How do I fix this pixel resolution problem?

I

ironpony

Carbonite Member
For my short film, there were some shots, where we got stuff in the frame, that was not meant to. I wasn't behind the camera the whole time, so I didn't notice, and the camera operator didn't seem to notice either. The best way to get rid of it convincingly, is to zoom in, in those shots, till we get past it. However that looses resolution. The thing is is that in all my research, everyone says the same thing. That you can only release a movie in one number of pixels. Say if you shoot in 1080p, then want to zoom in, into 800p, then you have to release the WHOLE movie in 800. But can this be avoided? Can I release most of it in 1080, with a few shots only zoomed in, then keep switching back to 1080p?

It seems possible since a television for example can display more than one number of pixels, so are filmmakers right about this, or can it actually be done?
 
It can be done.

I don't know which NLE you use but in Premiere I would go under File / Export / Media.
I would select Crop Proportions and pick 16:9 or which ever ratio you need.
I would crop as needed automatically keeping the 16:9 ratio.
Then I would render out to the same codec like a Cineform avi if that was my editing codec.
Import the cropped file back into the timeline as needed and go from there with the rest of the edit and render it all out to 1080.

I'm sure there must be a better way but I have used this work flow before with no issues.
You will lose some resolution depending on how much you crop.

I'm sure others may have a better way but you can do it.
 
Its not a problem, just the lower resolution footage will look more pixelated. To most viewers, people wont even notice.
You can even add some softening filters to the sequence leading up to that part and after that part to ease people's perception, and make the resolution change less apparent.
Heck, you can also just add some crop panels to the video clip as a sorta stylized look. That way you can crop out what you want, and make it seem intentional.
 
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Okay thanks I'm surprised some say it cannot be done, when it can than. I do have Premiere Pro, so I can try doing it that way, unless there is a better way? Forgive my inexperience, but what are crop panels?
 
Yep, cropping a bit is not an issue. The resulting cropped footage simply gets resized to your frame size. I had to do it on a music video when a magic arm was slightly in shot.
 
Hidef1080 said:
I don't know which NLE you use but in Premiere I would go under File / Export / Media.
I would select Crop Proportions and pick 16:9 or which ever ratio you need.
I would crop as needed automatically keeping the 16:9 ratio.
Then I would render out to the same codec like a Cineform avi if that was my editing codec.
Import the cropped file back into the timeline as needed and go from there with the rest of the edit and render it all out to 1080.
Click to expand...

This is incredibly convoluted. Just click on the clip in your timeline and under Motion in your effects window, up the zoom until the offending portions of the image are gone and then re-position in the frame.
 
Okay thanks. I tried putting the short film on blue ray DVD though, but blue ray cannot make a copy of the movie if some of the shots are in a different resolution than the rest. How do I get it onto blue ray, and do that? It's been done before with other movies shot in 1080p and lower I'm assuming? Blue ray can only do 1080p, 720p, or 60p. How do I get it do 1080p plus a few cropped shots in between?
 
ironpony said:
Okay thanks. I tried putting the short film on blue ray DVD though, but blue ray cannot make a copy of the movie if some of the shots are in a different resolution than the rest. How do I get it onto blue ray, and do that? It's been done before with other movies shot in 1080p and lower I'm assuming? Blue ray can only do 1080p, 720p, or 60p. How do I get it do 1080p plus a few cropped shots in between?
Click to expand...

To repeat what the previous posters said ... in your editing software, resize the necessary clips so they are a bit larger, so that the messy bits fall outside of the regular frame. Then render the whole timeline out to whatever size you want (1080p, perhaps).

The only problem doing this is that the enlarged clips may look pixellated. But once you render, the entire footage is all the same size, so getting it onto BluRay or whatever is a non-issue.
 
Okay thanks. It's hard to tell. I tried plugging my computer into a bigger HDTV to tell but have had problems with playback through the TV. A regular DVD on an HDTV does not look pixelated though, unless you actually go up to the TV close to look. So it shouldn't be an issue should it?
 
Relax.

In Premiere you can scale up a good 30% (make sure you checked the "best quality" box), before anyone notices it.
I had even (good) DigiBeta SD aerial material from a helicopter scaled up to full HD, and no one ever saw it.

But the "best quality" button is crucial.

Frank
 
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You can also use masks to cover it up with another image in that portion. I've seen people take power poles, stop signs and all kinds of things out of the frame and it looks great.

Here's one "making of" I've seen that has some of this going on. Pretty cool stuff !!!
http://vimeo.com/32718051

Cheers,
Pete
 
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