 perf and 2 perf 35 mm film compared.png|right|thumb|300px|A comparison of 4-perf, 3-perf and 2-perf 35&nbsp;mm film formats]]

'''Negative pulldown''' is the manner in which an image is exposed on a [[film stock]], described by the number of [[film perforations]] spanned by an individual frame. It can also describe whether the image captured on the negative is oriented horizontally or vertically.  Changing the number of exposed perforations allows a [[cinematographer]] to change both the [[aspect ratio (image)|aspect ratio]] of the image and the size of the area on the film stock that the image occupies (which affects image clarity).

The most common negative pulldowns for [[35 mm movie film|35&nbsp;mm film]] are 4-perf and 3-perf, the latter of which is usually used in conjunction with [[Super 35]]. 2-perf, used in [[Techniscope]] in the 1960s, is enjoying a slight resurgence due to the birth of [[digital intermediate]] techniques eliminating the need for optical lab work. Vertical pulldown is overwhelmingly the dominant axis of motion in cinematography, although horizontal pulldown is used in [[IMAX]], [[VistaVision]], and in [[135 film|35&nbsp;mm]] consumer and professional [[still camera]]s.