Not being anywhere near Burbank, I won't be able to attend. Based on the short trailer, it looks like you are indeed "swinging with the big boys" along with an engaging story line, I'd really like to see it sometime. Good on ya, mate!

Trailer looks great. Congratulations to getting it completed. I'm impressed to read that you shot it with anamorphic glass, what did you use and where did you get it from?

I'm a bit concerned about your comments re DCI and 'scope. My understanding is that the DCI specs are in effect no different to how 'scope is handled on BD, you still lose vertical resolution. there's no provision in the DCI spec for an anamorphic lens on the projector.

Bob.

Hi John and Bob - glad you like the look of it. It's an angst inducing labour of love as you'd know. :-D

The glass was Lomo anamorphic primes, and the camera an Alexa. Package from CameraQuip in Brisbane (nice guys!). Image was desqueezed "live" as part of the edit in Vegas without rerendering in Vegas, giving us a desqueezed size of 2496 x 1080 (being a 1.3 times desqueeze on a 1920x1080 image). Yes, this does make for chunky playback, even on Blackmagic cards, but a few run-throughs at lower res and it seems to cache the material for smoother playback. The image is then rendered down into whatever res we need.

Bob - breaking your concerns down, there's a couple of different issues there, but I think you'll find things are much better in the professional projection business than you've been lead to believe.

I've been in the projection booth when the projector has changed its internal lenses from one for a 16:9 sized projection for ads, to a 2.35:1. You can actually see the lens swing down while the projector is projecting black. There's a whole lot of whirring going on. This also triggers the matte channel curtains to reposition wider for 2.35. This is not triggered by the DCP, but by the playlist which is programmed ahead of time. They call it a matte channel change and its supported by the players (unix based) and the projectors.

It is also my understanding that the entire image area is in use during a 2.35:1 projection with the correct lens. But that's hard to prove without going blind! :-)

A 2K or 4K 2.35:1 image fills an entire scope screen, top to bottom, edge to edge, while a 16:9 image is pillarboxed within that screen. By comparison, a Blu-Ray image (16:9) on the same screen with letterboxed 2.35:1 content is pillarboxed, then letterboxed, leading to a loss of vertical res and sub optimal use of the screen, kind of like this image (not my work):


This was something I thought long and hard about when settling on a camera package, as I knew this film would eventually be screened mostly via Blu-Ray at festivals. And that is why the Scope projection is so special for the project, because it will actually fill the entire screen.

But in the end, I wanted the experience of shooting anamorphic for 2.35:1 workflow. And Vegas did it wonderfully. Well ... corrupted project files and crashes aside. ;-)

Your movie looks like it's extraordinarily well shot, entilza! Great work!!

You definitely do Vegas proud!

[I]"It is also my understanding that the entire image area is in use during a 2.35:1 projection with the correct lens. But that's hard to prove without going blind! :-)"[/I]

I quickly scanned through the latest DCI spec in case something has changed but in this regard, no.
The 2K frame is fixed at 2048x1920. The table of how many of those pixels are used for 'scope and 4:3 has been omitted as it's now a SMPTE spec.
Wikipedia does give a figure if you trust that source:
[I]In 2K, for Scope (2.39:1) presentation 2048x858 pixels of the imager is used"[/I]

Certainly during projection a lens change could be used to magnify the image to fill the 'scope screen without top and bottom masks however vertical resolution has been lost either way. The same applies to 'scope on BD however BD doesn't have anyway of flagging the content so a lens change couldn't be done. I guess it could be done manually, I've had to swap lenses on a projector by hand to show 16:9 SD in a cinema using their old Panasonic projector.

Bob.

I always thought projection was the same as camera - a 4:3 gate, with a 1.3 anamorphic lens to give 2.35:1 (or there abouts). Well, you learn something new every time you come here.

There must be a bit more to it though - like extra lens masking maybe? Because if it was just a straight zoom lens, there would be spill of the letterbox bars onto the audience and roof if that wasn't masked out physically.

Either way, a DCP scope projection has the major advantage of filling the screen, and no spill. The same content from Blu-Ray does not, unless lenses were to be deployed, and no festival I have seen does that.

[I]"
There must be a bit more to it though - like extra lens masking maybe? Because if it was just a straight zoom lens, there would be spill of the letterbox bars onto the audience and roof if that wasn't masked out physically."[/I]

I'm almost certain no zoom lens is involved, probably for the same reason that the DCI spec doesn't allow for anamorphic, money :(
It's sad to contemplate that you shoot a movie with the best quality lenses you can afford and it'll be projected using the cheapest lens the cinema can find.

There's perhaps some baffles in the lens but they'll give a soft edge the same as the gate in a film projector. That's why the screen has hard edged matte black masks and moveable curtains. Keep in mind that the spill for the letterboxing is black too and it's not all that big an area.

There's many reasons why DCP is better than BD, less compression, better audio, better chroma sampling etc. Certainly if I was part of the team that had put the sort of effort into a production that yours has I want it shown in the best possible light.

Bob.

OK - I did some digging, as Bob's information seemed to be at odds with my own observations.

I can confirm the cinema I projected at had the following elements:

1. An anamorphic projection lens
http://www.christiedigital.com/en-us/products/accessories/Pages/Anamorphic-126X-Lens-38-809054.aspx

2. A motorised anamorphic lens mount for moving the lens into position on command
http://www.christiedigital.com/en-us/products/accessories/Pages/Anamorphic-Lens-Mount.aspx

The person wasn't able to tell me much more, but I'm putting together a picture here:

Bob is right, for cheap cinemas. If a projector does not have an anamorphic lens, a 2.35:1 "scope" film will be projected as 2K masked because that is all it can do.

But I was also right. If a cinema DOES have an anamorphic lens and motor mount, the server will send the projector full frame material, desqueezed by the lens. Which is exactly what was occurring at the cinema I tested in, and is a superiour (higher resolution) way of presenting scope material.

It's important to remember that the channel change (moving from widescreen to scope) is not done in the DCI/DCP as Bob suggested, but is instead part of the presentation software run on the server. It's sequenced instructions: open the curtain, change the matte curtain, change the lens, turn up the amp, play the DCP. This explains why it is absent on the spec Bob mentioned.

Interesting... Nice edit!

[I]"It's important to remember that the channel change (moving from widescreen to scope) is not done in the DCI/DCP as Bob suggested, but is instead part of the presentation software run on the server. It's sequenced instructions: open the curtain, change the matte curtain, change the lens, turn up the amp, play the DCP. This explains why it is absent on the spec Bob mentioned. "[/I]

I'm still trying to get my head around this :(

Something in the DCP package has to tell the presentation system that the digital print is anamorphic and needs to be stretched either by using less vertical pixels of the imager or by using an anamorphic lens. In the spec there is mention of aspect ratio in the Composition Playlist so I guess that's how the presentation system gets flagged.

What has me really confused is this can also be done with home theatre systems!

Schneider has their Cine-Digitar 1.33x Anamorphic Lens for home theatre projectors. Not automatic but for that to work then the Scope print on a BD disk must be an anamorphic print as well.

The question then becomes why doesn't the BD spec allow for an anamorphic print?

Probably because the spec designers figured that option would confuse the public too much. It'd be fine for presentation at home using a projector but with a Scope capable HDTV there's be black bars on the screen most of the time.

Bob.