Is LEXX shot in widescreen?
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I know LEXX was shot using digital video in season 3, but is or was LEXX shot in widescreen? I noticed Sci-Fi letterboxed the TV show portions of “Xevivor” but I don’t know if the other seasons were shot this way.
Of course, Aleck, the public would like to see any widescreen LEXX in that aspect ratio and with anamorphic enhancement. It would look pretty awesome, I must say.
Hey, they do it with Stargate SG1.
Dustinquote:
Originally posted by CdtData:
I know LEXX was shot using digital video in season 3, but is or was LEXX shot in widescreen? I noticed Sci-Fi letterboxed the TV show portions of “Xevivor” but I don’t know if the other seasons were shot this way.Of course, Aleck, the public would like to see any widescreen LEXX in that aspect ratio and with anamorphic enhancement. It would look pretty awesome, I must say.
Hey, they do it with Stargate SG1.
Dustin
Hey, if it were shot in widescreen, I’d be the first person demanding that it be released in widescreen, in an anamorphic transfer. I’m a purist about that kind of thing (don’t even get me *started* about the public’s blind acceptance of and demand for pan-and-scan video transfers… [img]images/smiles/icon_mad.gif[/img] ). However, Season 3 was composed for a 4:3 (1.33:1) Academy ratio, and intended for TV screens, so nothing is missed that wasn’t meant to be missed in the first place. The TV segments in “Xevivor,” I believe, were presented in a letterboxed format in order to distinguish the “TV” stuff from the “real” stuff. It was most likely a decision made on the creative end, and not on Sci Fi’s end. I haven’t noticed any artificial pans in this (or any) season, and the framing looks about right all around, so I’m going to assume that it’s still being composed for 4:3 TV screens instead of 16:9 widescreen sets.
–Aleck
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quote:
Originally posted by Aleck:
Hey, if it were shot in widescreen, I’d be the first person demanding that it be released in widescreen, in an anamorphic transfer. I’m a purist about that kind of thing (don’t even get me *started* about the public’s blind acceptance of and demand for pan-and-scan video transfers… [img]images/smiles/icon_mad.gif[/img] ). However, Season 3 was composed for a 4:3 (1.33:1) Academy ratio, and intended for TV screens, so nothing is missed that wasn’t meant to be missed in the first place. The TV segments in “Xevivor,” I believe, were presented in a letterboxed format in order to distinguish the “TV” stuff from the “real” stuff. It was most likely a decision made on the creative end, and not on Sci Fi’s end. I haven’t noticed any artificial pans in this (or any) season, and the framing looks about right all around, so I’m going to assume that it’s still being composed for 4:3 TV screens instead of 16:9 widescreen sets.
–Aleck
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Aleck, I saw somewhere last year that they showed a couple of Season 3 episodes at an HD festival, wouldn’t those have been 16:9? I was hoping they were shooting the High Definition in 16:9 and just taking care that the 4:3 framing also worked. It would look great for the DVD’s. Aren’t the Scifi promos true 16:9 then? My cable transmission has so much noise most of the time it’s hard to tell what’s going on.
elmeyquote:
Originally posted by elmey:
Aleck, I saw somewhere last year that they showed a couple of Season 3 episodes at an HD festival, wouldn’t those have been 16:9?
Not neccessarily. Just because it was shot in HD doesn’t mean that it was composed for a 16:9 presentation or that they even shot it in a 16:9 format (X, you can probably answer this better than I, but in the HD digital format, doesn’t one have the option to shoot either in a 4:3 or a 16:9 format?). At any rate, the 4:3 ratio is what is preferred by Salter for the presentation of LEXX, and I’m not one to argue that point. It’s like Kubrick’s films: for the most part, he composed for the 4:3 (or 1.33:1) Academy ratio, preferred to have them seen in this way, and therefore the DVDs of his work present them this way (even though American custom is to project everything in the theater that isn’t anamorphic to a 1.85:1 aspect ratio).
quote[quote]I was hoping they were shooting the High Definition in 16:9 and just taking care that the 4:3 framing also worked. It would look great for the DVD’s. Aren’t the Scifi promos true 16:9 then? [/quote]
I don’t think so. I believe that the SciFi promos are zoomboxed presentations of the 4:3 footage.
–Aleck
Lexx isn’t filmed in widescreen. They used the differing screens on Xevivor to distinguish the actors in normal Lexx mode and used the other screen to let us know when scenes were part of the Xevivor Show. I thought it was a clever touch.
quote:
Originally posted by nwmonikr:
Lexx isn’t filmed in widescreen. They used the differing screens on Xevivor to distinguish the actors in normal Lexx mode and used the other screen to let us know when scenes were part of the Xevivor Show. I thought it was a clever touch.
Kinda like the habit of showing ‘home video’ scenes with a flashing REC light and frames, even though these don’t show up on the video, or even in most viewfinders..
Well.. like say for instance.. the Canon XL-1, mind you I don’t know what was used on LEXX, has the ability to shoot anamorphicly but I’ve heard it’s hard to frame things correctly. Even with the LEXX movies, they knew they were making them to be shot in standard sized TVs for viewing. So more than likely they shot them in standard format.
I’m sure the same was true for season 3. So I’m guessing it was shown at the HD festival because it was shot on digital even though it wasn’t shot anamorphic. I don’t know how it was presented at the festival but you can stretch out the standard screen size to fit the 16:9 ratio although it may make people look a bit thicker. Actually this is an Xellent question for Blackie and FX to ask the beans.
Anamorphic lenses are not that widely used in Hollywood either cause they are very difficult to light. Most movies are shot and framed to be formatted later with black bars for theatrical presentation. Some movies make it to home video unmasked in their originally shot aspect ratio although it wasn’t meant to be seen that way. A good Xample is Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.
So as you can see, for the time being.. there’s really no reason to shoot for a widescreen format, especially with a TV series, unless you know or at least think you’re gonna hit theaters with it. The Babylon 5 letter boXed thing is kinda silly and I don’t know the technical details of that one, but I thought I’d mention it before someone else did.
But if you want.. you can do like a lot of film-makers do who can’t afford propper video assist monitors. They put black tape at the top and bottom of the screens to frame the view as it will appear later with masking.
Or… if you have a widescreen TV, set the display ratio to 16:9 and voila.. widescreen LEXX. Word of caution, everyone may look a bit heavier at first until your eyes adjust [img]images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]
[ 03-10-2001: Message edited by: X ]
The obvious advantage to anamorphic material is that it has an additional 33% vertical resolution, making the image more detailed and better looking. There is a reason that HDTVs are sometimes widescreen. Eventually all broadcasts may be widescreen, or at least matted widescreen. If LEXX wasn’t filmed with this in mind, that’s OK. Babylon 5 was filmed on Super35 so anamorphic transfers of it could be rerun on HDTV and it would look really good. An excellent bit of forethough, JMS!
If anyone needs more info on anamorphic enhancement, just reply to this post and I’ll see what I can find for you.
Data
quote:
Originally posted by X:
So as you can see, for the time being.. there’s really no reason to shoot for a widescreen format, especially with a TV series, unless you know or at least think you’re gonna hit theaters with it. The Babylon 5 letter boXed thing is kinda silly and I don’t know the technical details of that one, but I thought I’d mention it before someone else did.
[ 03-10-2001: Message edited by: X ]
Thanks for all the info X (Aleck and cdtData also). [img]images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img] I was curious since HD monitors and big screen projection are 16:9 and I didn’t think they’d want to stretch out the 4:3 picture. Maybe Blackie and FX [i]will[/i] have a chance to ask.
Both Europe and Japan already have widescreen networks on line (HD in the case of Japan), I assume we’ll get there too once the crying about going digital is over.I guess I was indulging in a momentary fantasy that I would one day sit in front of my wall to wall plasma screen (this is after I win the lottery and get the wall and the screen [img]images/smiles/icon_razz.gif[/img] ), waiting for an HD transmission of Lexx on SciFi……and then was rudely interrupted by the thought of a wall size picture of the Blimpie guy slicing baloney…. and slicing it, and slicing it, on and on–perhaps you don’t have to suffer through that ad in your market. We may have a way to go here. [img]images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]
elmey
quote:
Originally posted by elmey:
waiting for an HD transmission of Lexx on SciFi……and then was rudely interrupted by the thought of a wall size picture of the Blimpie guy slicing baloney…. and slicing it, and slicing it, on and on–
elmey
GAH!!! Now there’s an arguement against HD if ever I heard one.
The problem with a matted format is that you would have to blow it up to fit the 16:9 format and you get kind of a blown up look which of course is gonna looX worse becuase it is an image blown up and will look grainier. Actually, I don’t know how to word that, but it would look bad to shoot on digital especially and then blow it up after matting, the quality will always looked zoomed in on (which is what the case would be) which is bad.
WOW.
Siggy, baby…. you just don’t know how much I appreciate that.
Thank you for sharing the “brightness”.
Mr. Siglum, great info–wasn’t familiar with Playback Mag before. [img]images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]
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quote:
Adding grain is only one of 50 film presets the software offers; others include color adjustment and the addition of film artifacts.
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The miracle of modern technology!!!! [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
elmey
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