themuzz asked:
FlyByKnight Responds:
Contrary to what that site says, you *can* easily do this in Premiere. Where
it gets confusing is in the name of the effect: "Transform".
In your Premiere effects window, you have several categories. One of these
categories is "Transform". Ironically, this is not where the "transform"
effect is found. It is in the category "Perspective". Simply drag the
transform effect to your widescreen clips. You will have to do this
individually for each widescreen clip. In the "Effect COntrols" window, you
will now see the Transform effect listed. change the "Scale Height" setting
to 75. This automatically generates the black bars at the top and bottom and
realigns the aspect ratio correctly.
Keep in mind that, depending on how you edit this footage, you will have an
end result that sometimes shows the bars (during 16:9 source) and sometimes
doesn't (during 4:3 source). This might be a bit distracting for your
audience if it keeps switching back and forth many times. Humans tend to
"tune out" the black bars after a few minutes, but if they keep
disappearing/reappearing it could become intrusive.
In that case, you might consider the "Image Pan" effect. It allows you to
"pan and scan" widescreen footage into a 4:3 frame. It eliminates the black
bars and is the same thing studios do when a movie has been "formatted to
fit your tv screen". Since the widescreen and 4:3 images are the same
height, you can "pan" the 4:3 box back and forth, framing each shot
properly. Of course, you *do* lose the "full horizontal resolution" that is
preserved through letterboxing, but if it makes the video more aesthetically
pleasing, it will be worth it.
On the other hand, you *could* keep the entire project in widescreen and use
Image Pan to put the 4:3 clips into 16:9 aspect ration. Ordinarily, I don't
recommend this, since (as opposed to pan and scan widescreen footage) you
actually *do* lose vertical resolution. It won't be apparent when played on
a tv, but it will be on a widescreen or computer. Also, in this case, you
would NOT do the vertical transform to fit everything into a 4:3 frame. If
you crop the 4:3 stuff into a 16:9 frame, you can put it to DVD as a
complete anamorphic widescreen dvd.
This technique differs from the "create a matte with bars and superimpose it
over the 4:3 footage" technique that is discussed on the site that you
linked to because it allows you to perform "tilt and scan". You can extract
the 16:9 frame from any vertical position of the 4:3 frame.
This method would give you a complete 16:9 production. You would preserve
all original widescreen footage. You would sacrifice some of the top,
bottom, or both of your 4:3 footage, but you won't be "confusing" your
viewers by constantly switching back and forth from letterbox to full frame.
By the way, the "Image Pan" effect can be found in the "Transform" category
of the Premiere effects pallette.
FlyByKnight
