4X3 to 16X9 for Digibeta

[David Roth weiss]

Cropping won’t do the job, because 4×3 SD needs to be scaled up to fit the 16×9 anamorphic frame size. Cropping would simply create a letterboxed version of your 4×3 video.

To create a 16×9 anamorphic version of your 4×3 SD timeline in the most expedient manner, do the following:

1) duplicate the sequence
2) on the duplicated sequence check the anamorphic box in Sequence>>Settings
3) scale up all video to 133 percent (to do this, scale a single shot, then copy, then paste attributes>>basic motion to all clips.

Scaling up to 133% will exactly fill the anamorphic widescreen frame horizontally, but will cut off an equal amount on the top and bottom of the frame. You can reposition vertically if this cuts off any portion of the frame.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.

[Zuleide Otaviana]

Thank you.

[Arnie Schlissel]

[David Roth Weiss] “You can reposition vertically if this cuts off any portion of the frame.”

If you do this, you must be extremely careful that each shot is positioned vertically on an even numbered whole integer. Otherwise, you will reverse the fields and your tape will be rejected because of interlacing problems.

Arnie
Post production is not an afterthought!
https://www.arniepix.com/

[Zuleide Otaviana]

Thanks. I will position the shots on even numbers. Also, should I just export it as Quicktime DV NTSC 48 khz Anamorphic or should I do something else? My plan is to export it as quicktime to a miniDV tape and take it to a video house for them to make a Digital Beta of it. Thanks again for the suggestions.

[Christopher Kinsman]

Hi Zuleide, I would highly recommend finding a post house that has a terranex converter. Since you need to do a digibeta xfer anyway, you might want to strike a deal to convert your 4×3 to 16×9 which looks very clean in the terranex – much cleaner than just within final cut. With some houses you just take your drive in with an .mov file and they’ll lay off to tape and throw in the Terranex conversion for slightly more. If you’re in the LA area, talk to Westide Media Group (Lewis or Dan)

Hope this helps!

Kind Regards,

Chris K

[David Roth weiss]

[Zuleide Otaviana] “My plan is to export it as quicktime to a miniDV tape and take it to a video house for them to make a Digital Beta of it.”

If you have text and graphics on the timeline, outputting to DV will compress them terribly, and outputting to DV will re-compress them yet again.

For the best possible output to DigiBeta you should:

1) go to Sequence>>Settings and change the compressor from DV to ProRes.

2) Re-render the entire sequence.

3) Export a Quicktime Movie at current settings

4) Bring that file to a facility on a Firewire drive to output to DigiBeta.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.