Matte 1.85:1 ratio on 2.35:1 footage

jimbo20 wrote on 11/1/2007, 8:36 PM
Someone has shot HD footage with the 2.35:1 aspect ratio (presumably an anamorphic lens on an HDV cam). They want to matte this to 1.85:1 to show at film festivals. Can I just set the project properties with the standard "HDV 1080-60i" template,then set event pan/crop with the "1.85:1 Academy aspect ratio" template? Then do I just output as Cineform intermediate?

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 11/1/2007, 8:43 PM
Sounds good to me. Beware though that if that's all you do, you'll get the center portion of the frame the whole way through. You might wanna do a look through and see if there are any cases where the important part of the scene drifts over to one side or the other. In those cases you might want to pan with the action rather than lose it. It's probably the other guy's call though.
farss wrote on 11/1/2007, 8:51 PM
If they really shot it with a anamophic lens on the front of a 16:9 camera ( I believe you can do this by putting a 16:9 adaptor on a 16:9 camera, pretty close) then you first need to adjust the PAR unless it's going to be projected with a matching lens.
What you need to do I think is set the PAR for the footage to 1.778 to get things back right before you crop it. Vegas will see the PAR as normal HDV 16:9 which would give the wrong result.
The only problem now is that the image size at 1:1 PAR becomes 2,600 x 1080! You scale that back to 1920x810 and you're set to go.

Bob.
jimbo20 wrote on 11/1/2007, 9:13 PM
OK, thanks, I understand this (mostly). Is there a good book or resource that explains these types of scenarios and how to set project properties, cropping settings, and render formats?

I am also not sure about how "film" festivals expect delivery (such as Cannes, Sundance, Toronto). Do they take DVD, or do they only take film-out from HDV original. In either case, I need guidence as to what settings for rendering as well as DVDA project settings.

Thanks!
farss wrote on 11/1/2007, 9:28 PM
Most film festival today have a number of standard formats.

35mm
HDCAM
Digital Betacam
Betacam SP.

Basically you can letterbox 2.35:1 into a 16:9 frame and create a 16:9 DVD, or you can crop it a little to reduce the size of the top and bottom bars. Your first imperative though is to get it back to the correct PAR. A really good tip for anyone shooting unusual aspect ratios or even the regular ones is to include a big circle in the slates.

This site here:
http://www.digitalpraxis.net/
has a wealth of information about standard aspect ratios etc, etc if you really want to get bogged down in technical stuff.

Really though what you're attempting to do is a little outside the square so you're going to have to wing it a little. I've got some 'scope material but it was shot with a 1:1 PAR so that's not going to really help much.

But first off, was this really shot with an anamorphic lens???
This is really important to know or else eyeball. We could all be spending a lot of time offering advice that's irrelevant and making you jump through all manner of hoops for nothing.

Bob.

Bob.
jimbo20 wrote on 11/2/2007, 4:30 AM
Thanks Bob, you are right, I don't know enough details yet. The PAR may indeed not be a factor. All I know so far is that it was shot 2.35:1 and they want it edited in 1.85:1. So with that, it appears to be a simple crop for now. I will post again when I learn more.
vitalforce wrote on 11/2/2007, 12:52 PM
The center-of-the-frame comment is worth repeating though. It's more work but is an opportunity in disguise--certain aspects of a shot (or mistakes) may be in an upper or lower third of the picture, and Vegas allows 'sliding' the picture behind a mask. In my last DV feature, we deliberately shot in 4:3 and masked off the monitor with tape. Then in post, which we set up for 1.85:1 output, I rescued three shots where no one had caught the boom creeping in either below or above the actors, by moving the visible part of the shots just past the end of the mike.