EX3 & Shooting 2.35 Cinemascope Aspect Ratio

[Lorry Smyth]

Hi everyone. This is my second (fabulous) day with my EX3... what a joy this camera is to use when compared to my EX1 :) I have a usability question that is totally childish and may have been answered before, but here goes anyway:

I will shooting starting next week a series of making of videos with the EX3 for an Audi Commercial Shoot in Germany with the EX3. I was requested by the producer that he wants the making of video to match the 2.35 Cinemascope Aspect Ratio they are also using to shoot the actual commercial (on 35mm film). So the image size will be 1920x817.

As I will be hand holding the camera most of the time, what is my best option to frame (and mask) the 2.35 Aspect Ratio on the viewfinder and then, how to properly do the cropping (masking) when editing?

I am thinking (which I tried today as its a 1/2 a...s solution but it works) on simply masking the viewfinder's LCD screen with tape (since its really large and I have space around it to do so). But as far as the editing goes, I typically use Vegas 8 or Premier CS3, what are the best usability and workflow options for me to edit the footage while viewing the correct masked aspect ratio? I don't want to edit with the full 16:9 frame nor to render all clips masked to 2.35 before actually starting to edit.

Thanks in advance for your input! :)

Lorry

[George Kroonder]

I don't like tape on my LCD, but I have taped some (white) yarn across the screen at some point to work as a guide.

You could use FFMPEG to crop the top and bottom of your frame before editing, but if you want to do some reframing you'd be better off sticking to the media as is and just create you project in the correct size/aspect ratio.

George/

[Andrew Hollister]

Maybe the iPhone screen protection sticky stuff? Something like this: Amazon.com: Apple Iphone PDA Premium Reusable LCD Screen Protector with Lint Cleaning Cloth: Cell Phones & Service with a fine tip sharpie marking your 2.35

It may affect LCDs colour, but if you are on a commercial shoot, I'd imagine you are externally monitoring?

Just a pre-coffee crazy idea

[Lorry Smyth]

Originally Posted by Andrew Hollister

Maybe the iPhone screen protection sticky stuff? Something like this: Amazon.com: Apple Iphone PDA Premium Reusable LCD Screen Protector with Lint Cleaning Cloth: Cell Phones & Service with a fine tip sharpie marking your 2.35

It may affect LCDs colour, but if you are on a commercial shoot, I'd imagine you are externally monitoring?

Just a pre-coffee crazy idea

Andrew, great pre-coffee crazy idea:) Usually this early I cannot even focus straight :)

[Ted OMalley]

I also use Vegas 8 and Premiere Pro and I would simply import the footage into Vegas (my preferred environment) and set up the project accordingly. You could also apply any cropping/resizing necessary to the video track.

[Lorry Smyth]

Originally Posted by Ted OMalley

I also use Vegas 8 and Premiere Pro and I would simply import the footage into Vegas (my preferred environment) and set up the project accordingly. You could also apply any cropping/resizing necessary to the video track.

Yes, agreed. I use vegas more than before but have so many thousands of hours (and plug-in libraries) for Premier than making the full switch to vegas has been a tough choice :)

[Dean Harrington]

Originally Posted by Lorry Smyth

Yes, agreed. I use vegas more than before but have so many thousands of hours (and plug-in libraries) for Premier than making the full switch to vegas has been a tough choice :)

The footage when you are done!