16:9 & 4x3 footage mixed what do i do.

I have received 10 mini DV tapes of Documentary footage.

Some of it contains interviews in a 2 camera shoot.
They for reasons I cannot explain shot one camera 16X9
And the other camera in 4x3 mode.

I have loaded all my footage in 4X3 because, well I don't know I just did.

Most of my footage is 4X3 IM gonna guess 85% of it is.
So on the clips that are 16X9 what can I do with them?
They are matching shots on the interviews so I don't want to just punt them.
But I do not want the Black letter box look on this final video.

My final output will be 4X3.

What are some solutions please?
Thank you.

Luie



SL8UP

[www.proapptips.com]

Multi aspect ratios. Lays it all out.

Shane:

Thanks for that tip..........excellent.

sailho...........Neil

Well.....

If you want the letterboxed look I would always suggest you shoot in 16:9 and then work on an anamorphic timeline which is 720 by 576 but stretched to look like 1024 by 576 (using PAL as an example)

What you are doing is taking something that is only 720 by 576 and then letterboxing it afterwards. Your frame is now 720 by 405 instead of 1024 by 576 which is true 16:9.
As a result, when displayed on a plasma screen for example, you will not only get black bars in the bottom but also on the sides because your resolution is much smaller than that of the television.

On an older style 4:3 television on the other hand, you will only get the black bars on the top and bottom and it will look perfectly fine.

My advice is that if you want to do the "fake" letterboxing effect, then just edit all your footage on a 4:3 timeline and put the bars on top when you are done for final render. The 16"9 footage will look just like the rest with bars on it when dropped into the 4:3 timeline if you distort it by 33% (Or close on NTSC)

Good Luck

Oh yeah, forgot.

I just had the very same problem.
My footage was 90% shot properly on 16:9 though so I simply dragged the 4:3 footage into the 16:9 timeline and then made it 33% bigger, hence loosing the top and bottom of the footage and at the same time getting 33% poorer resolution but I had no choice...