16:9 footage in 4:3 timeline
by Maria Luisa Gambale
on
Jan 23, 2008 at 8:54:44 pm
I'm going to just quickly restate my question from earlier today since the parameters changed and that thread may have gotten a bit clogged up. Thank you to everyone who has helped so far.
I now have to use footage that was shot 16:9 in a 4:3 timeline. Because of pre-produced graphics, I can't just edit in a 16:9 timeline then crop in Compressor. I'm not sure this would actually be better in terms of quality loss anyways.
I can't distort the aspect ratio of the clips because there are people in every shot.
Is my only option to scale up (upon testing, seems to be 133%, which even seems to make sense mathematically) each clip and then pan and scan as needed?
Re: 16:9 footage in 4:3 timeline by Dave LaRonde on Jan 23, 2008 at 9:03:07 pm
[Maria Luisa Gambale]"I now have to use footage that was shot 16:9 in a 4:3 timeline. Because of pre-produced graphics, I can't just edit in a 16:9 timeline then crop in Compressor... Is my only option to scale up... each clip and then pan and scan as needed?"
If you're talking about 720x480 DV Widescreen footage, the answer is "yes" as far as I know.
Your other option is to do NO scaling and let it remain letterboxed in the 4x3 timeline.
Re: 16:9 footage in 4:3 timeline by Matthew Nelson on Jan 23, 2008 at 10:31:27 pm
If you want to remove the squeeze without scaling the video do the following:
Open the anamorphic clip into viewer. Open the distort settings and set them as follows
Upper left -432, 240
Upper Right -432. 240
Lower Right 432, 240
Lower Left -432, 240
Aspect Ratio 0
This assumes 720x240 if the footage is D1 the vertical is 243.
Re: 16:9 footage in 4:3 timeline by Dave LaRonde on Jan 23, 2008 at 11:35:21 pm
[Matthew Nelson]"If you want to remove the squeeze without scaling the video do the following:
Open the anamorphic clip into viewer. Open the distort settings and set them as follows..."
Now, if you put 16x9 video into a 4x3 timeline, doesn't FCP automatically fit the clip side-to-side into the timeline, leaving it letterboxed? And by doing so -- in the case of DV video, as we're talking here -- isn't that the same as scaling the entire picture DOWN to something like 75%?
So when you scale that 16x9 clip in the timeline up to 133%, haven't you just simply scaled it to fit the timeline top-to-bottom without modifying the clip's pixel aspect ratio?
So how is your technique substantially different from simple scaling?
Re: 16:9 footage in 4:3 timeline by Matthew Nelson on Jan 24, 2008 at 12:16:23 am
Couple of reasons why I prefer using the coordinates. Scaling to my eyes generates a softer image. It could be just me being nuts. Not out of the realm.
The other is the aspect ratio distortion over corrects. I tested this using a native 864x480 image generated in AE rendered anamorphic and straight. I used the straight render as my control and compared scaling and the coordinate shift to the control. The coordinate shift matched the control exactly. The scaled clip was over stretched.
Re: 16:9 footage in 4:3 timeline by Delano Bryant on Jan 26, 2008 at 5:08:43 pm
The very best way it to make a Letterbox matte and put that on your top video line over ALL your footage, that way your wipes trans or any efxs won't suddenly go full screen.
