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!6:9, letterbox, pillarbox & festivals
Hi All,
Getting myself a little confused about what format to submit my short film to festivals in. I know they often give options, but getting confused with letterboxing in particular. If I letterbox my 16:9 film and then watch it on my 4:3 TV, it still misses off quite a lot on the sides. I have to pillarbox by around 90% to get the sides in, and then obviously the whole picture has to shrink to do this. If I sent a 4:3 letterboxed film to a festival would I similarly need to pillarbox the picture, or do digital projectors show the image right to the edges? For the DVD of the film I’m obviously going to pillar box the letterbox version of the film, but don’t want to do it unnecesarily with the festival version if I can help it. Any advice of help would be great, thanks,
Paul -
2 Replies
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Is this 16:9 SD? If so, what you’ve shot it anamorphic, so when you burn your DVD you need to set it to 16:9. This will put a flag on the DVD that your DVD player should see and will letterbox (as you’ve seen) on a 4:3 TV, or unsquish it and play it full screen on a 16:9 TV. Even then, you’re going to lose about 10% because that’s how TVs work. Digital projectors might show more, but I’ve never used one so I can’t say one way or the other.
To better understand why you’re losing 10% of your image, open Avid and turn on your Safe Title grid you’ll see two boxes–the bigger box is about 10% in, and that’s your action safe. Inside of that is a smaller box, which is title safe. TVs cut off about 10% of the image, so any action that you need to see should be within the bigger box. When you make titles, put them in the smaller box, which is about 20% in. This ensures they won’t be cut off by the TV either, especially Grandma’s tv from the 1960s that she just won’t give up. Every TV is different. We just made a DVD that played back on 6 TVs in one room–every one of them cut off something different.
If you’re submitting this to a festival that can display it 16:9, burn a 16:9 DVD and the player will display it full screen, but you will still lose about 10% of what you see in your editor. That’s just how TVs work. Again, digital projectors may be different. But if they can accept 16:9, don’t send them 4:3.
Good luck with the festivals! Post back and let us know how you do.
Michael
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Michael,
Thanks very much for that, really helpful. Yes, it’s a 16:9 SD project so that all makes sense. I think where I’ve come a bit of a cropper here is that I’ve got a couple of shots which rely on the audience reading text that goes right to the edges. If they can’t read it then a key plot point is missed. Only way to make sure that it’s read would therefore be to bring in the sides a bit, kind of within the title safe box. Live and learn I guess!!
Thanks again,
Paul
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