4x3 Doc film close to finishing principal photography, thinking of going 16x9

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bogatyr

Active member
Hello,

I've been shooting a documentary for over a year now and an important turn of events has just occured, which will most likely bring the story to a close fairly soon. I estimate that the film has been shot about 2/3 way in, perhaps even 3/4.

I've been shooting 4x3 so far and I can't say I'm thrilled about the format in general and my framing in particular. I looked at a selects reel I made and applied a widescreen filter to it and the framing seemed better, especially because I have the option of adjusting the offset setting of the filter to every shot. So now I can't decide between these options:

1) Shoot 16x9 from now on:
-1a) Switch to squeeze mode
-1b) Switch to letterbox mode
-1c) Stay on 4x3 but frame for 16x9 filter to be applied in post
2) Stay 4x3 and leave the options open for the film to be 4x3 or 16x9. In other words decide in post production.

What would be your recommendation and what would be the things I should keep in mind if I switch to any of the 16x9 options?

Also, what are the pros and cons of any of these options as far as postproduction and distribution are concerned? Distribution will be done mostly thru festival circuit and perhaps European television.

My camera is a PAL dvx100BE and I'm shooting the project in 25p.

Thanks for your help!
 
My vote is your last recommendation..Any post house can readjust to whatever frame you want in post. If you started at 4x3 then finish it that way. I leaves everything continuity wise intact and not everyone has a HDTV widescreen yet. Check with local post houses and see what they recommend.
 
Well then any editing program will allow you to render and crop to widescreen for the final product. Unless you need to telecene then you need to have that post house convert your film to 16x9 there for your final answer print.
 
quality hit? you mean I will lose quality?
I'll get rid of some pixels on the top and the bottom but the middle won't be affected. Am I right?
 
There is no quality hit...you are just cropping the image. The pixel count is the same. The only thing you will suffer is you will lose any information on the top and bottom. If you do blow it up too much..then with SD it will look more muddy overall vs if you shot it HD. SD is 480 pixels vs HD is 720/1080 pixels. So it is natural that the pixels would be bigger and therefore the clarity will suffer. And if you shot incorrectly you may lose your objects all together. Then you may have to reshoot. But then your post house, that will telecine your project should offer you some suggestions on what to do in case that happens. It may not be advisable to even go the 16x9 route if your original footage is not setup for that type of output. You have to decide, what is your final output? DVD or on a movie theatre. Here is a method I used to use when I shot SD. There are other programs also.

http://pinelakefilms.com/uprez.html
 
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Cropping may look like 16:9 but it is not 16:9 as in "16:9 anamorphic" when it comes to broadast or DVD viewing.
 
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