A lot of digital feature films are shot at 1080p, but a lot of times I read the director is forced to crop an image. I was told that if you reduce the number of pixels in a shot, that it looks better to release the film in the lowest number of pixels as that cropped shot. Which means that most movies wouldn't be released in 1080- but maybe somwhere from 500-800p I'm guessing? Is that about right? What would most digital movies actually be then?
How many pixels is the average movie released in about?
- Thread starter harmonica44
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BluRay is released at 1080p or 720p, DVD released at 480p.
Theater is different, generally a 2K or higher image but at different aspect ratios when digital, and film technically doesn't have resolution, but 35mm is about equivalent between 2k and 4k.
If all your footage is 1080p and you have to stretch a little in one or two clips, you're probably ok. A little is like 2-10% though. Stretching and cropping more than that isn't a normal practice unless it's VFX on greenscreen, which is all over the place in scaling and cropping depending how it's shot. Usually scaled smaller though. The big guys shoot in 2k or higher. 4k you can crop down to 2k and still keep a great image, and that's been done plenty. But, again, the practice is to shoot it right and not crop the mess out of it in post. Lot's of money, personel and time on set goes into pulling that off. Usually if something is scaled it's a 2k stock clip of a helicopter flyover a city or something scaled to 3 or 4k to match the rest of the film, or 1080p to 2k.
Theater is different, generally a 2K or higher image but at different aspect ratios when digital, and film technically doesn't have resolution, but 35mm is about equivalent between 2k and 4k.
If all your footage is 1080p and you have to stretch a little in one or two clips, you're probably ok. A little is like 2-10% though. Stretching and cropping more than that isn't a normal practice unless it's VFX on greenscreen, which is all over the place in scaling and cropping depending how it's shot. Usually scaled smaller though. The big guys shoot in 2k or higher. 4k you can crop down to 2k and still keep a great image, and that's been done plenty. But, again, the practice is to shoot it right and not crop the mess out of it in post. Lot's of money, personel and time on set goes into pulling that off. Usually if something is scaled it's a 2k stock clip of a helicopter flyover a city or something scaled to 3 or 4k to match the rest of the film, or 1080p to 2k.
What if I had to crop out more like 30-50% of the image out? I know it's hard to tell the difference between 480p to to 1080p on my widescreen TV if it was going back and forth, but what about most audiences? What would filmmakers do to fix that if so?
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On an SD tv, you wouldn't notice much difference between 480p and 108-p being played back. You're still only seeing 480 lines. On an HDTV, the difference is pretty remarkable.
You shouldn't have to crop that much out... That's pretty overkill. Is it one shot? I'd release it in 720p. Is it half the shots? Release in SD.
It's important to remember that you're entire audience is going to be YouTube, unless you have a special screening or something. It's not a theater release or a broadcast piece, so it's not going to matter much.
But yeah, the answer is to not crop that much, ever. If it needs that much to save, it's not a shot you should be choosing.
You shouldn't have to crop that much out... That's pretty overkill. Is it one shot? I'd release it in 720p. Is it half the shots? Release in SD.
It's important to remember that you're entire audience is going to be YouTube, unless you have a special screening or something. It's not a theater release or a broadcast piece, so it's not going to matter much.
But yeah, the answer is to not crop that much, ever. If it needs that much to save, it's not a shot you should be choosing.
Well I am doing a special big screening. Is there any way I can make the image bigger than resize it without loosing resolution? For example, a projector can make an SD DVD look pretty big and still pretty good with no noticeable resolution loss. That's a totally different form of sizing but can a computer make something bigger without changing resolution?
Plus I don't really notice the difference between 480p and 1080p on an HDTV unless I really look. If I look for like 10 seconds on each, then I notice. But if the shot that is cropped is only like three seconds, then cut's to a new 1080p shot. I can't tell, even if it's been zoomed in 30%. Is that just me, or will general audiences know? It's only in two shots so far, I've had to zoom in. One about 30%, one about more possibly. A good example probably is a widescreen DVD like say Ben Hur, with a really wide aspect ratio, VS. a full screen release. About 30% or more will be cropped out, but if you watch the full screen version on a 1080p HDTV, you don't notice too much difference for a few brief seconds.
Does this mean that a lot of features shot in 1080p though, release at lower number of pixels like 720p for most DVDs cause of the cropped shots?
Plus I don't really notice the difference between 480p and 1080p on an HDTV unless I really look. If I look for like 10 seconds on each, then I notice. But if the shot that is cropped is only like three seconds, then cut's to a new 1080p shot. I can't tell, even if it's been zoomed in 30%. Is that just me, or will general audiences know? It's only in two shots so far, I've had to zoom in. One about 30%, one about more possibly. A good example probably is a widescreen DVD like say Ben Hur, with a really wide aspect ratio, VS. a full screen release. About 30% or more will be cropped out, but if you watch the full screen version on a 1080p HDTV, you don't notice too much difference for a few brief seconds.
Does this mean that a lot of features shot in 1080p though, release at lower number of pixels like 720p for most DVDs cause of the cropped shots?
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I've projected DVD and BluRay at 480p and 1080p respectively on the same big screen. The same footage, the same projector, the same screen, just format/resolution It is a massive quality difference. In fact, the larger the screen, the larger the difference. On a 30 foot screen, the DVD pixels were closer to an inch a piece, versus an 1/8" for the BluRay.
Cool, then it's not an issue, carry on! You're the only one who can judge the footage and make a call. Be the producer, make the call.
Again, most (as in almost all) features are shot higher than 1080p. Every BluRay I've seen is 1080p, thought the format does allow for 720 at 60p if you so choose. I've never seen a 720p BluRay or heard of a major release in it though.
Okay so you're saying if I want to put the movie on Blue Ray and make copies for some contacts, I would have to put it in 1080p only, even with the cropped shots? They requested blue ray DVDs. So I guess I could zoom in nothing beyong 720p in those shots and see if that's enough zoom. But how do I tell in Premiere Pro, how many pixels I have cropped out? I could letterbox it instead and that should be enough to hide the flaws I am trying to crop out. But the problem with that is, is that during the action scenes, and some other shots, the actors heads will be cut off, since I did not shoot with letterbox in mind.
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