4k Scan for 4x3 finish

[Sean Dahlberg]

I'm about to DP a short film where the director and myself would like to shoot 4x3...I've always finished 1.66 or 1.85 with my XTR Prod and the 2k scans have been great for that but I don't believe they would be large enough scans for a true 2k DCP finish? A 2k DCP finish for 4x3 would be 2048x1556 (?), so in order to completely fill that frame I would need 4k scans, correct? Thank you for the insight!

[Robino Jones]

If you require a 2K scan and shooting Super 16 you you could shoot a 4x3 chart at the beginning of your roll and tell the scanning operator to punch in and frame his scanner to your chart so you get 2048x1536. Or you can just tell them to frame full height right in the middle of your S16 frame but human error could crop the wrong way..  That's assuming you will see those frame-lines in your viewfinder for framing. This way you would get a 1:1 capture.

Or you can get 4K scan but if you're requirements are 2K you're going to pay extra for 4K and get a sub 4K result in the end. You can also do the center framing in 4K which would give you a 4K full app frame.(4096x3112)

I would ask the scanning facility for advice - everybody does things a little differently / different machines etc.. some can punch in some are more limited..

[Jonathan Martin]

On 2/15/2021 at 8:53 AM, Sean Dahlberg said:

I'm about to DP a short film where the director and myself would like to shoot 4x3...I've always finished 1.66 or 1.85 with my XTR Prod and the 2k scans have been great for that but I don't believe they would be large enough scans for a true 2k DCP finish? A 2k DCP finish for 4x3 would be 2048x1556 (?), so in order to completely fill that frame I would need 4k scans, correct? Thank you for the insight!

Hey Sean! I'm going down the same road these days, would be curious of how you made your decision in the end? Hope the production is going great.