16:9 on 16mm

[John Sprung]

As long as you aren't so far out that you're costing yourself significant negative area, what does it matter exactly where the frame is?

Yes, exactly right. No matter how well the glass is marked and how well the camera is made, there will always be slight errors. Even Panavision's ground glass markings are a fairly loose +/- 0.003". If you take the GG out of a camera and put it back, it'll be in a very slightly different place. A carefully shot chart lets the telecine colorist cancel out these little errors and get the frame on tape to match as closely as possible what you saw in the viewfinder.

 

Then, of course, if it's for broadcast TV, overscan and the plastic bezel around the CRT's on home TV sets will "adjust" your composition for you, give or take five or ten percent..... ;-(

 

 

-- J.S.