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16:9 source but 4:3 action/title safe…help
Below is the request from the Program Director of the channel that I produce a show:
“You should be shooting 16:9 with the understanding that all your essential program content still has to be in the 4:3 safe area. In 16:9 the side panels are just additional video as the picture is wider. ALL graphic elements must still be formatted to fit within 4:3 safe title area still. When we air the show, our SD channel just cuts off the side panels and airs the 4:3 center cut. The key is to have the 4:3 area on your cameras and editing window while shooting and editing.”
I’m a bit confused, 16:9 is a new world for me…do edit in a 16:9 or 4:3 sequence?
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8 Replies
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You will edit your show in 16:9, but you will have to keep in mind that when they show the show in SD, they will crop the sides to 4:3. So none of your important titles can be in the are where they crop.
To see what I’m talking about, take a 16:9 clip and put it in a 4:3 timeline. Then scale the clip so there is no black on top or bottom. This will crop the sides.
-Russ
Russell Lasson
Kaleidoscope Pictures
Provo, UT -
Thanks Russell, that should help alot!
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Here’s a set of frame size guides I created a while ago. They are based on BBC/EBU size (they includes 16:9, 14:9 and 4:3 safe zones within the 16:9 frame). There are 1080, 720 and 576 line versions.
https://dylanreeve.com/resources/framesizes.zip
They are layered PSD files so you can turn off layers you don’t need.
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you won’t have to worry about that if you down-convert your show to 4:3, then your 16:9 show will be letterboxed in a 4:3 frame
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Many broadcasters will not broadcast 16:9 letterbox. They either choose to do a 4:3 center-cut or a 14:9 letterbox. Both of which have quite different safety areas within the frame.
In this case is sounds like delivery in HD. For the SD version of that channel they broadcast a 4:3 center-cut signal.
The reason channels so this is, ironically, because of how 4:3 gets blown up to 16:9 for widescreen or HD broadcast. In that case, 4:3 programs are ‘columned’ where the left and right edges of the frame (12.5% on each side) are black bars. So channels that run both Widescreen/HD and SD channels tend to have their SD channel as simple an Aspect Converted version of their 16:9 master channel. If the 4:3 columned signal were then letterboxed down for the SD broadcast then what you actually get is a full 4:3 image scaled down about 75% in the 4:3 screen. It looks pretty bad.
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i have a Safe Guides plugin you can use in FCP that will allow you to add the guides needed
you can get it from http”//web.mac.com/andymees -
Is there a way to replace the Title Safe in FCP, rather than turning a layer on and off when rendering???
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Thanks very much, thats brilliant 🙂
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