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Shooting Anamorphic lenses then cropping to 16:9


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Anyone have any experience shooting anamorphic lenses on the Alexa then cropping to 16:9? I figure I'll shoot 2.35 on the XT then crop the sides so I can preserve 2K resolution, but is there a better way?

 

What are the other pitfalls beyond the operator not loving working off vertical lines in the EVF for framing?

 

Thanks!

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Not totally sure, as I didn't know of the 3.4K Open Gate option. Definitely intriguing.

 

Good to know that about the Hawks. Those are always fun lenses (and fun to try and get a hold of on a budget!).

 

Thanks for the reply, David.

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I haven't done this myself, but I did see a film a few weeks ago that used anamorphic lenses for 1:1.85 delivery.

 

And my impression was that it didn't help the film at all. Just looked like good photography using bad leneses. It is a pain in the neck to film this way, so I'd suggest testing this idea fully before committing to this workflow.

 

In the film era we gained a lot of image quality exposing a larger negative with anamorphic lenses. With an Alexa, not so much, and the lens characteristics might become more of a distraction than an enhancement.

 

I will say this: the director was very proud of his DP's "original" approach, and so the marketing points here are real, in this competitive business :)

 

Good luck with the shoot, and make a great film, above all else!

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I should add that DCP spec for 1:1.85 is 1998x1080 pixels. So for your tests, follow through to this size and project your test on a 2k projector.

 

All this re-scaling really softens the image a bit, and you might be surprised, in the end, how soft the image looks in a theater.

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  • 8 years later...
On 3/25/2015 at 12:48 PM, Bruce Greene said:

I should add that DCP spec for 1:1.85 is 1998x1080 pixels. So for your tests, follow through to this size and project your test on a 2k projector.

 

All this re-scaling really softens the image a bit, and you might be surprised, in the end, how soft the image looks in a theater.

Could you share what this movie was?  I’m working on a commercial and we are entertaining the idea of shooting anamorphic and cropping for 16:9 so I’d like to see a reference

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On 12/27/2023 at 9:54 AM, Joshua Echevarria said:

Could you share what this movie was?  I’m working on a commercial and we are entertaining the idea of shooting anamorphic and cropping for 16:9 so I’d like to see a reference

He was likely referring to the 2012 film Promised Land, shot on the Hawk 1.3x lenses by Linus Sandgren.

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