How to get 2:35:1 ws from dslr?

[Steve Lustgarten]

Want to mix 2 perf 35mm with footage from dslr. Anyway to pull a 2:35 image from dslr?

[Perrone Ford]

Originally Posted by Steve Lustgarten

Want to mix 2 perf 35mm with footage from dslr. Anyway to pull a 2:35 image from dslr?

Yes, Crop to 1920x815 in post.

[Steve Lustgarten]

Thanks. How do you think the T2i would hold up against 2 perf 35mm?

sl

[Perrone Ford]

Depends on what you're shooting, and what final delivery is. If you're shooting indoors most of the time, and can control the lighting, you'll be ok. If you're really stretching the range of the film, the 550D is toast. If you're looking at theatrical release, the difference will certainly be there. Film is going to do nearly everything better.

But given the price of film, why are you fooling with a 550D? Do you just really need a B-Cam? Or is most of the production 550D and a little on film.

[Steve Lustgarten]

Shooting a micro budget feature in Nebraska. I've directed several features previously but they were mostly on 16mm. Worried about situations where digital can't handle the contrast outdoors without bringing in big hmi's which I can't afford on this film. For example shooting int. car scenes and others. Hard to imagine a film under mucho millions getting a theatrical these days. But would like to protect for possible syfy or foreign tv sales. Suppose we could rent a Red.

[Chris Barcellos]

1. Turn the contrast, sharpness and saturation way down on the T2i to extend outdoor range.

2. Use a Marshall with false colors to monitor the highlights to be sure you are not blowing out hightlights, and let the shadows fall where they may, and adjust in post.

I am constantly surprised how much range you can get out of these cameras.

Note: Some aren't aware that the Canon's raw output can be further fixed in post. See Cineform for their explanation. Essentially, there is more detail in the shadows and in the highlights than shows in the raw .mov files.

[Steve Lustgarten]

Thanks for the ideas Chris. I'll have to check out Cineforms take on it.

[Charles Papert]

This is certainly viable--see Shane Hurlbut's work on "Act of Valor", the upcoming Navy Seals feature. I worked on this movie a few times both as operator and DP of additional photography--for the latter, I had one day of bouncing between Super35 Panavision and the 5D's, cropped to 2:35. I was a little surprised that they had shot the whole film without any elegant solution for framing the 2:35 on monitors--they were still taping them up ad hoc--but of course there is plenty of room for repositioning the frame vertically in post.

There is a storytelling reason for the two formats (5D for combat ops and film for the sections that take place elsewhere, like the Seal's home lives) but the word is that they combine pretty seamlessly in the final product.

[Steve Lustgarten]

That's encouraging Charles.

[Chris Barcellos]

Steve: I have attached some stills showing the raw shot in a Picture Style called super flat and with levels and sharpening adjusted in Vegas.

[Steve Lustgarten]

So you think if this scene was shot without the super flat settings the shadows under his hat brim would have darkened quite a bit?

[Chris Barcellos]

That has been my experience. This was bright sunny morning about 90 degrees out at about 11 a.m., not a cloud in the sky in Sacramento area of California. I probably shot a little hot on the tee shirt, though I could see just a bit of detail in the shirt. Not saying my color grading or correction is greatest, but here is the entire film sequence of that scene at beginning of the film and more at end.. I know I wouldn't get that latitude on my FX1. Check out the end scene too, which shows blues sky in background.

Chapter7: Reunion - The Story Beyond The Still on Vimeo

[Jon Fairhurst]

The other approach to cropping is to go with an anamorphic lens. But personally, if you want to do that, I'd recommend a PL conversion to a 7D. You can then rent top, anamorphic lenses to cover all your needs.

There is another forum where people are digging into anamorphic lenses that fit the EOS mount, but those lenses are expensive and limited. The whole topic looks more experimental than practical.

We're shooting a 2.35:1 film right now on a 5D2. We decided to crop. We're going with 1920 x 816. The reason for 816 is that it divides up well with 16x16 pixel macroblocks when encoding. For cropmarks, we're using Magic Lantern.