Best way to shoot 16:9 on SRII

[Daniel Kedem]

I'm using an SRII, shooting normal 16mm, but want to finish with 16:9. There are no widescreen markings on the ground glass of the camera I'll be using. Any useful suggestions for framing w/o chopping heads in the final crop?

 

Thanks,

Daniel

[Alex Haspel]

I'm using an SRII, shooting normal 16mm, but want to finish with 16:9. There are no widescreen markings on the ground glass of the camera I'll be using. Any useful suggestions for framing w/o chopping heads in the final crop?

 

Thanks,

Daniel

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

there are 16:9 ground glasses for the srII.

ask your camera rental house, i shot with one just weeks ago.

[Daniel Kedem]

there are 16:9 ground glasses for the srII.

ask your camera rental house, i shot with one just weeks ago.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Thanks,

 

Unfortunately the euipment is coming from a school that does not posses such a ground glass - thus requiring some other creative solution.

 

D

[Tim Carroll]

Daniel,

 

We do this all the time with out SR1, so I figure it should work for you with your SR2. Get yourself or make yourself a 16:9 grid to hang on a wall for focusing on. Make sure it is at least 16" by 9", something big enough to really see clearly in the viewfinder. Now put your camera on a tripod, lined up perpendicular to the grid.

 

Now frame the 16:9 box you have laid out on the grid so that the right and left edges come just to the edge of the framing marks in the viewfinder. Really study how that lines up in the fiber optics screen. Then using a Hirschmann's forceps, remove the fiber optics screen from the camera. See Jon Fauer's ARRIFLEX 16SR BOOK for more detail on how to do this, if you don't have his book, get a copy, you really need this book if you shoot with an ARRI SR1 or SR2, and you can get it cheap at Amazon.

 

After you have the fiber optics screen out (be very careful with it, it is very expensive to replace), take some Scotch Magic Tape, the kind that is foggy, and carefully tape off the top side of the screen to outline the 16:9 box you viewed. In other words, you put a thin strip of tape on the upper edge of the screen, and a thin strip of tape on the lower edge of the screen(both on the top side of the screen when you slide it into the camera) to outline the 16:9 box you focused on. Now using the forceps again, carefully put the screen back in the camera and focus on your grid again. If everything lines up perfectly, you are off to the races. Chances are it will not be exact, so take the screen out again, adjust the tape and put it back. Keep doing this until you can view the 16:9 frame and 16:9 box and they line up just right.

 

Now shoot your film with this framing, but first, shoot a good ten feet of this grid at the head of your first roll and when you have the film telecined, tell the operator to frame up 16:9 off the head footage. Bang, you got 16:9. The other advantage of this is that you can see the full frame through the tape, so if you want to make a 16:9 and a 4:3 from the same footage, you can make sure you don't have any lights or boom poles in the 4:3 frame.

 

This has always worked well for us and so far has saved us from getting the camera converted to Super16, which we will do when the money is available.

 

Good Luck,

-Tim Carroll

[Daniel Kedem]

Thanks, I'll give it a try...

[Brad Grimmett]

I would suggest at least calling a rental house or two and checking the prices on renting a groudglass with 16x9 markings on it before you start messing with the camera. It may be very cheap and definately worth not risking having to repair the camera you're using if something were to go wrong. Just a thought.