ANAMORPHIC FILMING CASE STUDY
S erious film aficionados are likely to go dewy-eyed at the merest mention of CinemaScope, an anamorphic lens series that brought widescreen to the masses from the early 1950s through to the late 1960s. Theoretically it was possible through this process to create an image of up to a 2.66:1 aspect ratio, almost twice as wide as the 1.37:1 ratio that was previously available. The idea of a wide, stretched-out format is synonymous with some of the most iconic movies from that era: just think of classics such as How To Marry a Millionaire , Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Oklahoma and Brigadoon , all shot in CinemaScope. And while advancing technology eventually made this process obsolete, the format it popularised continues to have widespread appeal to this day. The principle of widescreen still depends on the use of anamorphic lenses. It is, of course, totally possible to crop an image top and bottom to produce a thin slice of action on a conventional frame of film, but by doing so you would waste a large chunk of the surface area and the extra magnification required would obviously impact on the quality of the end result. The job of the anamorphic lens is to stretch the image vertically to cover the entire frame, resulting in the whole surface being used and saving any waste. However, while higher quality, the image is distorted, and the full stretched-out effect can only be realised by projecting the result through a reverse complementary lens of the same anamorphic power. Fascinating though this stroll through anamorphic technology might be, however, what has widescreen got to do with the average filmmaker, who might be
working on a tight budget for a commercial client? The fact is that most operators in this area wouldn’t have everyday access to the excruciatingly expensive anamorphic lenses that, up until recently, have been the essential tools of the trade for those looking to work in this area. With prices starting from£25,000 these are rental items only for most practitioners, and even though the widescreen look remains highly desirable, the sheer cost of getting involved has largely kept all but the high-end professionals well away. Until now, that is. As the elitist walls surrounding filmmaking continue to crumble, working with anamorphic lenses is now coming within the reach of the everyday professional, thanks to recent launches on the camera and lens fronts that have changed everything. anamorphic working is the introduction of cameras such as the Panasonic GH5 and its more film-focused sister the GH5S. With a competitive price point and a host of filmmaker-friendly features, these models offer a cost-effective entry point to the world of movies for many, while forward thinking by Panasonic has included the provision of an anamorphic mode. The particular beauty of this feature is that the MFT sensor of these cameras, with its 4:3 aspect ratio, is ideally suited to the anamorphic process. Shoot anamorphic footage with a camera that features a 16:9 sensor and you’ll get too wide an aspect ratio, with a result that will appear thin and pencil-like across a YouTube or Vimeo screen. Switch to 4:3 however and you’ll be shooting with additional vertical resolution and not wasting horizontal resolution. Because you’re now using the entire acreage of the sensor you’ll achieve a taller capture that fills more of the screen, and when this is desqueezed you’ll have the CinemaScope look you’re after. The anamorphic function on the GH5S offers best-quality settings that allow 400Mbps recording with 4:2:2 10-bit and ALL-Intra compression at 24/30p, or 60p at 150Mbps in 4:2:0 8 bit with LongGOP compression. However, the 6K anamorphic mode of the GH5 is not on offer to GH5S users, as the latter’s ten-megapixel sensor doesn’t have enough resolution. “Most operators in this area wouldn’t have access to expensive anamorphic lenses” Getting involved One of the prime drivers behind the opening of the doors to everyday
IMAGES Jim Marks had to adapt his GH5S rig to get the most out of the anamorphic adapter, but it was still compact and easy to use.
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WINTER 2018 PRO MOVIEMAKER
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