working with a 1440x1080 sequence that is not HDV

I'm trying to set up a project at the above frame size which will be projected on an HD projector. The screens are 4x3 and this needs to be built at 24fps- square pixels. I'm encountering a bit of headache since Final Cut keeps insisting that the sequence Aspect Ratio setting be reverted to "HD (1440x1080) (16:9). I'm aware of how to easily change the footage aspect ratio and editing the footage in this timeline works OK despite the aspect ratio set to 16x9 rather than "custom".

Since the file size and data rate are pushing the limits of my drive set up I was hoping to do an Offline edit at 720x540 (square pixels) and then online at 1440x1080. The media manager keeps warping the footage into 16x9 with a letterbox when I try to re-compress via media manager and also the up-rez online projects show all footage as the red "needs render" status even though both the media and project settings match exactly.

The trouble is in the way FCP seems to insist that any sequence with the frame size of 1440x1080 must be 16x9 and not 4x3 square pixels. So my question is if anyone knows of a work around- or if I have come to the wrong conclusion and in fact there is an easy fix. Right now I've proposed to the After Effects artist that we could just up the project settings to 1444x1083 all the way around. Since this doesn't match a 16x9 preset all of my above problems don't exists. At least not in the tests I've done.

Just wondering if anyone could provide some insight before we go through the trouble of changing the frame size slightly.

thanks for your help-
Andy

Not sure I understand you completely, but here's a few thoughts:

1440x1080 is an anamorphic aspect that accommodates things like HDV 1080 (or DVCProHD 1080), which is then displayed by the codec at 1920x1080. Otherwise, there's no such animal as 1440x1080 as a standard size for anything other than those uses.

An HD projector will only project 16:9, and will typically have a setup menu to display 1920x1080 or 1280x720.

An HD image projected onto a 4:3 screen can only appear letterboxed when the projector is adjusted to fit the image horizontally. There's no such animal as a 4:3 HD image. HD is always 16:9. To fill a 4:3 screen vertically with an HD image, you'd have to crop off the image left and right (pillarboxed) and position the projector to accommodate for that.

What is your source footage? If it's an HD format, why use a 4:3 screen? Let us know that and maybe there's a better answer.

Clay

I know this could be a confusing issue. Sorry if I wasn't clear. There are a few details about projection which I'm not sure on, especially the projection set up. But the delivery specs are 1440x1080 (square pixel) at 24fps. I know the projection screens are 4x3 and they are using some sort of HD digital projector. This is all digital animation footage being exported from Maya/After Effects.

I guess it might be easier to think of this as double sized NTSC rather than HD. I'm not sure if they projectors are going to output black bars on the sides of our image off the screens or not.

This whole set up was decided on way before I got involved. It's actually for a live stage production. The video screens- there are 2 HD and 2 SD- are sort of used to ease transitions from scenes.

I actually had a similar custom set up in Final Cut for a project on Family Guy a few years ago. We pulled an HD film transfer from an old movie that was 4:3 aspect ratio. So I worked as big as I could for the digital effects (1440x1080) and when it was shrunk down to NTSC the pixel adjustments weren't noticeable. I didn't have a need to do an offline edit then so this is the first time I've had to deal with the problem I'm trying to explain.

thanks for the response.

-Andy