The Anamorphic Format and Digital Cameras

Filmmakers and audiences alike have grown up with the uniquely cinematic anamorphic look and associate it with the emotional impact of big-screen movies. The sheer width and clarity of the format, its depth of field, the way it handles out of focus backgrounds and flares, all of these have been burned into the subconscious of cinema-goers for over half a century.

Mscope offers the most cost-effective method of utilizing a look that is inherently evocative of the cinema experience. The anamorphic format works by using an anamorphic camera lens that optically squeezes a 2:40:1 widescreen image onto a 4:3 film frame or an electronic sensor. The squeezed image can be stretched out to its full width for postproduction work and is finally projected through another anamorphic lens in cinemas. This process utilizes the largest possible area on a 4:3 film frame, but most digital cameras have 16:9 HD sensors and so are less than ideal for use with anamorphic lenses. Uniquely, the D-21 and D-21 HD have a Super 35-sized 4:3 sensor that is perfect for anamorphic production, and Mscope is an output format that is available only for the D-21 and D-21 HD.

The anamorphically squeezed image as it appears on the D-21 or D-21 HD 4:3 sensor (2880 x 2160 Bayer pixels or 1920 x 1440 HD pixels).  

The Mscope image as displayed after de-squeeze (3840 x 1440). During post production the image can be cropped to 2.40:1 for ARRILASER film recording (1720 x 1440) or downscaled for HD distribution (1920 x 800).

How Does Mscope Work?

Since NAB 2008 it has been possible to record the full 4:3 sensor image of the D-21 using the ARRIRAW Data Mode workflow. For productions that do not want to use, or cannot afford, the Data Mode format, ARRI is now introducing Mscope. In essence, Mscope allows the use of any 35mm anamorphic lens on the D-21/D-21 HD and records the images on an HD recorder, like the HDCAM SR SRW-1 for instance. This is achieved by dividing the 4:3 image into two HD streams; the A-stream contains the even lines of the original frame while the B-stream contains the odd lines. During the DI, the two streams are recombined to produce a high resolution, squeezed, Mscope image. From then on the project can be treated as a 35mm anamorphic feature, right up to laser film-out, distribution and exhibition.

Other methods of acquiring the wide, cinematic image ratio of scope from a digital camera involve cropping the picture top and bottom, which diminishes its quality.

Mscope goes the other way: it actually adds quality and resolution to a normal HD picture since Mscope frames contain approximately 80% more scanning lines than equivalent 2.40:1 scope images derived from ordinary 16:9 HD.

The Mscope Workflow

Mscope offers a complete and cost-effective pipeline from production to exhibition, using the same postproduction route as a film-originated anamorphic DI. An added benefit of the process is how easy it is to monitor an undistorted image of the proper aspect ratio on set. Though the anamorphic lens creates a squeezed image, each of the two HD streams contains only half the horizontal lines of that image, so a monitor displaying either the A or B-link will show a picture of the correct proportions.

The quality of this picture is more than adequate for assessing performance, exposure and focus; furthermore, either stream can be used immediately for off-line editing. The ARRIFLEX D-21 and D-21 HD are renowned for their quality, modularity and flexibility, and Mscope is further proof of that, complementing as it does the well established 4:4:4 and 4:2:2 Logarithmic and Linear options, as well as ARRIRAW.

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To get more specific information about producing with Mscope™,
please e-mail us at: mscope@arri.com


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