4:3 best for eventual dv to film transfer?

F

Future Seasons

Member
Hello everyone,

Does anyone know the best aspect ratio to shoot at for an eventual dv to film transfer? I am shooting with a DVX100A; dvfilm.com offers a process of transfering to film and they provide a list of suggested settings for the best outcome. They say to shoot 4:3, but with a 16:9 widescreen adapter. I have no plans to purchase such an adapter- for me the choices are standard 4:3, letterbox, or squeeze.

I understand the differences and how they apply to television, but I have no idea about how they affect a transfer to film. I prefer the widescreen look but I don't know if the squeeze mode translates well to the transfer.

None of this may actually matter since I am broke and probably will be forever, but you never know when some unknown Uncle will slip off into the big sky and leave me 20 grand to transfer my crappy movie to film.

Lastly, I'm wondering about the whole digital vs film projection situation. As I understand it, most cinemas still are not equipped with digital projectors and thusly show only movies that are on film reels. Is this likely to change? Is it already changing? Are there many digital cinemas that I don't know about? I guess if I go through the beautiful torture of actually making a feature-length film, I would like to at least put it in the position to be seen by as many people as possible, and I'm wondering have all you guys are approaching this. Forgive the gaps in my knowlegde, as always, i am trying to learn as I go along. Thank you for reading all this.
 
Future Seasons said:
Hello everyone,

Does anyone know the best aspect ratio to shoot at for an eventual dv to film transfer? I am shooting with a DVX100A; dvfilm.com offers a process of transfering to film and they provide a list of suggested settings for the best outcome. They say to shoot 4:3, but with a 16:9 widescreen adapter. I have no plans to purchase such an adapter- for me the choices are standard 4:3, letterbox, or squeeze.

I understand the differences and how they apply to television, but I have no idea about how they affect a transfer to film. I prefer the widescreen look but I don't know if the squeeze mode translates well to the transfer.

None of this may actually matter since I am broke and probably will be forever, but you never know when some unknown Uncle will slip off into the big sky and leave me 20 grand to transfer my crappy movie to film.

Lastly, I'm wondering about the whole digital vs film projection situation. As I understand it, most cinemas still are not equipped with digital projectors and thusly show only movies that are on film reels. Is this likely to change? Is it already changing? Are there many digital cinemas that I don't know about? I guess if I go through the beautiful torture of actually making a feature-length film, I would like to at least put it in the position to be seen by as many people as possible, and I'm wondering have all you guys are approaching this. Forgive the gaps in my knowlegde, as always, i am trying to learn as I go along. Thank you for reading all this.
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It would be better with a HD camera, but in your case, you should shot in squeeze mode. It should gives you a similar result to shooting 4:3 with an anamorphic lens.
 
What SPrimeau said is true about shooting HD. Still, you can always up-rezz your footage to HD with strong results. My suggestion is to shoot 4:3 and protect for 16x9 for your film out if you can't afford the anamorphic adaptor as a rental. The issue with shooting in squeeze mode is you are loosing a considerable amount of resolution in that mode, about 25% of your image since the DVX only uses the center most 75% of the imagers in squeeze. Stick some masking tape at the top and bottom of your LCD to block out the upper and lower area of your image in the approximate place 16x9 ends on the your 4x3 screen. Then use that as your guideline.
I think your statement Future Seasons is correct though. Don't spend your money on outputting to film. Honestly, its going to be a waste. Just spend some money on making your next project. If you keep at it, you'll have plenty of opportunities to do a filmout.
 
I usually shoot letterbox and crop to 16x9, although squeeze is a good alternative, i dont like it due to the stairstepping caused by the 25% resolution loss. I know some people would disagree with this. Its just my personal preference.
 
Undisputed Truth said:
I usually shoot letterbox and crop to 16x9, although squeeze is a good alternative, i dont like it due to the stairstepping caused by the 25% resolution loss. I know some people would disagree with this. Its just my personal preference.
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Shoothing letterbox and crop to 16x9 is much worse than shooting in squeeze mode IMHO (maybe it was the program that I used, but to me, the resolution loss was more than 50%). About squeeze mode, Barry Green said:

Squeeze Mode does involve a res loss, bringing your ultimate resolution down to about 360 lines (when shooting 24p/thin). With the anamorphic adapter you could get almost 1/3 more resolution. However, the anamorphic introduces so many compromises into the shooting equation that many people don't bother with it, and just choose squeeze instead.

While squeeze involves a res loss, keep in mind that it brings the overall resolution down to basically where interlaced "native 16:9" cameras end up. Those cameras have a max. of 360 lines as well, because they're interlaced. (I would say don't use squeeze if you're shooting interlaced, because then it'll drop you down to around 270 lines!)

In short, I find Squeeze acceptable for most purposes.

This is why it is better to use a real HD camera. Their CCD's or CMOS are real 16:9 chips.

Barry also said:

I mean, a film transfer is going to involve an aspect ratio crop anyway, to convert to 16:9 one way or the other. I would say you'd be a little better off shooting 4:3 and protecting for 16:9 if you know you're going to do a film transfer, rather than having the camera do an intermediate stretch, but -- if you KNOW you're going to film, you should be shooting on an HVX anyway for high-def and native 16:9. That's a step you could take that would make a huge difference in resolved resolution on the big screen. As long as you're not going to take that step, I'd say the difference between squeeze mode and cropped 4:3 is going to be very minor.

I'd say go squeeze. If you're shooting 24p/thin, you'll get just as much 16:9 resolution out of squeeze mode as an interlaced "native 16:9" camera can deliver.
 
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