strange aspect ratio situation -help!

i am working on a film that i've been digitizing standard def - 4:3 29.97 etc...
most of the footage is 16x9, but som of it is 4x3. I digitized some new 4x3 stuff and for some reason the clips are coming up in the viewer, canvas etc. with the sides (not top and bottom) matted - thus making the image "skinnier". Does anyone have any thoughts on why this might be happening all of the sudden?

Also, totally unrelated - I am working with an A cam and Bcam. in one scene my Bcam sound is messed up , but the Acam sound is fine. I was considering syncing the B picture to the A sound and making new subclips of these for B camera, but I'm not sure how this will affect my ultimate EDL, OMF and online - any ideas?

thanks much!

Julia

> most of the footage is 16x9, but som of it is 4x3. I digitized some new 4x3
> stuff and for some reason the clips are coming up in the viewer, canvas etc.
> with the sides (not top and bottom) matted - thus making the image
> "skinnier".

Julia, check those non-16:9 clips. They have probably been flagged as 16:9 (perhaps you or whoever was capturing forgot to uncheck the 16:9 capture setting). There is a column in the Browser called "Anamorphic". Make sure those clips don't have a checkmark on that column.

> in one scene my Bcam sound is messed up , but the Acam sound is fine. I
> was considering syncing the B picture to the A sound and making new
> subclips of these for B camera, but I'm not sure how this will affect my
> ultimate EDL, OMF and online

Do NOT make subclips. They cause problems during recapture. The best way is just to use markers at sync points. If you want "versions" of your B-camera footage with the A-camera sound tagged on, then sync them up in the timeline, link them (APPLE-L), and drag the combined clip back into a bin in the Browser.

i haven't noticed any problems with subclips for a long while now.

i wouldn't recommend against using them.

my students have all used subclips throughout the year,
and they've been making EDLs, OMFs and batch-capturing just fine.

here's what we're doing right now for syncing rushes:

capture whole Lab-Roll and DAT
in timeline, sync and break into individual slates,
re-name video track as you go. (need to make clip independent first)
after syncing, select Audio and Video pairs,
Apple L to link
Return to open in Viewer
Apple U to make subclip.

the subclip carries the original timecode for the now linked audio.

only time linking and subcliping hasn't worked is if the original files have no TC, or TC starting at zero.
then when the linked subclips are brought into the timeline,the video and audio are linked, but separated by a huge space. (the difference between the A and V timecode, i think)
weird.

cheers,
nick

> i wouldn't recommend against using them.

Sounds like another "some work, some don't" situation. My current bosses told me their Final Cut Pro 5.0.1 station, running with all the latest updates, had a problem during online because of subclips.

if subclips are still causing a problem in the online,

then there's still no reason NOT to use them during the edit.

The function still exists to change all the subclips back to normal clips:
Modify Menu > Remove Subclip Limits

in the past it was essential to run this prior to making an EDL, say.
if your bosses are still having issues, maybe they should try this.

working WITHOUT subclips would be very difficult for us

as i say we havent had problems.
and i'm not unaware that there USED to be problems.
so i've been on the lookout for any discrepancies.

my method thru this has been "try it and see"
so far so good on this end.

nick