Combining 16:9 and 4:3 in one project
by Dan Abreu
on
May 15, 2008 at 4:19:45 pm
I recently recorded a live concert with two DV cams. One was set to 4:3 and the other to 16:9. I've already captured all of the footage and spent many hours lining things up etc... A little late now perhaps, but I'm wondering if I will run into a problem rendering the final video. Can I switch one to match the other in the rendering process? If not, is there something I should do now before going any further? I tried a quick test using WMV and it rendered each camera in their original aspect ratio. Thanks.
Re: Combining 16:9 and 4:3 in one project by Mike Kujbida on May 15, 2008 at 4:44:05 pm
You need to decide what format you want to render to.
Once you do, set your project properties to that format and set the other format to match.
Experiment to see if you like one way or the other better.
Re: Combining 16:9 and 4:3 in one project by Douglas Spotted Eagle on May 16, 2008 at 1:32:40 pm
It's no big deal to mix them. Many today do.
It can even be used as an elemental design, going from one to the other.
Old school thinking says you can't have mixed aspects or even image sizes that are similar. New school says "why not?" Our ADD world is comfortable with seeing vertical, diagonal, and mix size/shapes in broadcast.
Pitching a second track beneath the 4:3 media that fills the pillar boxes with something interesting is commonly seen. Our typical method of dealing with this is to use the same video, one expanded to fill a widescreen and set to blur, desaturated. It makes for a matching backdrop, and works very well. I've noted ESPN doing this a lot lately with old footage as well.
I'd recommend starting with a wide aspect project so that you're not chopping down your widescreen content, and fill beneath your 4:3 aspect content.
Douglas Spotted Eagle
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Certified Sony Vegas Trainer
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