1.66 Mask

[Kraj Majales]

Does anyone know if I shoot my film in 4:3 on a standard definition camera and then create a 1.66:1 mask if it will loose too much resolution to be presentable. I know that masking it for 16:9 is un presentable.

thanks

 

[Kim Welch]

I apologize for the delay in responding, and thank you for posting. Masking 4:3 to 1.66:1 keeps about 80 percent of the picture height, so you lose roughly 20 percent of your vertical resolution, compared with 25 percent for a 16:9 mask. On SD that's usually presentable, especially if you frame for it on set with marked guides in your monitor. Test by masking a few shots and watching them on a large screen. If you can, shooting natively in your target aspect ratio is always the better option.