Monitoring; Frame Lines - ARRI ALEXA Series User Manual

Monitoring

12.2 Monitoring

12.2.1 Frame Lines

The ALEXA's monitoring options are the electronic viewfinder EVF-1
and the MON OUT. Surround view is available on both. With surround
view set to On, 10% additional pixels outside the recorded image area
on the ALEXA's ALEV III sensor are displayed, allowing the operator to
see outside the recorded image and keep unwanted objects, such as
microphone booms, out of the shot. To view only the recorded image,
set Surround view to off.
To aid in framing, both the EVF-1 and MON OUT can display frame
lines overlaid on the image. Frame lines can be considered electronic
versions of ground glass markings in film cameras.
Frame lines are stored as XML files. A standard set of frame lines is
provided in each camera, including:
1.33:1
1.66:1
1.78:1
1.85:1
2.39:1
2.39:1 1.3x anamorphic
2.39:1 2.0x anamorphic
Note: When shooting ProRes 2K (2048x1152) for a DCI 2K release in a 1.85:1
aspect ratio, the preloaded frame line ARRI 1.85 2K DCI can be used to mark the
corresponding 1998x1080 area for a DCI 2K 1.85 without requiring any scaling
in post production. This frame line is not available in HD mode (1920x1080).
The user can also create custom frame lines to match production
specifications.
Description of the frame lines XML file
The different sections in the file are:
camera: describes the ALEXA model that the frame lines file is
made for.
line: frame lines and the center cross in the active image area
consist of single lines. The line orientation is defined by three
attributes: left, right, bottom and top for horizontal lines, top,
bottom, left and right for vertical lines. Two attributes define the
start and end points, and the third attribute defines the distance
from the image edge.
Distances for start, end and position are relative to the width or
the height of the image and have a precision of 5.
153