Help with workflow for 16:9 with XL2 and FCP

[Todd Gillespie]

Hi Ty,

I’m not sure I understand what you’re asking. But for 16×9 footage, you have a couple of choices.

One you leave it as 16×9 and then everyone who views it will need to be able to view in 16×9 format or it will looked squished.

Two-make a 4×3 version where you reduse the image down to a letterbox.

Third, you create a ‘center-punch’ where you create a full screen 4×3 image with your 16×9 footage (so some of the sides of the footage is lost in the 4×3 viewing)

Hope this helps,

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Ty Ford]

Thanks for that. I’ll try to be clearer. I seem to recall having been able to shoot and edit in 16:9 so that the resultant quicktime movie was also 16:9. There was no letter boxing above and below the picture.

Thanks,

Ty Ford

[David Battistella]

Ty,

If you are looking to make a QT movie that will display in the correct aspect ratio then it might be wise to use compressor and make shure the preset forces the movie to display at 16×9.

These flags are put into the movie when FCP captures it as anamorphic footage as if you open then at the root level on your hard drive and look at the “get info” windo wof QT you will see that teh file size is actaully 853×480 indicating that the movie is indeed anamorphic because that is the frame size.

David

Peace and Love 🙂

[Ty Ford]

Thanks David,

So what you’re saying is that I need to capture with anamorphic ON in 16:9 and ON in compressor when I export?

In my most recent capture, I just used the standard 720×480 settings all the way through and got 16:9, but it was letter boxed when I exported it.

Sorry with all the questions, but I found the settings issues really confusing.

Regards,

Ty Ford

[David Battistella]

Do this as a test.

Make two copies of the same clip, name one copy.
Capture one clip with the regular preset.

Capture the other with the anamorphic preset.

Open them both with quicktime.

What I am saying is that with compressor you can FORCE the clip to display in the 16×9 (not letter boxed which is 4×3) aspect ratio, so that it is displaying as a full rectangle not a square with the black boxes.

David

Peace and Love 🙂

[Ty Ford]

Think I got it!

I shot some stuff tonight with my FS-4 Firestore in 24P Quicktime.

I imported files into a FCP production set to DV NTSC 48k anamorphic and the clip settings were DV NTSC 48k anamorphic. Then I used the compressor set to DV NTSC 48k anamorphic to make a QT movie.

Bingo! The QT screen was completely filled, no letterboxing. Commad-I said it was 853×480. Perfect!

I’ll have to try this with tape in the camera to see if logging tape works the same way and if it also works at 30p and 60i.

Thanks for holding my hands guys. I have been struggling with this issue for MONTHS and thought I might have to settle for letterboxing. Being able to finally get it right is very exhilirating.

Regards,

Ty Ford

[David Battistella]

Ty,

I can confirm that it occurs with the tape as well.

David

Peace and Love 🙂

[Ty Ford]

Thanks David,

Boy, the sun really came out for me with this solution.

I feel much more confidant about shooting and editing in general now.

Regards,

Ty