even wider frame than 16:9?

S

shaun_au

Active member
Hi,

I recently finished a short film project in 24PA 16:9 with two DVX100As. I'd like to mask the final edit to an even wider format(academy?). I've seen a lot of people who have done so here. So I have a few question for you gurus out there.

1. What's the common wider format than 16:9? I've seen some sample clips in the "screengrab and clips" forum. People have masked top and bottom to get an even wider look.

2. What's the exact process of cropping 16:9 into a wider format? I use FCP for editing, some AfterEffects for compositing.

3. How will this "wilder" format displayed on a 16:9 TV and a regular 4:3 TV? I assume it will creat two thin black bars on top and bottom of a 16:9 TV. As for a 4:3 TV, the black bars on a 4:3 TV will be thicker than a standard 16:9 letter box since I've cropped more, right?

That's for now. If you guys think of more things I need to be aware of, please let me know. Thanks a lot.

Shaun
 
there are several wider aspect ratios, but 2.35:1 is probably the most popular (it's what i shoot exclusivly)

FCP will matte it for you perfectly under effects/video filters/matte/widescreen

just select 2.35:1 and drag it to your clip. You can even move the your picture up and down under the matte to re frame things a little
 
I tried what you just said. When I choose 2.35:1 matte filter, nothing happens. What's going on? But when I choose 2.5:1, it starts to crop. I even tried 3:1! It resulted something from big budget epic films(very wide).


Cheesesailor77, I think you started with a 4:3 footage, then matted to 2.35:1, correct?

So for my 16:9 footage(squeeze, no anamorphic lens) which is already wide, 2.35:1 won't change anything unless I go 2.5:1 or 3:1, right?
 
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hmmm, I'm not sure, I've never shot squeezed, but i would assume it would work the same.

You say you didn't use the ana adapter? becaus if you used the adapter PLUS squeeze or letterbox, then you'd get 2.35 and what your descibing would make sense. However if you only used squeeze (1.85:1) then anything above that should crop.

Can you post any grabs of what you have now?

(btw, why did you choose to shoot squeeze?)
 
I shot squeez because I didn't have an annamorphic lens, and since it's my first short film project I have no intention to spend extra $800 for a lens. Maybe in the future, but I'll settle for squeez for now.

Ok, here're the screen grabbs:

The first one has no widescreen filter applied. The original plate. However, after applying 2.35:1 cropping, it resulted no change in aspect ratio.
original8xo.jpg


The second photo shows the 2.55:1 cropping.
after25515gk.jpg


The third photo shows the 3.00:1 cropping
after30017fa.jpg
 
wow, i hove no idea since ive never played with squeezed mode.

but id seems like FCP is confused somehow with your footageI'm guessing you unsqueezed the footage which added bars to the top and bottom right? but then when you add the matt, FCP is treating it like squeezed footage and is "squeezing" the matte also (which would look like a 1.85 matte) and now you can't see it.

That's all I can think of. you'll probably wanna post this in the FCP board and see if someone can help.


Hopefully this won't start an argument... but unless you secifically need squeezed footage, next time shoot letterboxed, or better yet just shoot 4x3 and matte in post (use an overlay for your LCD or tape off a monitor for composition). There's a reason to use the Anamorphic adapter because you get full resolution, but if you shoot squeezed, the camera cuts off the top and the bottom of the image and then stretches the middle up and down, so your picture is half the rez. Same with Letterbox mode, it puts black bars over the top and bottom so the actual picture is now a lot less rez.

So if rez is important (like your going to screen it in a theatre) get the anamorphic adapter, if your going to watch it on a tv, avoid the issues with squeezed mode and if you have FCP shoot open 4x3 and matte in post
 
If it's squeeze mode you just want to apply a 16:9 matte to the footage. That will crop you 16:9 footage to 2.35 when played back on a DVD player (since adding 16:9 to 16:9 - ie squeezed - footage is 2.35).
 
don't shoot squeeze and anamorphic because while this would give you 2.35:1, there is no way to "unsqueeze" the footage twice. and there is no display that will handle that.
 
Shaw said:
If it's squeeze mode you just want to apply a 16:9 matte to the footage. That will crop you 16:9 footage to 2.35 when played back on a DVD player (since adding 16:9 to 16:9 - ie squeezed - footage is 2.35).
Click to expand...

So what's this 16:9 matte then? Under the effects/video filters/matte/widescreen filter, there's 1.85:1 which I think is 16:9. But it didn't result any cropping.
 
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