Final Output Resolution

[Scotty Fox]

Hey Everybody,

I recently shot a short film on the RED Epic at 4K, 2:4:1 ratio. So 4096 x 1708

In editing, I've had to reframe shots, many times punching in. I'm on the cusp of either mastering in 2k or 1080p.

My goal would of course to get into some festivals and get it shown on the big screen. I don't want to go any bigger than 2K and frankly I can't after resizing. But I want to make sure I'm doing this correctly so I don't screw it up and have to do it all over again as it's a 26 minute short with a lot of clips.

Here's what I've done and my questions follow:

-Transcoded my RAW files to 1080p ProRes 422 for an offline edit.

-Cut is locked, so going into VFX and color now, working off the RAW files.

-Once completed, bringing the 4K images back into premiere (what I'm cutting on) and manually going through and resizing all those back into the sequence to upres my punched in clips. I guess I could unlink the 1080p files and relink back to the 4k files, but I'd still have to resize since I've reframed so many shots. (Please let me know if I'm crazy and this is way off base).

-Say I want my master to be in 2K. What would my dimensions be for the sequence? I feel like this is simpler than I'm making it out to be. There is a huge gap in my knowledge here (partly because I've never done this before) so I apologize if these are stupid questions.

Since I've been resizing, I've brought in a photoshop layer that pretty much gives me my letterbox at the correct ratio. So for 1080p I layered it over the top of my timeline to give me the 2:4:1 ratio when I was reframing. I plan on doing the same for 2K (if I choose to go that route).

Does this sound like the appropriate way to get down to 2K or 1080p when you have reframed shots and punched in? I'm worried that I'm doing something wrong with the letterbox guide, etc., and if I get to screen at a theater (which I plan to anyway for the cast and crew) it'll look completely stretched or squashed or some other insane thing will happen.

Can anyone shed some light on this or provide some of guidelines to this process (Ratios, resizing do's and dont's). I've been reading online but half the time you find people debating back and forth about what's the correct way which causes more confusion for someone who doesn't know to begin with.

Thanks in advice for the help!

 

[Marc Wielage]

Since I've been resizing, I've brought in a photoshop layer that pretty much gives me my letterbox at the correct ratio. So for 1080p I layered it over the top of my timeline to give me the 2:4:1 ratio when I was reframing. I plan on doing the same for 2K (if I choose to go that route).

I think this is unwise. I think your best course is to lock the cut, then use a dedicated color-correction program like Resolve and finish the whole thing in 1920x1080, then use Resolve to drop in a 2.40 matte on the output when it's rendered. All festivals should have no problem dealing with a 1080p DCP or a Blu-ray disc or HDCam-SR or whatever.

Strictly speaking, if you had a firm 2K DCP delivery, you would deliver a file in 2048x858, which is pretty standard, but for a short, the 1920x1080 with a 2.40 mask will be fine.

 

[Matt Ryan]

http://www.silisoftware.com/tools/screen.php?aspect_ratio=2.40&image_width=2048&image_height

 

[Scotty Fox]

Hey Marc,

Thanks for the advice. I'm curious though, why you think it's unwise? Just so I understand the pitfalls of this approach.

For Resolve, I'd like to do that, though I have no access to Resolve at the moment, but I may be using a colourist that uses that program. The issue would be that I would want to still bring the final CC copy back into Premiere to add final music and SFX. I believe you can do that in Resolve as well but it's a program I'm very unfamiliar with and may not have extended access to. Let me know if I'm misunderstanding you.

Are there any ways to do this back in Premiere (as far as ensuring the 2.40 ratio comes out correctly on the 1080p master?)

Thanks Matt for the link!