Letterbox footage combined w/ 16x9

E

EyenEye

Member
Hi there
Am shooting b roll on dvx tomorrow, using letterbox. The main camera is HD, prob 16x9. Is it easy to splice the footage together or is combining the HD 16X9 with the DVX letterbox footage going to look really awful ?

An editor friend of mine did it and with a spot of cropping said it looked fine ?

thanks heaps
N.
 
Is it 24p? Shoot THIN to preserve maximum resolution -- you'll need it when you uprez the footage to 16:9 or to HD resolutions.
 
Thanks David. Am shooting in England.

Will be handing tapes over at end of shoot - so any uprezzing will be done by editor. I just want to make sure that shooting in letterbox won't cause hassle for them in post if they try to mix it with 16x9 ? Will it look REALLY different and is uprezzing it a long procedure ?

thanks so much
 
Are you shooting progressive or interlaced? If progressive, then use "Thin."

You might want to shoot squeeze and avoid the hassle of letterbox altogether. Would pretty much work out to the same thing, resolution-wise.
 
No. Thin. You want the maximum resolution possible.

There's no difference between 24p and 24pA except for how the frames are split up and recorded on tape in 60i. Any camera setting which applies to one always applies to the other. They're exactly the same until they're on tape.
 
shooting interlace not progressive. one more question, out of interest - if shooting in letterbox to splice with 16x9 footage, does it make any difference whether you have the wide angle lens on or not ? may sound like a stupid question but just trying to understand the basics so be hugely grateful for any response.

thanks a mill
 
The wide angle will give you a greater field of view, naturally...
Or do you mean using the anamorphotic adapter lens?
Then (AFAIN) you´d have to shoot normal, and later unsqueeze the anamorphotic picture to widescreen in post...
Can anyone with DVX and adapter clarify?
 
If you're using the anamorphic adapter, you need to change the pixel aspect ratio of the footage to 1.21. A "wide angle" lens isn't the same thing.

Note, EventEye, that you don't actually NEED to shoot letterbox to make the splice with 16:9. You're going to crop the footage anyway, so you don't actually need the black bars.

If you're shooting with a 100A or 100B, though, you might save yourself the hassle of thinking about it at all and shoot squeeze.
 
Thank your for all your comments.

So, just to clarify, what I have learnt from this is the following:

1/ Whether in Europe or the US, if you want to shoot 16x9, the best way is to buy an anamorphic adaptor which gives you true widescreen.

2/ If no anamorphic adaptor, the best way is to shoot squeeze.

3/ Shooting letterbox is 4:3 with black bars. (I knew this but the confusion has come from friends who shoot letterbox when asked to shoot widescreen, even for broadcast, and who have never had any complaints or issues with doing so).

4/ If you ARE going to shoot letterbox with the idea of making it 16x9 in post, use a wideangle lens.

David, could you possibly verify the above points ?

I know there has been stickys about the topic and its been "done to death" but the four points above are simple clarifications really.

thanks as ever!
 
1) That will give you the highest possible resolution in widescreen, yes.

2) "Best" is relative -- but it's the easiest with negligible differences in resolution.

3) Yes, it's 4:3. It's the same as shooting regular 4:3 except that the top and bottom 25% are simply made all black. Either way, you have to crop the image.

4) The wide angle lens doesn't mean too much in terms of uprezzing to 16:9. It's just a stylistic choice. (In fact, if the adapter produces a barrel distortion, you might exacerbate it when you do the uprez. But that's usually most a factor on the top and bottom edges, which you're cutting off.) If you need it to better match the field of view of the HD cam, then maybe it'll be helpful there -- but the DVX's stock lens is pretty wide.
 
I've been toying with whether to buy an anamorphic adaptor or not but as you know they're pretty expensive.

If wanting to get good 16x0 results without anamorphic adaptor or uprezzing, am I right in saying then that I should:

shoot squeeze
put some tape on top and bottom of monitor
add black bars in post

and thats pretty much it ?

end footage will go onto 4x3 computer monitors / internet and perhaps 16x9 televisions if it is broadcast.

thank you so much for any light you may able to shed on this, that lens is v expensive !
 
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