question about widescreen

merc

merc

Well-known member
does shooting in widescreen make the image better? like is it more film like and better resolution than if u just shoot in 4:3?
 
It looks more like film.

But only in the sense that a drawing of a Corvette looks cooler than a drawing of a Gremlin.

It's all psychological/perception.
 
Any movie you see in the theater is either 1.85:1 or 2.35:1 (or some variation). So by rendering your movie in one of those aspects will give the audience a feeling of watching a cinematic film.

"Resolution" is a funny thing. Under most circumstances, if you matte your 4:3 film with a letterbox, you are technically cutting off pixels, which would lower your pixel count, which is usually the best measure of resolution. However, your horizontal resolution remains unchanged.

Panasonic does make an adapter to allow you to record anamorphic 16:9 to your 4:3 chips. The idea is to squish the horizontal image to fit it into the standard chips. Then when you edit, the image is streched back out using a different pixel aspect ratio (1.33:1, if I'm not mistaken).

In summary, 4:3 looks like TV, 1.85:1 or 2.35:1 look like movies. Pan-and-scan is the creation of the Devil himself (or herself).
 
Resolution is a funny thing.

You can have 1000 lines, for instance, but if you only put 480 lines worth of information, what is that resolution doing for you?

Anamorphic is a bit devilish, too. Your jamming X amount of info into Y amount of space. Comprises inherent. Kinda like lossy compression. Ah, well.
 
I always had good luck with SQUEEZE shooting on the 100a. I chose it over bars because it would open as a 1.77:1 (16:9) project within Vegas. Much closer to the Super 16mm framing I became adept at using in my early years.

You can always frame TV safe within the 16:9 frame in the event you want to go back. Numerically, you're better off with full frame 1.33:1 (4:3) video at acquisition - unless you know you plan to output 1.77:1 or 1.85:1 or Scope, where all that extra top and bottom information goes away completely plus some.

Golly, I miss Elaine...

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overlandfilms said:
I always had good luck with SQUEEZE shooting on the 100a. I chose it over bars because it would open as a 1.77:1 (16:9) project within Vegas. Much closer to the Super 16mm framing I became adept at using in my early years.
Click to expand...

I love shooting squeeze. That's almost all I shoot these days. It just feels right to me.
 
GenJerDan said:
Anamorphic is a bit devilish, too. Your jamming X amount of info into Y amount of space. Comprises inherent. Kinda like lossy compression. Ah, well.
Click to expand...

How is anamorphic devilish? You know, 4:3 DV footage is anamorphic, too. It is not square pixels, it has a .9 pixel aspect ratio. So, what's the big deal with 16:9 anamorphic with 1.2 PAR? Neither is true resolution, it's all manipulated.

A lot of people find anamorphic shot films very beautiful... because of the altered and imperfect image.
 
If you shoot 16:9 Squeez and upload into Vegas, the image stays squeezed? Can you change it to a regular image in Vegas?

I read somewhere that the 16:9 Squeez is widescreen... but squeezed... I forgot where, it was somewhere on the internet... But I can't imagin why Panasonic would do that...
 
I haven't held Elaine in years. Yeah, she must have been your girl too? For anyone not in the know, Elaine is the Panavision code-word for their Panaflex 16mm system. Basically maintained and improved for years to mimic exactly their 35mm systems.

16mm.jpg


Yeah, as DJ stated, Vegas, in their infinite wisdom, made the program to automatically unsqueeze the artificially induced 16:9 SQUEEZE into their 16:9 timelines. I can't speak to other NLEs, but you absolutely want to use SQUEEZE for your Vegas-bound 16:9 projects.

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My million dollar question has been answered... "Shoot Squeez with 35mm adaptor to get true widescreen"... But will this be able to happen in Avid Liquid Pro 7.0 as well? If anybody knows, please let me know....

Thanks!
 
If, by "widescreen", you mean 1.77:1 (16:9), then, yes, you are correct. Anything more or less than that, depending on whether you speak in H or V resolutions, will require cropping with bars.

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But I mean... will it happen the same in Vegas? Where, it will turn from Squeez to Regular? In the end, I'm probobly going to crop to 2:35:1 because I'm gonna get one of those screen skin gimmicks and follow the 2:35:1 aspect...

Sorry...

Thanks...
 
You're good. It'll be 16:9 in your Vegas 16:9 timeline. You'll mask it for Scope within the project, and that'll be the first time you will see cropping bars. Conversely, and to add confusion to your life, you could just shoot 4:3 with markers on your LCD and monitors for 2:35:1 and then apply more masking in post to achieve 2.35:1.

From a resolution standpoint, it's moot methinks. Maybe Jimerson can help on this aspect [sic] of your project.

I think what you really need to know going in is whether your final render will 2.35:1 within a 16:9 or 4:3 project because it'll affect the resulting ratio from one monitor to the next (e.g., 4:3 render with 2:35:1 cropping on a 16:9 monitor).

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Well, I definantly want it to be widescreen... I don't want a regular 2:35:1 crop...

Besides, if I masked the monitors for 2:35:1, wouldn't that help me keep the boom closer to my subject and out of the picture?
 
Absolutely. It is important for really close-in work with your boom that your operator remembers that the LCD on the HVX200 is not underscan - there is some infomation slightly outside of the monitor that you won't see.

While cameras like the Z1U offer Allscan mode, the HVX200 and DVX have no such feature.

For this reason, a composite or HD monitor capable of underscan is vital for framing when you're right up on the edge.

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I believe the HVX and DVX100B model both are underscanned. You see everything pixel for pixel. This is true on the DVX100B, except when you set the display to aspect correct to 16:9, at which point it has some massive overscan, unfortunately.
 
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