[Wayne Williams]

Returned my “demo” macbook pro today and ordered a Mac Pro.

Now I just need to figure out screens! Pulling my hair out on that one as I want to do Color seriously as well.

w.

[Wayne Williams]

Thanks Noah,

Aja Ki Pro seems to be the consensus answer…

Wayne

[Wayne Williams]

nothing wrong with trying something from left field.

unfortunately it did not work. thanks for the suggestions, i’ll keep poking around.

w.

[Wayne Williams]

Actually the files are on the order of a Gig each, and we have an instrument, the Tektronix Picture Quality Analyzer 500, that is able to read and analyze these files so I am confident that it is a video stream and that they are HD versus a single frame.

I need to do an experiment that involves transcoding these files to MPEG 2, also I do not have Shake. Any other thoughts on a tool that allows me to bring into Compressor?

Thanks,

Wayne

[Wayne Williams]

Thanks David,

The shots were carefully framed with 4:3 markers for the width, but requiring all of the vertical pixels. losing any of the vertical pixels will seriously compromise the shots – basically it will not be workable.

My understanding of a center cut 4:3 is that it will pull from the top and bottom?

At this point it is a matter of doing what I can to save the work if possible. Any work-arounds painful or otherwise?

The only thing I can think of is that it is 16:9 HD and it shows with 240 pixels of black on each side to preserve the 4:4 aspect ratio.

But if I want to go to a 4:3 dvd format them I might need to shrink / scale the image to make it fit in the HD timeline so that I can toss width pixels and preserve all verticle pixels? Would it show as a full image in DVD or a tiny image in the center of the frame.

Wayne

[Wayne Williams]

Hi David,

Thank you for your reply and your generous offer to help me establish the proper work flow. I am new to this and I am sure that I am making some novice mistakes.

Here are my constraints and desired options for distribution. Hopefully I have not set my self up poorly for what i want to accomplish.

1) I would like to preserve the option to display at film festivals, create DVDs, Web, etc. Also, I envision using anything from an SD to an HD projector at special events.

2) The film needs to show as 4:3 – silent film look.

3) My camera is AVCHD 16:9 only. I shot in 1920 x 1080 30p 16:9. the scenes were framed using 4:3 markers in the camera display because I knew I was going to crop pixels on each side to get 4:3. I also framed assuming that I would use all of the vertical pixels, so none of those can be thrown away. that takes me to 1440 x 1080.

4) My goal is to have the highest quality master for edit, color, effects, etc. That is my understanding of the value of ProRes serving as a lightly compressed mezzanine file.

I initially proposed a workflow that kept everything as 16:9 and simply use cropping in fcp to take 1920 down to 1440 pixels for the width. In that scenario I am hopeful that in Compressor I can get it to whatever distribution format I need whether it is 4:3 dvd, web, or 16:9 film projection with black on the side to preserve the 4:3 aspect ratio. Critical assumption – is that a good one?

Having said that the director who will be doing the rough edit felt most comfortable doing (seeing) everything in 4:3 only right off the bat which is why I was going through the extra step of trying to crop my ProRes files to 1440×1080, having that be the master, and then trying to figure out how to import those files into fcp and have them display properly.

I know, too complicated and from what you said it sounds like it is not working because that approach does not make sense.

How do I best get from A to B?

Thanks,

Wayne

[Wayne Williams]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the tip. I did switch audio to AC3 based on your recommendation. Also helps that it is a silent film, 🙂

I do have a question since you are using the same camera I am. You may see the question as a new post, but it not here it is. Any guidance you have in this regard would be appreciated…

__________________________________________________________

Hello,

I am shooting AVCHD on a camera that only supports 1080p in 16:9. Director wants the film in 4:3.

Is there a way to set the geometry during log and transfer such that with the initial transcode to ProRes 422 I get 4:3 right off the bat?

If not, what is the best way to get there after the initial capture in 16:9. I noticed that i can select 4:3 under geometry for a ProRres 422 transcode in compressor. Am I doing a double transcode if I do that – ProRes 422 16:9 to ProRes 422 4:3? Loss of quality?

Should I just trim the frame in FCP to get to 4:3?

Finally, I tend to be anal about quality. Is there a discernible difference between using 422 versus 422 LT? I will only have about 80 minutes of footage. Even if yes, it may not be noticeable because of limits in my source quality? 4:2:0 8 bit in a new Sony NXCAM.

Thanks,

Wayne

[Wayne Williams]

I have one of these cameras coming in a few days.

i am interested to know if anyone knows of a system that can take the SDI HD output of this camera directly into a hard disk capture off camera. the advantage of this would be that you get 4:2:2 versus 4:2:0 chroma compression. Of course there is also the workflow question of how to get from that to fcp.

wayne