Frame Guides/Ground Glass

[oldboy]

I was recently a camera PA on a RED shoot. It was shooting 4kHD with 2:40 frame lines. What I noticed was right before the rectangle solid frame guide their were 4 corner marks. What are those marks? Are they the edges of frame? I thought the solid line right outside it was. Or are they some kind of safety mark?

I attached a picture I took.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

My wild guess is that they are showing you the difference between the area that will be transferred to a 35mm anamorphic negative and also the slightly smaller anamorphic projection area.

ANSI specs for an anamorphic camera gate are:
22.0mm x 18.59mm

For the anamorphic projection gate:
20.96mm x 17.53mm

But that's just a guess. But if I'm right, that means that the larger box shows you what will get recorded to film and the corner marks inside show you what will get projected, more or less.

 

[oldboy]

Thank you. In that case would you frame for whats going to be projected?

 

[David Mullen ASC]

You frame for what's going to be projected, but you protect around it as much as possible. Safe Area lines tell you that what's inside the safe area will always be visible, but what's outside the Safe Area can also be visible, it's not a guarantee that it will be unseen. There is a mistaken belief by some sound recordists that the area outside of the Safe Area is "safely" off-camera (so they can put the mic there), which is not true at all. The only truth is that the area inside the Safe Area will be seen, but the area outside of it might also be seen. Or might not.