I'm filming a movie at my house that I'd like one day to see in a cinema: Do I want to use 16:9?

Question

My brother says we should film in the 16:9 setting on our fancy Sony camera, while I say we should film in the "Letterbox" setting. Last time we used 16:9 in a movie for a short film festival and the movie looked squished up on my computer and looked squished up at the theater. But my brother says that it was because the guy running the equipment was an idiot and that we were supposed to do it in 16:9. I say Letterbox. Who's right?

Answer 1

If it's a cheap consumer camera, use Letterbox mode to be safe, if it's somewhat decent, the 16:9 may work. The thing is, many consumer cameras simulate 16:9 wide screen by stretching the image; HD is naturally 16:9 so that's not a problem, but SD cameras are first and foremost 4:3 native. So at best, a 16:9 mode on a 4:3 camera will crop the image, (you can't just make the lens wider, it was meant for 4:3). So, there is no true 16:9 standard def camera, but rather a 4:3 camera properly cropped to what is called 16:9 Anamorphic. As slewke said, whatever you do, make sure it matches in editing.

EDIT: hold on a second. It actually might be better to shoot in 4:3, then adjust it to 16:9 in post with letterboxes. You could also place the 4:3 footage in a 16:9 sequence and simply resize it; that way, you have more control over what is cropped out. I just remembered: when you use the 16:9 or letterbox mode on the camera, you lose significant resolution. If you do it in post, you don't have to lose that resolution. The only problem would be that you need to consider that the top and bottom of your frame will be cut off, so compose accordingly, allowing for a bit more head room when shooting. But that's just my advice :)

Good luck!

Answer 2

16:9 is what you want... letterbox is a show setting a (BS) to make you feel like wide screen its a cropped 4:3 image...

your brother was right....

Answer 3

I'm assuming since the setting is switchable, the camcorder's sensors are not native 16:9 so when you do switch you are sacrificing pixels/resolution.   letterbox just crops your 4:3 image.  if you use 16:9 while filming, make sure all settings on your program are 16:9 or it will appear squished again.  the person capturing and editing the footage was to blame last year.  If you film in letterbox, you can capture and edit like normal.  if 16:9 your whole workflow must correspond.  if your camera has a 24p setting, try it.  it resembles film but be careful, it sucks for fast moving objects