URGENT. FCP 7, Europe b'cast deadline, how to reframe 4:3 to 16:9?

Posted by Michael Singh 
URGENT. FCP 7, Europe b'cast deadline, how to reframe 4:3 to 16:9?
October 27, 2012 10:09AM
On deadline for European broadcasters.

My film was shot in SD 4:3 with blend of archival footage, and interviews. The interviews were shot with a FAKE 16:9 mask, in camera. So the aspect ratio looks to be a small 16:9, because the top and bottom have black bars to create the fake 16:9 "look." 29.97 fps.

So now, European broadcasters are insisting on a true 16:9 show. Meaning: all flatscreen TVs are 16:9. If you're showing a 4:3 image, it fills only one-third of the screen area. They want the image to fill the ENTIRE screen. Meaning: we will have to zoom into our image, to create a 16:9 aspect, thereby losing 18% from top and bottom.

In the case of the archival footage, this will indeed lose 18% of the image. IN the case of the interviews, this zooming in will merely cut off the black bars that were formed when we shot with the fake 16:9 mask.

We have been trying to zoom in and reframe to 16:9 but our testing creates distortions either too high or too stretched.

I've tried to change the sequence settings. But...to what sequence settings? What frame size width, height and Aspect Ratio? Pixel Aspect Ratio?

Thank you very much!


FCP 7.0.3 Mac Pro OS X 10.6.8 12GB RAM
Re: URGENT. FCP 7, Europe b'cast deadline, how to reframe 4:3 to 16:9?
October 27, 2012 10:16AM
> We have been trying to zoom in and reframe to 16:9 but our testing creates distortions either too high or too stretched.
> What frame size width, height and Aspect Ratio? Pixel Aspect Ratio?

Create an anamorphic 16:9 Sequence (720x480 in NTSC, 720x576 in PAL) and do the reframing there. Anamorphic 16:9 is supposed to look "stretched" vertically. That's how you fit a wide 16:9 image onto 4:3 Standard Definition tape. Unless you're also trying to do an upres to an HD frame size (1920x1080 or 1280x720), in which case Final Cut Pro is the worst method you could use.


www.derekmok.com
Re: URGENT. FCP 7, Europe b'cast deadline, how to reframe 4:3 to 16:9?
October 27, 2012 10:28AM
Hi Derek ~

>>Create an anamorphic 16:9 Sequence (720x480 in NTSC, 720x576 in PAL) and do the reframing there. >>Anamorphic 16:9 is supposed to look "stretched" vertically. That's how you fit a wide 16:9 image onto >>4:3 Standard Definition tape.

Result: frame dimensions look correct. But picture is way zoomed in on its own, and is squished ie flattened top to bottom. and chyrons are huge. any suggestions? I would send you a screenshot but I see no "paper clip" icon for attachments in the bar above, just URL fields.

Thanks in advance.
Re: URGENT. FCP 7, Europe b'cast deadline, how to reframe 4:3 to 16:9?
October 27, 2012 10:43AM
> But picture is way zoomed in on its own

That's the price you pay. Your images don't fill the wide frame and you're losing 20 per cent of what was already not a high-definition picture to begin with. Unless you're talking about a wrong Scale setting being applied to the clips as they enter the anamorphic 16:9 timeline. In which case, just adjust the setting by hand.

> and is squished ie flattened top to bottom. and chyrons are huge.

I don't get your descriptions. Show a sample picture. Graphics should really be re-done in the new timeline.


www.derekmok.com
Re: URGENT. FCP 7, Europe b'cast deadline, how to reframe 4:3 to 16:9?
October 27, 2012 10:47AM
>>I don't get your descriptions. Show a sample picture. Graphics should really be re-done in the new timeline.

How do I attach a screenshot? I don't see the standard "paper clip" attachment icon anywhere.

Plse advise. Thanks.
Re: URGENT. FCP 7, Europe b'cast deadline, how to reframe 4:3 to 16:9?
October 27, 2012 10:54AM
Post it online (eg. Photobucket) and then use the "Insert image URL" button.


www.derekmok.com
Re: URGENT. FCP 7, Europe b'cast deadline, how to reframe 4:3 to 16:9?
October 27, 2012 12:07PM
>>Post it online
Derek, I figured it out, what you were saying. Thanks! I now recall another important factor: we shot w/ more than one camera. Each camera has to be given different settings. The archival footage has its own, too. And the graphics are a mess, each must be individually addressed. Does this sound like I'm doing it the right way? i.e., there is no "automatic" button.

Thanks.
Re: URGENT. FCP 7, Europe b'cast deadline, how to reframe 4:3 to 16:9?
October 27, 2012 01:41PM
> Does this sound like I'm doing it the right way?

I don't know. You've been very vague about your details. "Flattened top to bottom"? "Different settings"? I'm trying to troubleshoot your issues long-distance and I don't have the necessary details to figure out whether you do have problems, or if you're just seeing what you're supposed to but think it's wrong.


www.derekmok.com
Re: URGENT. FCP 7, Europe b'cast deadline, how to reframe 4:3 to 16:9?
October 27, 2012 03:35PM
>>I don't know. You've been very vague about your details
Sorry, don't know the technical terms. I've used your frame size of 720x480. And now, every archival clip and every chyron (mostly lower-thirds) displays a Scale of 182.63. Perhaps b/c I'm now in that new frame size? Anyway, I change all the chyrons back to Scale of 100, and then re-position them lower down into the lower third of the frame. They are mysteriously in the middle before I do that.

I then change the archival clips to Scale of 115. It then fits.

If ALL my chyrons were on the same track, and ALL my archival clips were on another track, I could easily Select All and then Paste Attributes and Basic Motion. But only 80% of chyrons are on the same track. Ditto archival clips. So I have to go into them one by one, a drag indeed.

I believe I am getting what I want. Just slow going.

Thank you for your patience and help.
Re: URGENT. FCP 7, Europe b'cast deadline, how to reframe 4:3 to 16:9?
October 27, 2012 03:44PM
> And now, every archival clip and every chyron (mostly lower-thirds) displays a Scale of 182.63
> I've used your frame size of 720x480.

Are you delivering in NTSC? If not, you need to use the PAL frame size of 720x576 (see above).

> If ALL my chyrons were on the same track, and ALL my archival clips were on another track, I could easily Select All and then Paste Attributes and Basic Motion.

It's common practice when dealing with effects clips to put them all on the same track and above. In most cases video only takes up three to seven tracks. So leave V8 blank (for visual separation) and everything above V8 is a graphic.

Or, when you were making the effects items, you could have named them in a way to make them easy to spot. For example, if you had named all chyrons with the word "Chyron" in the file name, you could then have easily done a "Find All" in the timeline and then executed the Paste/Remove Attributes operation in one go.

The exaggerated Scale adjustment suggests to me you were editing in a very small offline frame size, such as 320x240. These days, there really is no reason to go that small. Just extra work and headaches.


www.derekmok.com
Re: URGENT. FCP 7, Europe b'cast deadline, how to reframe 4:3 to 16:9?
October 28, 2012 06:06AM
with something like this there is probably no "automatic" fix

for instance, you may decide NOT to blow up your archival but to use some other method involving filling in the sides.
here's an article on this by Lafcpug's Jude Cotter:
[www.kenstone.net]



FCP can handle re-formating a whole timeline only if it is very simple,
generally an edited program is much too complicated, and FCP just doesn't do the job,
you have to deal with each clip manualy.

you will find there are probably a few key re-sizes that you need to do,
like camera A requires re-size X,
and camera B requires re-size Y,
archival might be best left centre cut for now, then deal with it on anther pass

anyway its pretty easy to save and apply motion favourites for those.
i wont go into it right now, as you may know about that already.
ok, google is everybody's freind:
[fcproducer.com]
[fcp.shortcutter.com]

i didn't read al of those, but an extra COOL TIP is that you can then set a keyboard command to apply saved favorite MOTION PATHS



but one important thing to bring up:
you wil be doing a 133.33 percent blow-up on your letter-boxed 4/3 to make it true 16/9.
this is a BIG blow up, and especially so for FCP.
you are already seeing it for yourself

one thing you can do in FCP is to go into your Sequence Settings > Video Processing, and set Motion FIltering Quality to Best.
(render some sections, too, you cant judge quality on un-rendered material)

but honestly FCP is probably not the best way to do such a big blow-up.
could be you need to take that material elsewhere and do a hardware blow-up,
OR maybe try After effects, or some other software

but try FCP first, see how you go.


you say you've changed your sequence frame size to 720x480
but what was it before???
i mean 720x480 is the default frame size for NTSC 4/3 isn't it?
(actually i know there is also 720x486, but i'm not expert on NTSC)



nick
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