35MM anamorphic post workflow

[Joe Riggs]

ello,

I'll be working with a project that was shot on 35mm film in anamorphic. I need to unsqueeze and possibly transcode the footage. I haven't worked with film in ages but from what I recall, I should expect to get a drive with a large file or a few large files on a harddrive, depending on the amount of rolls shot.

Depending on what they codec they telecined, I may or may not have to convert to Pro Res.

So I need to do the following:

1. Transcode to pro res
2. Unsqueeze the anamorphic image
3. Subclip the takes - Instead of subclipping, is there a way for it to automatically detect clip breaks, and every time the camera starts/stops, you get a new clip. Is this possible using log and transfer?
4. Export the takes for review.

So what's the best workflow to handle this?

Is it possible to transcode as well as unsqueeze in mpeg streamclip?
Would Cinema Tools be the app to unsqueeze in?
Log and transfer in Final Cut or should I just check anamorphic in Final Cut?

Is there a way to batch exports subclips from the browser?

Thank upi

 

[David Mullen ASC]

First of all, what is the format of your delivered project? Is this just for offline editing and you'll go back to the original negative and do a scan and a D.I. at a post facility? Or is this transfer going to be the basis of your final master. And what will that be -- a letterboxed 1080P video copy?

 

You always work backwards from the final delivery format to figure out your workflow.

 

Second, this was shot in film so it needs to be scanned or telecine transferred to video. So if this is going to end up as a 23.976 fps 1080P (1920 x 1080 16x9 letterboxed to 2.40) HD video project, then why not transfer it letterboxed to 2.40 in a 16x9 HD format, why deal with unsqueezing the footage yourself?

 

You would only scan squeezed footage if you were doing a D.I., let's say a 2K RGB scan of the anamorphic footage to DPX files. But then you would still also need to create something for offline editing, probably a conversion from the 2K data to 1080P that is unsqueezed and letterboxed to 2.40 in something like ProRes. Then the idea is that from your EDL, you would go back and conform the 2K DPX files to match the offline ProRes edit, and go through the D.I. process to create, let's say, a 2K DCP and then from that, a 1080P HD master for home video.

 

If you had shot digitally with an anamorphic lens, I can see the problem of trying to unsqueeze the footage yourself, but since you shot film, you can just transfer the footage to HD with a 2.40 letterbox, unsqueezed already.