Letterbox-electronic or in post?

yzmotoxer807

yzmotoxer807

Well-known member
I am probably going to have a widescreen version of a movie that I will be shooting soon and I was wondering what the difference is or what is better: to shoot in letterbox mode on the dvx100b or letterbox in post? I would prefer to do it in post because that leaves me open to any small vertical framing changes that may be necessary but if there is a quality increase by shooting in letterbox then I would consider it.

Thanks.
 
Thanks. I guess this is best because of the framing capabilities. Afterwards, I am probably going to up-res the whole thing using InstantHD.
 
Hey what about all this stuff I've been hearing about filming in electronic letterbox because it uses less space on the tape due to compression giving you a better image? Is it noticeable?
 
i doubt it would give you significantly better quality, when its taking up the same size for a frame just making a portion of it black.
what i would recommend would be that you take some tape and use it to cover up the parts of the LCD that will be cut off if you were to shoot letterbox so that you could frame it better. you won't have to guess "well if i shoot from right up here will it cut off the top of his head too much?" or "is that little thing in the frame or not?".
 
Moseph said:
i doubt it would give you significantly better quality, when its taking up the same size for a frame just making a portion of it black.
what i would recommend would be that you take some tape and use it to cover up the parts of the LCD that will be cut off if you were to shoot letterbox so that you could frame it better. you won't have to guess "well if i shoot from right up here will it cut off the top of his head too much?" or "is that little thing in the frame or not?".
Click to expand...
He has the "B" model so this is not required. You can set letterbox in the EVF or LCD so you can frame properly.
 
Well Ill actually be using either capture magic or scopebox for monitoring and capturing so I can turn on 16x9 overlays. But I didnt know that you could set letter box in the evf/lcd without affecting the recorded image. Very cool:).

:dankk2:
 
yzmotoxer807 said:
Well Ill actually be using either capture magic or scopebox for monitoring and capturing so I can turn on 16x9 overlays. But I didnt know that you could set letter box in the evf/lcd without affecting the recorded image. Very cool:).

:dankk2:
Click to expand...
Its all explained in the user manual.:Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)
 
Maybe I spend too much time editing but who really needs to tweak their framing that much vertically in post? Problem w/ commitment? Can't just 'call it' on-location and lock in a shot? Can't decide what's gonna be in the frame?

I do shoot w/ Aspect Correct overlays but use in-camera letterbox regardless. They make for great LCD protection. 1st it's 'fix it in post'. Now we've got people wanting to 'frame it in post'. Geez.

For whatever it's worth, 'Iraq in Fragments' was shot w/ in-camera letterbox and, eventually, blown up for theatrical / HD release. Oh, yeah - and it got an Oscar nomination too.
 
fevercity said:
Maybe I spend too much time editing but who really needs to tweak their framing that much vertically in post? Problem w/ commitment?
Click to expand...


Odd you should ask this. I was just looking at my new copy of "Se7en" on the special features disk, and they were talking about how they color graded and re-framed shot by shot on the new HD master.

As noted by the commentary, sometimes it's necessary to adjust headroom a bit, especially when you are working handheld or on steadicam following action.

Frankly, I'd rather have the room to move around on the frame in post than lock myself down. And suppose you shoot in 1.33 then want to reframe to 1.85? Or even 2.35? Or maybe you shoot 16x9 and want to relase a 1.33 version?

I shot something last night that I fully intend to use at 16x9, but I shot it 1.33. I have a TON more control in post than I do in-camera.
 
fevercity said:
Maybe I spend too much time editing but who really needs to tweak their framing that much vertically in post? Problem w/ commitment? Can't just 'call it' on-location and lock in a shot? Can't decide what's gonna be in the frame?

I do shoot w/ Aspect Correct overlays but use in-camera letterbox regardless. They make for great LCD protection. 1st it's 'fix it in post'. Now we've got people wanting to 'frame it in post'. Geez.

For whatever it's worth, 'Iraq in Fragments' was shot w/ in-camera letterbox and, eventually, blown up for theatrical / HD release. Oh, yeah - and it got an Oscar nomination too.
Click to expand...

Mistakes happen -- maybe you didn't frame for action safe. And things occur to you in post that didn't before.

Bottom line is, you're going to have to crop off the black bars anyway, so why not leave yourself the control? Of course you should do thorough pre-production and know what you want before you get to set, but there is absolutely no reason to simply throw away 1/4 of your picture before you need to.
 
David, what you said is my view too, but (not to sound like I am arguing with myself) I still wonder if by using in camera letterbox if you are using less "room" on the tape because where the black bars are takes less information giving the actual image more room to be less compressed. Also, something I just thought of: It is true that when the image is recorded to tape it is compressed thus lowering quality, but what about when capturing direct to edit (using scopebox or capture magic). Does it still compress as much as when going to tape?
 
1) There is an argument that having the black bands leaves more bandwidth for the image, hence giving you slightly better picture quality. In practice, I have not witnessed a difference.

2) If you go through firewire, it's the same compression as what's on the tape.
 
Thanks for clearing that up. Yeah I think I will just shoot full frame because nobody has convinced me that in camera letterbox gives a noticeable difference in quality. Besides, I will be uprezzing with Instant HD so the quality will be there.

:dankk2:
 
PerroneFord said:
Odd you should ask this. I was just looking at my new copy of "Se7en" on the special features disk, and they were talking about how they color graded and re-framed shot by shot on the new HD master.
Click to expand...

Yeah - and David Fincher's a classic example of a notorious tweaker. As I always say, to each their own. Sounds like yzmotoxer807 has made up his mind to re-frame in post. That's good.
 
hey guys, Iraq in Fragments was nominated for an Oscar... so everyone should hard matte their footage in-camera.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top