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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 :)

A little Scarlet music video with Kowa Anamorphics

J

Joshua Reis

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How did you use anamorphic lenses with your Scarlet?
 
The camera was set to 4k (QHD) mode so the image was distorted to the touchscreen or EVF. However, via HDSD we used an onboard TV logic VFM-056W and remote FSI 21" LM-2140W monitors which are both cable of manually squeezing the image for live preview. Since the anamorphics are a 2x squeeze and we are using a 16: sensor area (instead of the appropriate 4:3 are) we get a super wide aspect ratio. I'm not sure what it is? 3.56:1? The image is then squeezed in Redcine upon transcoding.
 
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Other than the questionable delight of using anamorphic lenses on a client's budget, what is the possible advantage of using less than a third of your image area in your final product?
THis reminds me of dvxuser.com stuff from years ago.
 
BRANDON JAMESON said:
Other than the questionable delight of using anamorphic lenses on a client's budget, what is the possible advantage of using less than a third of your image area in your final product?
THis reminds me of dvxuser.com stuff from years ago.
Click to expand...


Its definitely an aesthetic and creative risk. I expect some people to embrace it while others to find it distasteful or distracting. Its certainly not the first time it has been done. I think it all depends on the compositions that you would like to achieve. I remember not too long ago, The majority of clients would ask, "why are we shooting 16:9 when my TV at home is 4:3?" Why am I paying for black bars or a smaller screen? Can we frame 4:3 center crop within 16:9? I'm sure many of us have had this exact dialogue on projects. While filming, we framed 2:40 to be safe, but I applaud the director for taking that risk and sticking with it. Now, 0% of my projects are 4:3, about 80% are 16:9, 24% are 2.35/2.40, and about 1% take that risk and go crazy wide. I think audiences have become acclimated to viewing material on small screens like pads and tablets so size doesn't really matter as TV isn't king anymore. How many of us watch YouTube videos full screen on a home HDTV? If you have an opportunity to take a creative risk and your client is onboard, I say go for it! Thats the very thing that keeps me inspired.
 
Clicked on the link and was excitied to watch... but Sorry Joshua, you lost me at 480P.
 
Uhh, NOPE, "crazy wide" is Cinerama and the giant curved screen designed to watch it on, which was designed to wrap around the audience and create an immersive viewing experience...THIS is just "super sliver" and pointless for the very uses you pointed out in your post, Josh.

The idea of letterbox-ing an image by design is so questionable, think of all the films originally shown on huge wide screens in movie palaces of yesterday and then ruined by "pan and scan" so they would "fit" into the very formats of which you speak.

An image is no "wider" in a letterbox, its just a sad misuse of real estate.

Is this really a "bold choice" or just a failed attempt to make work look more "professional" by falling into forced conventions and pretending our films were made for huge screens while cramming them into small spaces as silly slivers in the wrong format?

As close to 99.99 percent of the "films" shot on this forum will ever see the inside of a cinema much less a Cinerama screen, it seems to be a more clever concept to actually shoot and compose for the very screens you will be screened on..a teeny, tiny Vimeo frame on someone's computer screen or at best, a plasma/led tv, which by their very nature are 16x9.
 
I think it looks fantastic. I like bold risks in cinematography, especially for music videos where you have the freedom to play by your own rules.

Now, are you unable to go full 2K or at least HD by choosing these lenses?
 
Josh, the reason you shoot more 16x9 now is because that's the shape of most screens now, NOT because clients got braver.
 
This superwide format is popular with the MTV promo crowd at the moment... it's been trendy for about a year. Most look like they're shot on 2X anamorphics and desqueezed correctly to work inside the 16:9 frame (3:55:1)

Just did a quick search and here are a couple... and these will be decent budgets (so the clients will be getting what they want).

The Saturdays - 30 days to love - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T6trR9nDhU
Pitbull - Give me everything - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPo5wWmKEaI

Personally, I prefer Ana in 2X, but - the client is king :)

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?75418-3-5-1-Anamorphic-on-Epic - here's a recent thread by ianbloom - with some crops (Ana lenses in various modes)... his clients liked the superwide too.
 
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