Mscope™ – True Anamorphic and beyond HD
Mscope™ is a new and unique feature of the ARRIFLEX D-21 and D-21 HD that combines the cinematic aesthetic of anamorphic cinematography with the economy of HD acquisition. The ARRI patented Mscope™ process for the first time allows anamorphic images to be recorded as a dual HD signal.
To get more specific information about producing with Mscope™, please e-mail us at: mscope(at)arri.com
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ARRI Mscope TM LEaflet (pdf, 2.6 MB)
The Anamorphic Format and Digital Cameras
Filmmakers and audiences alike have grown up with the uniquely cinematic anamorphic loo 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 Mscope Workflow
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.
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.
“Love Hate” Wraps up shooting
“Love Hate”, the first (short) feature to be produced using Mscope™,
completed principle photography on Friday 08/08/08.
John Lynch (DoP) used the full range of Hawk anamorphic lenses for the shoot with D-21 (with Mscope upgrade). He commented: “I love anamorphics and I pushed the system as hard as I could. We were fully open all the time and we used all possible settings from 100 to 800. It was great experience! Can’t wait to see results on the big screen”.
For focus puller Nathan “always sharp” Mann, this was “... the hardest job I’ve ever done. With these lenses when you are fully open you don’t have depth of focus. You are either sharp or you are not. It is not like HD where everything is always sharp”...
“Love Hate” was shot over a period of five days on numerous locations all over London, with the crew averaging 25-30 setups per day and recording the entire volume of footage on 25 HDCAM SR cassettes.
The short feature stars Ben Whishaw and Hayley Atwell (who are also the leads in the new Julian Jarrold’s “Brideshead Revisited”) and was produced by Origin Pictures for BBC Films and UK Film Council via Film London.
The film was written and Directed by Dylan and Blake Ritson and produced by Scott Jacobson, who was extremely excited with the images produced by the D-21 and MScope™.
Blake further commented on the look of the film:
“Perfection itself”.
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Enabling new anamorphic digital cinematography workflow
Quantel demonstrated a new anamorphic digital cinematography workflow on Quantel post production systems that exploits ARRI’s new Mscope™ anamorphic digital acquisition mode.
This development takes advantage of the realtime stereo ingest facility Quantel introduced at NAB, with the Quantel system reassembling the Mscope™ media streams.
Thanks to Quantel systems’ ability to handle any resolution, the artist can then work interactively with the Mscope™ media using the full Quantel DI toolset, enabling Mscope™ to drop seamlessly into the normal productive Quantel DI workflow.
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Implementation of Mscope in DI Workflows - SMPTE Conference
This paper details the implementation of Mscope and how it provides an effective alternative to existing acquisition and Digital Intermediate (DI) workflows, allowing the use of available HD recorders and other HD equipment (which comply with industry established standards) for production, postproduction and exchange of content shot with anamorphic 2.40:1 or full frame (open gate) aspect ratio frame formats.
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