Anamorphic Mixup

I hope someone has an easy solution to this.

What I wanted to do was edit capture files (with item properties box set to 16:9 anamorphic ) into a sequence set to 16:9 anamorphic.

What I did was edited HD downconverted footage (with item property settings erroneously not set to 16:9 anamorphic, into a sequence also not set for 16:9 anamorphic.

I think the result is what you would call letterbox. ( bars on the side).

Is there a way to fix this without re-editing all the footage/scenes into the sequence? I hope i am making sense to you all here...

thanks for your help!!!

Sorry. I realized that I stated the problem wrong below. Here's what I meant to describe:

What I wanted to do was edit capture files (with item properties box set to 16:9 anamorphic ) into a sequence set to 16:9 anamorphic.

What I did was edited HD downconverted footage (with item property settings set to 16:9 anamorphic, but into a sequence also not set for 16:9 anamorphic.

I think the result is what you would call letterbox. ( bars on the side). If I simply reset the sequence to 16:9, I get a further squished image.

Is there a way to fix this without re-editing all the footage/scenes into the sequence? I hope i am making sense to you all here...

Do I need to fix this with an EDL?

thanks for your help!!!

>>What I did was edited HD downconverted footage<<

You need to provide more details on that to be able to straighten things out:

1. What flavor of HD footage is the original material? HDV? DVCProHD? HDCam? Other? Why did you downcovert?

2. When you did the downconvert, what exactly did you downconvert to? DV? Other?

3. What aspect (16:9 or 4:3) do you want the final sequence to be?

Basically, it sounds like you've got the math mixed up regarding aspect ratios. Letterboxed means bars at top and bottom. Bars at the sides is called pillarboxed.

Clay

What you can try in your timeline:

select all
right click and select "remove atributes"
a window pops up
put a mark next to "distort" and press "ok"

Grtz,

Chris

That's probably not going help, unless aspect correction has been applied from the motion tab in the viewer. It might be of help to undo anamorphic in the item properties for the master clips, but just guessing. It all depends on what flavor of HD we're talking about here, and how and why it was downconverted.

Clay

> That's probably not going help, unless aspect correction has been applied
> from the motion tab in the viewer.

Clay, whenever a 16:9 clip is put into a non-16:9 sequence, the letterbox crunch that FCP automatically applies is reflected in the Distort - Aspect Ratio setting. So Remove Attributes will take care of it. Similarly, if you want to apply a letterbox crunch, you can just key -33.33 into the Distort - Aspect Ratio window and the crunch will occur.

> What I did was edited HD downconverted footage (with item property
> settings set to 16:9 anamorphic, but into a sequence also not set for 16:9
> anamorphic.
> I think the result is what you would call letterbox. ( bars on the side). If I
> simply reset the sequence to 16:9, I get a further squished image.

That shouldn't be. Putting anamorphic 16:9 footage into a 16:9 sequence will result in retainment of the clip's anamorphic 16:9 properties -- in other words, vertically stretched images where people look "thinner" than they are, an image that is ready for a 16:9 playback/display device.

> Do I need to fix this with an EDL?

You're getting confused. Aspect ratio and anamorphic 16:9 are different issues. The EDL only deals with timecode. Aspect ratio has to do with whether you shot and/or transferred the footage properly; anamorphic 16:9 has to do with whether you captured the footage properly.

It boils down to this:

1. Which HD format did you shoot?

2. Most HD formats are anamorphic 16:9. What format did you downconvert to? And did you retain anamorphic 16:9 on the transferred footage? It is possible, but rarely desireable, to undo the anamorphic 16:9 during a transfer -- you'd end up with pan-and-scan (huge quality loss and messed-up framing) or letterboxed (which means you can no longer output anamorphic 16:9 versions of your edit).

3. If the downconverted footage is anamorphic 16:9 -- vertically stretched -- did you capture them as such? If not, highlight the clips in the Browser, CONTROL-click on the "Anamorphic" column and choose Yes. This will make the clips behave as they should, as anamorphic 16:9 clips.

4. If you want your edits to be anamorphic 16:9, edit these clips in a 16:9 sequence. You will need to set your external monitor to 16:9 mode; a non-16:9-enabled monitor will show the footage as vertically stretched. This is NORMAL.

5. If you want a letterboxed output that will play letterboxed on any device, then edit in a non-16:9 sequence. This will crunch the footage into normal proportions by applying a -33.33 Distort - Aspect Ratio to each clip every time it is inserted into the timeline, with black bars on top and bottom (letterboxed). This will play on any normal device; you don't need a 16:9 monitor to see it. However, you won't be able to make an anamorphic DVD or movie file either, because it is now out of 16:9 mode -- you took it out when you edited in a non-16:9 sequence.

>>So Remove Attributes will take care of it<<

Hi Derek,

yeah, I know that, but I said "probably not going to help" because it sounds like MikeLA has gotten things fundamentally wrong in the capture and sequence settings dept. If the original material was, for example, HDV at 1080i (1440x1080) then importing it anamorphically and then dropping it into a non-anamorphic 4:3 timeline could thus end up with a double-squeezed pillarboxed image. I'm guessing that it's something like that.


Clay

Guys.. and Chris /Derek especially, you saved me!

I took Chris advice and selected all in the timeline, selected distort, and THEN pasted into a sequence set for 16:9 Anamorphic and VOILA... It is fixed!

The original material was downconverted to 720x480 anamorphic (16:9) to work with in FCP. The problem for me was I dropped it into a 4:3 timeline and it got sqeezed into letterbox ( bars/ at the top).

Once 60 minutes of it was edited into the 4:3 timeline, changing the timeline to 16:9 would of course give me a double squeeze as Clay suggested.

The distort checkbox worked like a charm and I think I've been educated the hard way on getting my timelines and formats correct. Thanks guys for being on top of it so quick and early in the AM.

Mike ;-)

When shooting 16:9 HDV, I capture into FCP5 and it goes in automatically as 16:9. What will happen if I want to add 4:3 footage shot with SDV to the timeline? What's the best time to deal with the final output if I want to force the 16:9 format on all the footage?

Mike,

I'm still curious as to why you did the downconvert. What was the original footage?

Clay

Clay,

I was given the HD files downconverted on lacie drives to edit in FCP. I understood the reason to be due to the high resources ( memory/drivespace/render time/etc) required to edit in full HD and that a post house would later use the FCP project file to produce the final output from the original tapes. Do you see a hole in this logic? comments? thoughts? experiences?

thanks

Nope. No hole in that logic. Just maintain good file management and talk to the post house in advance as to what EDL format, visual reference files, etc. they expect you to deliver. Maybe email them over a test EDL file once you've gotten a few minutes edited to make sure everyone is on the same page for the OnLine.

Clay