Shooting Open Gate

[And1]

I've been hearing about it, as a part of GH6's specs and was wondering how much better is it, rather than shooting normal 16:9. 

I know the Alexa and Red cameras have it as well. What are your thoughts? How much do you use it? 
Also, what other cameras have it? 

[kye]

1 hour ago, And1 said:

I've been hearing about it, as a part of GH6's specs and was wondering how much better is it, rather than shooting normal 16:9. 

I know the Alexa and Red cameras have it as well. What are your thoughts? How much do you use it? 
Also, what other cameras have it? 

Many of the Panasonic cameras have Open Gate modes, going back to the GH5 which I own.

On the GH5 the open gate modes were less sharpened than the 16:9 modes, which was definitely welcome.  The GH5 also used h265 on the open gate modes instead of h264, which gives the same visual quality with half the bitrate, so in theory the image should be a little better in those open gate modes, however if you use normal spherical lenses then you'll be cropping out part of the image and therefore throwing away some of that bitrate, so it might even out.  H265 is also harder to edit, so that's a factor too.

On the GH6 you have the option of Prores which (in other cameras) is traditionally much less sharpened, but I'm yet to see any comparisons between the h264/h265 and the Prores.  If you're using anamorphics then it's a no-brainer, just use it and enjoy!

[FHDcrew]

Was the sharpening decrease on the GH5 substantial?  I’m hoping so. 

[IronFilm]

The biggest benefit for shooting Open Gate is of course for anamorphic shooting, that is the primary purpose they exist as a shooting mode. 

The other major benefit of Open Gate in 2022 is if you want to shoot in other aspect modes, such as for instagram. 

[Django]

Fuji XH2S also has open gate, this Fuji DP had this interesting perspective to say about it:

3:2 aspect ratio is attractive for me. I have always wondered why I usually shoot in 3:2 or 4:3 when I take photos, but as soon as I switch to video, the angle of view changes to 16:9. 3:2 allows me to use the full pixel sensor, and I was happy to be able to shoot video with the same angle of view as stills.

 

I have to say I really like this aspect ratio, even without anamorphic lens. it reminds me of a super16/TV ratio. Bit more square and a nice change from widescreen 16:9.

[PPNS]

well the benefit of shooting in open gate is that you have access to aspect ratios that look good, without cropping too much of the sensor.

everything less wide than 1.78: 1.33, 1.375, 1.5, 1.66 are all very good looking aspect ratios and are easy to compose stuff in beautifully

everything wider than 1.78: 1.85, 1.9, 2, 2.2, 2.35/2.4 are also good looking aspect ratios and are fairly easy to compose in to make stuff look good. 

1.78 is an aspect ratio that works for displaying other aspect ratios, but i do think that it natively looks bad, and that it's hard to make stuff look good in, compared to every other aspect ratio.

[kye]

Looks like it might be time for this gem again....

 

[ntblowz]

 

[kye]

13 hours ago, ntblowz said:

 

Ha, an influencer making videos about how to be an influencer.

He said "What do you struggle the most with as a content creator?" and I was thinking - obviously it's editing and sound design.  Then he talks about cropping to post on TikTok.  Umm, no.

I mean, I get it.  If you're an influencer then you want to shoot in 8K RAW so you can record everything and if something wonderful happens then you want to be able to crop and post on all the socials and make an edit where you crop from a wide to a mid to a long to a nasal close-up etc, but I'm just thinking - at what point would concentrating on writing and ideas be more beneficial.

 

[projectwoofer]

20 hours ago, kye said:

Ha, an influencer making videos about how to be an influencer.

He said "What do you struggle the most with as a content creator?" and I was thinking - obviously it's editing and sound design.  Then he talks about cropping to post on TikTok.  Umm, no.

I mean, I get it.  If you're an influencer then you want to shoot in 8K RAW so you can record everything and if something wonderful happens then you want to be able to crop and post on all the socials and make an edit where you crop from a wide to a mid to a long to a nasal close-up etc, but I'm just thinking - at what point would concentrating on writing and ideas be more beneficial.

 

Are you not glad? Hau else are you going to shoot your TikTok videos if not open gate?

[FHDcrew]

21 minutes ago, projectwoofer said:

Are you not glad? Hau else are you going to shoot your TikTok videos if not open gate?

Another one of the “OMG Canon vs Sony DJI RS5327 cinema lut pack matti special sponsored by square space why aren’t you subscribed” videos. Sickening. 

[PannySVHS]

From a lens related aesthetic stand point it can be very exiting to have extra height. Allows the Fujinon 12.5mm and possibly other Super16 lenses to shine with maximum estate in heigth on MFT format. Giving it more of the dynamic perspective of that 12.5mm wide angle than being cut off from top and bottom to fit 16 to 9 corsette. Give it a 1 to 1 sujet and cut off the vignette left and right. Lighthouse worked very well in 1to1 ratio. Dunno if it was full heigth of the negative though or masked.

[kye]

4 hours ago, projectwoofer said:

Are you not glad? Hau else are you going to shoot your TikTok videos if not open gate?

When it comes to TikTok, the overwhelming factor in how I create and consume content is called "opportunity cost".

2 hours ago, PannySVHS said:

From a lens related aesthetic stand point it can be very exiting to have extra height. Allows the Fujinon 12.5mm and possibly other Super16 lenses to shine with maximum estate in heigth on MFT format. Giving it more of the dynamic perspective of that 12.5mm wide angle than being cut off from top and bottom to fit 16 to 9 corsette. Give it a 1 to 1 sujet and cut off the vignette left and right. Lighthouse worked very well in 1to1 ratio. Dunno if it was full heigth of the negative though or masked.

Yes, it can be very useful if you're shooting for aspect ratios less wide than 16:9.

Noam Kroll is a fan of alternative aspect ratios: 

https://noamkroll.com/aspect-ratios-in-filmmaking-are-officially-no-longer-standardized-the-creative-possibilities-are-endless/

https://noamkroll.com/the-magic-of-the-1-661-aspect-ratio-how-i-plan-to-use-it-on-my-feature-film/

https://noamkroll.com/playing-against-filmmaking-trends-on-our-feature-with-arri-alexa-classic-2k-prores-hq-43-aspect-ratio/

That's just a few - he talks about it much more on his blog if anyone is curious.

[M_Williams]

 

Personally, I LOVE being able to shoot open gate (whether it's 4:3 on a M4/3 or 3:2 on APS-C/FF). You don't lose anything at all (except larger files), it gives you the ability to reframe a DCI or 16:9 image vertically without cropping, and is far superior for tighter aspect ratios below 16:9. 1.66 is one of my favorite aspect ratios and so shooting 1.5:1 (as in the X-HT2s) is awesome.

I'm really shocked that Panasonic has been the only one to offer open-gate - whether it's 4:3 on the GH series or 3:2 on their S line, so I'm very, very happy to see Fuji offer it, especially on an APS-C/Super 35 sensor which is my preference for filmmaking. Also, I was extremely happy to see someone offer 6K - everyone seemed to jump straight from 4K to 8K (as far as MILC hybrids go anyway). 6K is, right now, pretty much perfect for me. Enough extra resolution to allow for cropping/reframing/stabilization and still end up with 4K, but not so much that the file sizes are overwhelming huge (and the processing power required, depending on the codec). Generally speaking, 1TB of 4K footage would require ~2-2.25TB for 6K and ~4-5TB for 8K. Once you get up there, mainly with SSDs, the cost difference above 2TB is huge.

Not to mention how much more unforgiving 8K is for focusing mistakes.

6K just always seemed like the sweet spot to me, and no one was offering it except the Canon R3. Which cost as much as an Ursa Mini Pro 12K or RED Komodo.

[M_Williams]

On 7/20/2022 at 6:36 PM, PannySVHS said:

Lighthouse worked very well in 1to1 ratio. Dunno if it was full heigth of the negative though or masked.

The Lighthouse was actually 1.19:1 (19:16) which was used in the 20s and 30s, notably Murnau's Sunrise and Lang's M. It was a standard super 35 frame (so 4:3) with an optical soundtrack overlaid to yield a more square 1.19:1 -- it was called "Movietone."

I'm not sure if they did that on the Lighthouse or just cropped it in post. Interestingly, any theatre that hasn't moved to digital projection can use that optical soundtrack without modifications.

Xavier Dolan's Mommy was shot in 1:1, though.