Anamorphic & Letterbox--- Barry Green???

T

TangMotorPictures

Active member
Hey Barry,
Read and Reread your book. Great Job. Thanks, for saving me some time. However, I wasn't clear on what happens when using the letterbox and anamorphic together. I know you get the 2:35:1 cinescope look. But when you use letterbox, does it crop the line out of the resolution? At Normal it has 470 lines in NTSC. In Letterbox the top & Bottom is crop, is the lines lost or is it used?
Also have you test the DVX with a mini35 anamorphic yet??? I like the rack focus on the mini35 because it is more filmlike. I also like the cinescope look with the rack focus. Should I use letterbox with the Anamorphic adapter. Or would the quality be better (with my love of rack focus) be better to rent a mini35 with a few 35mm anamorphic lens?

Thanks Barry
 
Re: Anamorphic & Letterbox--- Barry Green???

Letterbox always crops lines off, so they're lost, but they *have* to be lost, because you'll be displaying it on a television and the only way to get the wider aspect ratio on a 16:9 or 4:3 television is to add black bars. It's mathematically impossible to do it any other way; it's the same way Hollywood DVD's do it.

If you want the shallow-DOF properties of the mini35, you can either use spherical lenses and crop the 4:3 image down to 2.35:1 (meaning you'll be throwing away almost half the image) or shoot with cine anamorphics, which means you'll get a 2.66:1 image which you'll then have to crop the sides off of and then resize down and letterbox it to fit a 2.35:1 image inside a 16:9 frame.

There are no 2.35:1 televisions. You have to fit your image within a 4:3 or 16:9 frame because that's all that exist.
 
Re: Anamorphic & Letterbox--- Barry Green???

Barry, could you import 2.35 footage into a 16:9 timeline, pre-stretched, save it, and export as 16:9 footage? It something I need to try.
 
Re: Anamorphic & Letterbox--- Barry Green???

You could do that and just set the size parameters. Your NLE would probably want to stretch it vertically as there is no "interpret footage" for 2:35:1.

I don't see the point of this because it won't be any better than shooting widescreen and masking it.
 
Re: Anamorphic & Letterbox--- Barry Green???

Well quite right, you won't gain any more resolution on a DVD but it could be useful for projecting in a theater. Guess I have some experimenting to do!
 
Re: Anamorphic & Letterbox--- Barry Green???

I looked a while ago but I couldn't find anything good. Does anyone know of a website that sells 72mm diameter scope lenses? I want 2.35 for my feature, but I don't want to lose the resolution, and I hear that you can't uprezz 2.35 in Photozoom.
 
Re: Anamorphic & Letterbox--- Barry Green???

Right, you can't uprez in photozoom to 2.35 like you can for 16:9. It wouldn't display correctly on a TV. As Disjecta points out, you can't get any higher res on a DVD with a 2.35 adapter vs. a 16:9 lens. If you are going to film (or similar) it would be useful though.
I've been working on finalizing some designs for a rear anamorphic adapter to be used with several of the new 35mm adapter systems that are coming out - both 16:9 and 2.35. I'll be sure to post any results.

You won't find a commercial 2.35 adapter for video. They just don't exist.
 
Re: Anamorphic & Letterbox--- Barry Green???

Thank BARRY!
Would you say that renting a mini35 with anamorphic lens...crop the side in post be better than using letterbox & LA7200g?
Because the mini35 can rack focus and make it more look like film. And is it the anamorphic lens be better in quality than the LA7200?
 
Re: Anamorphic & Letterbox--- Barry Green???

Well, that's a tough question to answer, because a mini35+anamorphic lens will give you a 2.66:1 aspect ratio. If you want to display that on a television, you're going to have to crop it tremendously, sacrificing quality.

On the other hand, the anamorphic adapter is somewhat difficult to use properly, and limits you in the ability to get telephoto shots or shallow DOF (two areas where the mini35 excels).

So, pick your priorities: anamorphic+letterbox = low cost, true 2.35 without cropping, and probably sharper picture. mini35+anamorphic = high cost, more filmlike footage, shallow DOF and long telephoto and rack focusing effects, but you'll have to scale/resize in post and sacrifice quality as you do so.
 
Re: Anamorphic & Letterbox--- Barry Green???

Depends on how you stretch it. FCP and Premiere don't do such a good job, Vegas does a pretty good job, PhotoZoom Pro does the best job.
 
Re: Anamorphic & Letterbox--- Barry Green???

Hey Barry!
Thanks. But what about a mini35 with a normal prime lense, but using squeeze mode? would it give me a rackable 16x9 picture? and would it be clean? Have you tried?
 
Re: Anamorphic & Letterbox--- Barry Green???

It would work to give you 16x9 footage, yes, and yes you could rack focus with it and everything. It would be a little lower in resolution, but still as high resolution as an interlaced TV can safely display without flicker. And it's the only practical option for getting 16x9 mini35 footage on a DVX.
 
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