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accidental anarchist

accidental anarchist

Active member
ive got a million rookie questions to ask and am trying to "search" for the answers, some ive found others i havent so be kind please.

anyways

1st "no question is a dumb question" question in a series of questions to be asked over the next couple of days.

with the DVX can i film regular then with the anamorphic and then with a letus 35mm adaptor on the same tape? any problems? any FCP situations to worry about?
 
The technical answer is 'Yes you can'. Each time you press record you will create a separate scene or clip. And so long as you know which clip was recorded by which method, you will know how it should be captured in Final Cut.

When you record in "normal" 4:3 mode, you will be getting 720x480 pixels. Each pixel will have a normal 4:3 aspect ratio, meaning that the pixels aren't square, but little rectangles.

When you record in "squeeze" 16:9 mode, the DVX will letterbox the 720x480 image, cropping off the top and bottom of the image until it has a 16:9 'widescreen' rectangle in the middle. Then the DVX will digitally stretch that rectangle until it fills the 720x480 screen. Those pixels are anamorphic pixels, which means that they have been squashed to fit a 4:3 size. When you get them into Final Cut you will have to tell it that the footage is anamorphic, so that the image can be stretched back out to a 16:9 shape. Normally, you would do this using an "easy setup" for a widescreen project before capture. You can also capture the clip and then mark it as anamorphic to get FCP to stretch it out.

When you record with a Cinema Lens Adapter, you will still get a 4:3 image or a 16:9 image depending on what settings you've made on the DVX. The Cinema Lens Adapter will change the depth of field and the overall look of that final image. It will give you the ability to focus on a person and have the background blurred out of focus. It won't effect the aspect ratio.

The question you need to ask yourself is "why would I need to record in 4:3, in 16:9, and with and without the 35mm adapter on a single tape?"

Often people choose either to create their project in 4:3, for standard TVs, or in 16:9 for widescreen, and that's pretty much the end of it. So then you'd be leaving your camera in one mode or the other for the entire shoot, and therefore all the tapes would be recorded with the camera in the same mode. And when you setup your FCP project you would either choose a 4:3 or a 16:9 widescreen format.

Whether you used a 35mm adapter or not would not change the format of the image, it would only change the look of the image. Some people hate to intercut 35mm footage, which looks very much like film, with native DVX footage, which is much sharper and has a lot more detail and deep focus. Some people don't mind the difference in the look.

So the answer then is: You could record 4:3 and 16:9 on the same tape. But you probably won't want to. It complicates capture and post work. And the 35mm adapter will have no effect on whether you are recording 4:3 or 16:9.

Hope that helps.
 
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