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customize canvas to 35mm jpg format
Hello all! I hope somebody can help with this… feeling kind of sick right now.
I have been shooting for a multimedia piece which will incorporating still images and video for the first time. I am still photographer so the still images are the main content of the piece. This being the case I was planning to use the still 35mm frame aspect ratio as the frame dimensions for the multimedia piece.
The video camera has yielded 1440 x 1080 px. Obviously the two formats are very different.
I knew this would be the case, so when using the video camera I masked the screen to replicate the 35mm frame to compose, and shot wide planning crop the edges of the frame to match the format of my still images.
I have realized I may have a major problem here as I can’t seem to customize the canvas size to my 35mm frame. It appears to be locked to video formats. My question is…
Is it possible to customize the size/aspect ratio of the canvas to match the frame of a 35mm camera? Then can I drop the larger video frame into it and crop off the edges.
I am increasingly concerned that that this not possible which poses major problems for me. If anyone can help with this issue I would love to hear from you. I’m using Final Cut 5 btw.
Thanks,
James
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12 Replies
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[James Chance] “The video camera has yielded 1440 x 1080 px.”
The video camera squeezes a 1920×1080 image to 1440×1080 pixels anamorphic, which is unsqueezed upon playback back to 1920×1080 for display. 1920×1080 interlaced the HD standard otherwise known as 1080i (or 1080p if progressive).
The reason FCP is locked to standard video formats such as 1080i is because all video, other than “web video,” must be played back and or displayed on devices, such as monitors or projectors, which are fixed to a standard, and they will scale anything else to fit the standard, thus distorting the image when so scaled. So, FCP is forcing you to adhere to a standard so your images will not be distorted. Doe sthat make sense to you?
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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David,
Yes, thanks, it does make sense. My production is for the web. So I guess its kind of frustrating to have to adhere to the tv, projector formats. But his is the way FCP is set up and I do understand.
I may be clutching at straws here but is there any way around this? Again, I am looking to produce a piece which is in a 35mm still camera format dimensions and crop the video to fit within this frame. In you opinion what are my options here. I would hate to have to crop my still frames.
Appreciate your response,
James
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Sounds like your task would be better suited to a graphics application, such as Combustion, AfterEffects, or even Flash – I believe these all allow you to create custom canvas sizes.
Cheers,
S -
James,
Expanding on Stace’s post: edit your piece in FCP at 1440 x 1080, ignoring the stuff want to crop out. Export the final sequence as a self-contained QT (it’ll be 1440 x 1080). In After Effects, create a new comp at the 35mm size, then drag your QT clip into it. Render that out as your final movie.
–jon–
Jon Hornbacher
Tilt Media -
Under Sequence settings/frame size there is a custom tab that lets you set the frame size to whatever you want. I think there is a maxium size of some sort.
Peter McAuley
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Thanks Peter,
I had played with the sequence settings and frame size. But it is the aspect ratio setting below this that is posing the problem. I am restricted to video formats/aspect ratios with no ability to customize.
James
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[Stace Carter] “Sounds like your task would be better suited to a graphics application, such as Combustion, AfterEffects, or even Flash – I believe these all allow you to create custom canvas sizes.”
I would do this full frame in Combustion, and then if there were any objectional letterbox or pillarbox that could be cropped before export.
FCP doesn’t work that way, but in combination with Compressor it might be made to work the way James wishes.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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Your frame size is your aspect ratio. Pixel aspect ratio only refers to whether the pixels are square (1) video (.9) or anamorphic etc. What format of video did you shoot?
Peter McAuley
Peter McAuley
Axyz Edit
Toronto
G5 dual 2.0
4 gigs ram
10.4.3
FCP 5.04
QT 7.03
Kona 2 v1.1.4 with K Box
4 X 250 gig external F800 Lacie firewire drive
2 X 23″ Apple cinema display -
A 35mm still frame is 1.5″X1″ which gives you a 15X10 format.
It sounds like your video camera has captured a 16X9 format.
This should be close enough to fudge in FCP.If this is so I don’t know why you had to mask the video frame for composition unless you actually shot in a 4:3 ratio.
What video camera and format is it?
“thou can not stir a flower without crumbling a star” ……Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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[Rennie Klymyk] “If this is so I don’t know why you had to mask the video frame for composition unless you actually shot in a 4:3 ratio.”
Rennie,
He said he shot 1440×1080 which is anamorphic.
Bottom line is, just as when doing a telecine from 35, there’s always going to be minor letterboxing or pillarboxing, depending on the method used, because as Rennie says, a 35mm frame is not 16×9.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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