Arri BL help

[Peter deWit]

I'm a student and I just finished shooting a short using a 16mm Arri BL. It was extremely stupid of me but about halfway through the shoot I was informed that I should be using the outer black bars to frame my shots. I had up until that point been framing my shots up to the very edge of the viewfinder. People have told me conflicting things about what the result will be. Some told me that when i tranfer over ot DV I should be able to center the image how I like thus saving important information that I framed incorrectly. Others have told me that anything outside those black markings will not be recorded onto the film at all. Does anyone have experience with this camera? I haven't gotten my stuff back from the lab and its driving crazy thinknig my framing mistake may have ruined many of my shots.

[Mitch Gross]

It's been a long time since I used that camera but as I recall it the groundglass is etched this way from the outside in:

 

outer box area shaded dark--this area is not recorded to film.

 

Solid-line rectangle. This is the full film frame.

 

Small right angle corners. This is TV Action Safe--or the area you'll get covered in most any transfer.

 

Box with curved corners. This is TV Title Safe, and is pretty much guaranteed to show up on any TV screen.

 

Crosshair in the center.