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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Anamorphic letterboxing

M

mj882

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My film was shot on the RedOne camera in Anamorphic aspect ratio. I've imported the clips into Final Cut Pro, the sequence is 2048x1024 and the clip that fits is the same ratio, however there are a couple of clips that letterboxed, their aspect ratios are 2040x960

How do I resolve this?

Here are two images to show you comparisons:

http://rapidshare.com/files/443958470/Snapz_Pro_XScreenSnapz003.pdf

http://rapidshare.com/files/443958349/Snapz_Pro_XScreenSnapz004.jpg

Additionally, I converted the clips using RedAlert to Quicktime files to 2048x1024 - AppleProRes 422 (HQ) - as opposed to editing it in full 4K.

I dragged the files to a new Final Cut Pro project and it asked me to change the sequence to match the clips. Since then I've been editing fine, but just noticed the final few shots are letterboxed.

What should I do to have it all match?
 
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None that I saw, am I able to change now?

And could you answer my question please.
 
I just looked -- it's the first thing that comes up on the Registration page:

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Only the admin can change names, and there seems to be a back-log of change requests at the moment. So better to re-register with your real name. You only have two posts at this point.

As for the question. FCP establishes your timeline sequence to use one video and aspect setting. So the reason the others letterbox, obviously, is they do not adhere to the sequence settings. You can crop/scale those clips in FCP to fit or do so externally via the RED tools or other software you used to get them to ProRes in the first place. This latter solution is the better way to do it.

RED Alert and RED Rushes are tools that have been deprecated and are no longer supported. Everyone is using REDCINE-X nowadays as it supports the latest color matrix settings and file format versions.

You can also continue through your edit as it is now and then crop / scale the offending clips when you finish in Color, Scratch, DaVinci, Quantel, etc.. However, if you're going for a higher level finish than out of FCP, you will want to finish from the original R3D files or at least ProRes 4444 and not ProRes 422.
 
Hi MJ - we got broken off, but Jeff is basically and totally spot on...

On a mac, clipfinder is still the most stable/cheap tool for a conform like this...

Jeff hasn't opened CF for a while... Which I guess is due to him going all-RAW in PPro/CS 5, which seems to be a good approach in a singleuser environment...
 
Yes Clipfinder seems to work for a lot of people. I never got into it myself, even before the native support in Premiere. It is just one of several possible solutions. I'm mostly a Premiere CS5 and Avid MC5 guy these days. I prefer premiere because it's actually a rather powerful NLE once you get your bearings (hardly different from FCP anyway) and it treats R3D files just as any other common format. No QT wrappers or other such nonsense. Avid and FCP still integrate better with various finishing solutions and post houses though.
 
If/When you get back from your Ban with a real name, be aware that PMing people with the exact same question as you put in a post is probably not the best way to get help. I'm not sure if you sent it to anyone but me, but, in my case at least, all it's going to do is make it less likely you'll get the help you want.
 
Cheers Jeff and Gunleik.

So after conversion to 2K, it's best to scale/crop the 2040x960 clips to fit the 2048x1024 aspect ratio?

I'm re-converting using REDCINE-X 356 now, using Quicktime (not Quicktime wrapper) at 2048x1024 using AppleProRes 442 (HQ). Will there be a difference from my RedRushes conversion, with the same settings.
 
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There will be a massive difference in colors if your camera firmware was up-to-date. RedRushes is dead!
 
Yes! Or try Storm (free beta).
 
Out of interest, does Log and Transfer also give good results like REDCINE-X?

I don't intend to change ISO's, so would it be fine for me to opt for Log and Transfer? It also seems pretty simple to revert back to FULL 4K for grading.
 
No, Log & Transfer hasn't been updated in a looooong time.
 
Opted for REDCINE-X anyway, and what a difference with in colours.

RedRushes gave out a very yellow look - REDCINE is a lot more accurate.

That being said, the unintentional yellow look was quite nice actually, although I guess that would have effected grading in the future?
 
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