Aspect ratio shooting for broadcast and DVD

I was exchanging emails with a producer in the EU and he mentioned something I thought would be useful to members selling stock. With the advent of 16:9 aspect ratio HD(in the various formats), many post production places have noticed the trend to use the entire FOV by many shooters. Afterall, it's good to minimize negative space... or is it?

For the stock/program broadcast guys, one has to remember that the world by and large is still 4:3. So most 16:9 programs are broadcasted in 4:3. That means broadcast requiremnts, the camera man has 4:3 "in mind". That is why many cameras still have 4:3 marker guidelines in their display.

Some broadcasters circumvent the AR problem by letterboxing. This works but also makes everything look that much smaller.

In many 4:3 DVD conversions of cinescope films, the picture is a pan/scan, effectively making it a shot within a shot look.

What are the advantages of making 4:3 allowances when you shoot in 16:9? For one thing, the post guys and producers will like you more More importantly, making this adjustment allows even the non-pro trip DVD maker to allow his friends who don't have a widescreen TV to watch the footage without letterboxing.

Would scenes shot with 4:3 in mind have a sales advantage over a clip that needs more post? Possibly, depending on who is buying for what region.

Anyone else heard differently?

hi Drew, What camera are you shooting? I don't think aspect ratio is as important as resolution and picture quality. If you mean shooting say a DV camera in anamorphic 16:9? I would agree. 16:9 in that sense in less not more information. HD 1080 is far more data and would have to be reduced in size to show edge to edge, or cropped to a size to fill a 4:3 screen. Everywhere in the world bigger is better, the more color information the better. Pan-n-scan is used to inflate old 4:3 movies up to wide screen by focusing on the point of attention. It's not the preferred way to wide screen DVD. My thoughts.

Regards,

Paul

That's my point. Depending on your final product, aspect ratio can be important in presentation.

Shooting 1080 and downcoverting to DVD as a final product does present some problems.

The majority of televisions in the world are still 4:3. Letterboxing is distracting and often while you see corner to corner, the picture is smaller resolutionwise.

I think you are mistaken with pan and scan.Pan and Scan takes widescreen movies and fills the 4:3 frame with the image. It's great except if one doesn't shoot with 4:3 in mind, the subject can fall out of frame and thus there is more post to maintain focus on the subject.

For the dive master/trip DVD guy, a fast solution is essential. If clients want a 4:3 DVD, by adjusting the shooting style to allow for a 4:3 crop, they can save time by just dumping the clip into a 4:3 timeline and render it out without frame adjustments.