Framing in HD?

MarkG · Jul 11, 2005

This may well be a stupid question, but what's the best method of framing shots in HD? I was shooting some showreel scenes for some actors yesterday and mostly kept the action in the 'safe zone' markings on my Z1 viewfinder, but that means I have quite a bit of headroom in some shots when displayed letterboxed on a 4:3 TV. I could use the whole frame in future, but then I'm guessing that the top of the frame will probably be cropped off on a 16:9 TV... and unfortunately I don't have access to a real HDTV to see what that does.

I presume this issue must come up in producing features and TV shows on HD, given they may be viewed on various different formats. Is there a general standard that people work to? I haven't really had to deal with this issue before when shooting DV or 16mm as it was all 4:3.

David Mullen ASC · Jul 11, 2005

16x9 HD and 4x3 downconversions share the same top & bottom transmitted area, but with 4x3 viewing, you have to take overscan into account when framing (I haven't heard so much about overscan on 16x9 monitors but it's probably a factor there too.)

But we aren't talking about a radical difference in headroom just taking overscan into account -- just the understanding that a little will be shaved off top & bottom in some monitors.

I've never really taken 4x3 into account when shooting 16x9 HD, but then, I'm mainly shooting for theatrical 1.85 or 2.39, both of which cause you to frame with a little more headroom. So if you compose for 1.85, which is nearly the same as full-frame (1.78), you probably will be fine with overscan in 4x3 versions. As for framing for cropping to 2.39, then the problem is too much headroom in the 4x3 version, so you might have to zoom in a little and reframe the image to get rid of the excess headroom.

I've had two features released on DVD shot in 16x9 HD and one side has the letterboxed 2.39 theatrical version and the other has the 4x3 pan & scan version but neither uses the full 16x9 version. Here's an example from "Jackpot" on DVD:

MarkG · Jul 11, 2005

Thanks! It may just be that the Z1 is being too pessimistic about the amount of overscan.

Nice looking shots, BTW... I'm not sure what's wrong here, but cut-and-paste of URLs into the browser bar worked

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David Mullen ASC · Jul 11, 2005

I had a blank space in my file name which had to be replaced for the link to work.

The shot was just lit with a single Chinese Lantern overhead, plus any natural ambience in the restaurant.

MarkG · Jul 12, 2005

Wow, it's amazing what you can do with something so simple!

Out of interest, what kind of wattage bulb would you have in the chinese lantern? I've been meaning to hunt one down, I should give it a try next time I'm shooting.