How do I take 4:3 video and make look 16:9 AND be able to reframe it for different scenes?

I get the many different ways to take a whole 4:3 clip and make it look 16:9, but How do I take 4:3 video and make look 16:9 AND be able to reframe it for different scenes? I mean once you zoom into the footage, sometimes I need more of the top of the shot or the bottom. If I do the wire frame method, it seems to lock if for the whole clip. If I do the motion zoom tab, there is no move the video up or down way or hopefully, I don't see it and you do. Thanks.

This question is as old as the hills. What you do is, don't apply the widescreen matte filter (which moves if you move the image). Put a mask on top of the image to cover up the top and bottom (like a picture frame), and then move the image underneath.

[www.lafcpug.org]


www.derekmok.com

I have a sequence that I set to be 720x405. Then under motion, I scaled up the video to 100% and then the 4:3 video looks like 16:9 however I'm not able to save it as a quicktime. I get an error 34? I guess I'm confused on what sequence settings to use if I want to make a DVD that looks and plays as a 16:9 video but made from 4:3 source material. Sorry if this is old but I've searched and don't seem to get the hits. What should my sequence settings be.

I assume you're working with DV. Stick with 720x480, but check the Anamorphic 16:9 box in Sequence Settings. In addition to the Scale up (which should be around 170 per cent -- it's been a while since I've had to do this so my memory might be off) ou'll need to add a Distort setting (usually 33.33) to make the 4:3 footage into Anamorphic 16:9.

[www.lafcpug.org]


www.derekmok.com

Thanks for reply. Yeah it is DV footage. When I scale it up your way, it looks a lot less detailed than the way I mentioned above. Do you know what error 34 is? I assume for a DVD SD it only burns 4:3 so you have to tell it to anamorphic it so it will play 16:9 on the DVD player?

> it looks a lot less detailed than the way I mentioned above.

I did misquote the blowup -- it should be between 134 and 140 per cent, not 170. Doing it your way, you're just delaying the necessary image blowup. Your image seems sharper because it's a smaller picture that won't fill the necessary SD frame, like looking at the LCD screen on a camcorder -- it seems sharper to the eye because everything is tighter together than it should be.

Trying to make 4:3 SD footage into anamorphic 16:9 is never going to look very good.


www.derekmok.com

I will be cropping 16X9 to 2:40:1, so I need to create a matte. I am aware of the various ways to accomplish this, I would just like to use the method that will result in the least amount of additional render time when exporting the final quicktime. According to the FAQ, Nick says creating the matte in Photoshop will result in the shortest render times, is that pretty much the consensus (instead of using slugs or a black matte within final cut)?

The least rendering is if you tape off your external monitor to watch the scenes. Don't apply the actual mask until you're outputting.


www.derekmok.com

Joe, it can be done entirely with numbers in the FCP motion filters, so rendering is postponed.

In Basic Motion, set the second value for Center: call this Cv.
In Crop, set the Top and Bottom values: call these T and B.

Cv measures pixels up or down from center.
T and B measure percentages.

Assuming your 16:9 frame is 1920x1080, your 2.4:1 frame will be 1920x800.
Choose your Cv between -140 and +140. (140 is half the difference between 1080 and 800.)
Then make your T equal to 100*(140-Cv)/1080 and your B equal to 100*(140+Cv)/1080.

We used Excel to make an illustrated table for Cv, T, and B.

Dennis Couzin
Berlin, Germany

Thanks for the tips!

I have have one more option that I'm considering, this is a RED project and I'm creating proxies in Red Cine X, therefore, I could crop the transcodes, as they shot with 2:40:1 in mind.

The only caveat I see with this is that I lose the option of repositioning the image up/down in the offline, as opposed to creating a matte in the NLE.