True Wide-Screen with Digital Video?

skyman8081 asks: "Have anyone had any luck getting DV footage to use a 2.35:1 Cinemascope aspect ratio? The wide-screen functions built into most video cameras are all 1.77:1, which is not what I am looking for. And the only anamorphic lenses for DV cameras are 1.85:1. Matting it out to make it fit 2.35:1 would not be an option as that would cause detail to be lost in the total image in the process, which would be very noticeable when you are working with Standard Definition of 720/480 and not the High Definition resolution of 1920/1080. So, how does one get the wider Cinemascope aspect ratio on a DV camera without sacrificing detail?"

Know your equipment

[DreadPiratePizz]

All 2.35:1 lenses that I know of only work with cameras that have native 16:9 CCDs. Most cameras do not. If your DV camera was expensive, refer to the manual about information regarding the CCDs.
Video works a little differently than film. Shooting 16:9 on a 4:3 CCD, the image is shrunk to fit the CCD horizontally, leaving the top portions of the CCD unused, thus decresing resolution. This will occur using 2.35:1 lenses on a 16:9 camera. You're going to lose quality either way.
Honestly the easiest thing to do WOULD be just to matte your video. Honestly it doesn't matter. The visible portion is still just as sharp as it would be otherwise. The best option in my opinion is to shoot 16:9 on a camera with native 16:9 CCDs, then crop the remaining portion to get to 2.35:1.

Re:Duct tape!

[skyman8081]

Tape two DV cameras side-by-side and shoot... Then collage the two frames together, frame by frame... Uh, good luck!

I was reading an article in CineFex on the production of SeaBiscut (Issue 95, October 2003, Matrix: Reloaded Cover Story), and that actually is what they did for the POV shots of the jockeys riding on the horses.

The biggest problem with that is then having to rotoscope out the parallax of each frame. A real PITA to do.

Re:Know your equipment

[Neon Spiral Injector]

Additionally if you crop during the editing stage; you can crop each scene seperately and use the extra area to make adjustments to the vertical framing of each shot.

Black tape!

[relaxmax]

If I were in your shoes, I'd use some black tape and stick it carefully onto a part of the camcorder's viewfinder. This way, you can film in the max widescreen resolution it supports, then run it thru filters that give you the resolution you need.

At the end, you won't lose details in your movie 'cos you saw only what you wanted; NOT what was being filmed!

-- rxMx --