Problem adding mask of "Offset 1.85" aspect ratio

[Michael Rab]

Hello everyone. My situation is the following:

 

I shot on 35mm, open gate with a 1.85 frame in the viewfinder. So the full frame was registered but I framed for a 1.85 aspect ratio.

 

For the PAL telecine transfer, I told the lab to transfer the full frame instead of 1.85 (this was my mistake).

 

Now when I watch my material on my computer, many shots are cropped on the left and on the top (that is, I can see the matte or barn doors, I am not sure how to call them, that you put on the camera to prevent light from falling on the lens). Also in some shots, lights are visible in the areas to the top and left.

 

After some research, I saw that there are actually two 1.85 formats: offset 1.85 and super 1.85. Super 1.85 means just cropping the top and bottom of the full frame to get the final projected image. But what I had, offset 1.85, places a 1.85 aspect ratio image slightly to the right side of the negative, leaving space for analog sound. This means the vertical and horizontal measurements/pixels of the projected image will be cropped with respect to the full frame transfer I have.

 

Here is a link to a page which I found that explains the different aspect ratios:

 

http://www.efilm.com/aspect_ratio.swf

 

Eventually, I will give the time code and get my positive and the offset should be removed in the copy process.

 

Here is an image from my film which is offset and has elements on the left side and top. I do remember this framing being quite tight but I remember framing it so that it was clean. I just want to be sure.

 

I suspect that I will be told that I need to just go to the lab and get it transferred again, telling them to transfer at Offset 1.85 and not Full Frame.

 

But I am hoping someone can tell me how I can just crop my image on my editing program to see what my eventual positive will look like.

 

I hope this explanation was not too long winded. Thanks for taking the time to look at this.

[David Mullen ASC]

Is this a 4x3 PAL transfer? It looks like it to me.

 

1.85 and 16x9 are so close that if this was a 16x9 PAL transfer, you wouldn't see so much junk at the top of the frame.

 

Yes, you shot with a normal 1.85 gate, not a Super 1.85 gate (your lens was centered for Academy/Sound projection Aperture instead of Full/Silent/Super-35 Aperture). This is typical when you plan on making a contact print of the negative for standard 1.85 projection, especially if you want to put a soundtrack on the print. "Super 1.85" would be for digital post only, like when doing a D.I.

 

You should have shot a 1.85 framing chart that matched your viewfinder framelines and given that to the telecine operator.

 

Also, why didn't you ask for a 1.85 (or at least, 1.78) hard matte / letterbox if you did not protect the full frame? And why didn't you ask for a 16x9 transfer instead of a 4x3 transfer?

 

The simplest thing would be to re-telecine the footage. You'll lose some quality zooming in and shifting over the PAL transfer.