BestVideoMaker

How to shoot video in the Cinemascope aspect ratio (2.35:1)

(Page 5 of 5) <<< Crop 4:3 to 16:9 in post-production

For some filmmakers, not even 16:9 is wide enough and only Cinemascope (2.35:1) will do. If you are one of them, these are your options:

A. Shoot in 4:3 and crop to 2.35:1 in post-production

This is not very good at all, as you are losing more than 40% of the vertical resolution. Not recommended.

B. Using a widescreen anamorphic adapter on a 4:3 camera and cropping to 2.35:1

With this method you obtain a full resolution, anamorphic 16:9 image and then crop it to 2.35:1 in post-production. This results in a resolution loss of 25%.

C. Using a 2.35 (Cinemascope) anamorphic adapter on a 4:3 camera

These adapters optically squeeze the image by a factor of 1.78, giving a full resolution 2.35:1 image. You will have to letterbox the resulting footage. If you letterbox it by a factor of 1.33, you end up with an anamorphic video that will display correctly on both 4:3 and 16:9 monitors (this is how Cinemascope movies are prepared for release on DVD).

D. Using a widescreen anamorphic adapter on a 16:9 camera

This will result in a full resolution 2.35:1 image, as with the previous technique. The raw footage will require the same letterboxing treatment. ________________________________________________________

Conclusion

Shooting widescreen video is immensely worthwhile: it adds production value to your project and your audience will appreciate the superior visual experience you have given them.

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