1998 x 1080 @ 24fps

I've just been supplied a new HD master from a film negative and it measures 1998x1080 @ 24fps.

I'm editing in FCP7 and exporting for Blu-ray. Do I edit on a standard 1920 x 1080 timeline? If I do so, it will format correctly with slight black bars top and bottom, but will also need re-rendering.

Any suggestions?

Since Blu-ray doesn't allow 1998x1080, you have to choose between:
1. 1920x1080 Blu-ray letterboxed with 21 black pixels at top and at bottom.
2. 1920x1080 Blu-ray which is a ~4% crop of the original picture.
3. 1920x1080 Blu-ray which is a ~4% distortion of the original picture.
This aesthetic (and therefore commercial) decision should dominate over your rerender concerns.

You say FCP7 does 1. But Compressor can do it better since it involves scaling. Compressor can also do 2 and 3. [www.lafcpug.org]

Dennis Couzin
Berlin, Germany

1998x1080 is the classic 1.185:1 ratio

as everybody is pretty comfortable with a bit of letter-boxing, i'd say that's the way to go.

obviously you'll have to scale the image down, but FCP doesn't offer the best scaling.
i'd say run a minute or so thru compressor with the re-size settings set to "best" and see if you like it.

you could convert all your rushes,
OR, do your edit in a 1998 x1080 timeline, and just convert your exported edit.
a lot less encoding time!
only slight downside is no RT in the timeline, but maybe that's not a problem


is your file true 24fps? (not 23.976)
does Blu-Ray do that?


nick

great

The 35mm film footage was telecine'd at 24fps. I did a compressor conversion, it's looks amazing.