cinemascope

[Dan Achatz]

First, I’m assuming that you are willing to crop you image to get the right aspect ration.

Second, I’m assuming that you don’t need to change any focus issues at the edge of the picture in order to do real Cinema scope.

You’ll have to figure out what you ratio is for Cinema Scope. There are a number of different Cinema scope aspect ratios. For this we are going to use the “Wonderful World of the Brothers Grim” (1962) as our example. The Aspect ration was 2.59:1.

Lets assume that you shot 720×486 DV. You’ll need to change your project properties either with a new project, or by going to file and then properties. In the width window type in 720. Now for the height window will enter 278 (720/2.59. Click OK.

Now you project size will be Cinema scope based on our sample.

If you planed it out right, all your shots were composed in the horizontal center of the 4:3 image and the picture will end up showing the part of the image you want to show.

The chances of this happening are slim. The good news is that you can use the pan and crop to move your picture up and down to find the best spot for each scene.

Rendering out your final project will involve other decisions. If you use Quick Time or Windows Media, you can select custom sizes and enter your pixel size of 720×248. If you are planning to put it on a DVD, you’ll probable want to letter box it on a 16:9 project. That way it would have maximize the image on a 16:9 monitor and also look good on a 4:3 set.

Here is an example. I did it a few years back using only Vegas 5, Photoshop 7 and a Panasonic AG-DVX100.

https://www.albatrossmedia.com/images/Digital%20stuff/skater2smlwidescren.wmv

[Riccardo Leone]

Hi Dan,

I know the post is really old, but I am facing a similar issues so I thought first to try here. I shot a shoty film in 1920×1080 but I want the final output to be in 1.85. I have done all the editing process letterboxing the project (I created a .png file with two black stripes of 21 pixels each). I’ve done all the editing, and now it’s rendering time.

Well, I want to render two versions of the project, both in .mp4: one in 1920×1038 and the other 1280×692. So I chose that size in the custom settings. However, I get an unwanted result: the output is indeed in 1.85, but sometimes all the pixels are cut from above (and therefore I see the black stripe underneath the image) and sometimes from below. That really doesn’t make sense to me. Any chances you guys know what I am doing wrong?

Thanks a lot!