Best method for 2:1 - 16:9 Conversion?

[Blair]

Hi there,

Was wondering if anyone could please help me with considering my options in how to convert 2:1 footage to 16:9, whilst keeping the optimum quality?

I have a mixture of mainly 16:9 footage and with a few clips in 2:1. The footage is for a music video.

All the 16:9 is at 4K at 25 fps.

Then the 2:1 is 3K at 50fps.

I have Final Cut Studio 2 at my dispossable as my primary editing program. If I crop the 3K in color, I'll be cropping a 1.5K right? (As FCP can only read 3K Native as 1.5K? Correct me if I'm wrong!) So would the loss in quality from cropping be too noticeable?

I also have Adobe Master Collection so have After Effects and Premiere, though this was a recent purchase so I'm not as comfortable using them yet as FCP where I'd like to do my main edit. I'll be grading in color, hoping to access the native raw footage then render back to FCP in Pro Res 422 (HQ) before outputting to DVD etc.

Delivery will be DVD, Digibeta and ideally a Pro Res 422 HQ file in the highest resolution possible for HD Playback in the future.

Editing system is a 2 x 3.2Ghz Quad Core Mac Pro with 10GB of RAM. Graphics card is an NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT. 23" Apple Cinema Display.

Thanks so much to anyone who can offer any advice at all.

Much appreciated,

Blair

 

[Blair]

Anyone have any advice? Got quite a tight deadline on this edit.

Would cropping a 3K in AE give me a better result?

I'd have to output from there so would then lose the ability to grade RAW in Color right?

Best to grade in Color then crop, or crop in AE and then grade?

Have tried Color and it's a noticeable loss of quality cropping from the raw reference files in color. Though who knows what K these are in Color. 1.5K or 2K I'd imagine.

 

[Kaku Ito]

Do the offline with proxies or native from L&T, send it to Color, then go to the geometry and crop or resize whatever the continuous zoom values. If you are mastering in SD size, you have a lot to play with framing. You mentioned loss in quality to resize in Color, but maybe you don't have the rendering quality in the preference as full resolution. I have no problems in resizing in Color (unless I exceed the 1:1 pixel reatio).

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

L&T does not currently support 3K for native REDCODE use within FCP/Color and 4K is down-rez'd to 2K in FCP/Color.

There are many ways to do this, but I'm not sure any one method is "best". What is the intended delivery method for the final product? I would be tempted to try something like converting to ProRes at 3K resolution, leave the 2:1 clips as 2:1, the 4K clips remain 16:9, but downsized. Re-frame / crop as needed per clip/shot in FCS and then output your final to 1080p or whatever is needed for the final master.

Cropping can be done in Color. Cropping can be done before any editing takes place if you batch process all your clips through RED Rushes. But you have to ask yourself if it's better to crop all the 3K clips the same or if each one deserves individual attention. Same for 4K footage too, in some ways more so. 4K provides a lot of opportunity to re-frame if your final delivery is 3K or smaller.

 

[Kaku Ito]

Right forgot about the 3k format limitation.