4:3 Title Safe in 16:9 Frame

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Benjamin,
just make sure the title are safe in 16×9. You won’t have problem once in 4×3.
Be careful in the sides. In the top and bottom you will always have more room.

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..and always a big mess on top of the table.

[Andy Mees]

whether your titles are safe will depend on how the 16:9 source is converted to 4:3

if its letter boxed then your titles should be just fine as long as they are 16:9 safe
if its cropped, either as a 14:9 crop with shallow letterbox, or as a full 4:3 crop then you do need to be sure that your titles will remain safe

i’ve a simple fxscript plugin I made for myself for this, you’re very welcome to use it if it helps… you can grab it from https://web.mac.com/andymees

[Walter Biscardi]

[Benjamin David] ”
Is there a way of getting a 4:3 title safe to appear in a 16:9 frame in FCP 2? All the ads we shoot are 16:9 but I need to make sure the titles will still be on-screen when viewed on a 4:3 television. I have a work around but I would prefer to use a proper title safe.”

No, you have to create one yourself. I have a nice grid I created in Photoshop that has a 14:9 Safe Title which is essentially the 4:3 safe title in a 16:9 frame. This protects for shows that are center punched when downconverted.

If your show is being letterboxed then the standard 16:9 safetitles will work.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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[Andy Mees]

[walter biscardi] “… a 14:9 Safe Title which is essentially the 4:3 safe title in a 16:9 frame”

Not meaning to be picky for picky’s sake here Walter but thats not altogether correct … 14:9 safe areas and a 4:3 safe areas (within a 16:9 frame) are not the same at all.

A 14:9 safe guide will show you what will be safe with regards to a 14:9 center cut (ie shows transmitted in 4:3 with a viewable picture area cropped to 14:9 and a shallow letterbox top and bottom to make up the full raster height)

If you need to make your titles / action safe for a full 4:3 center cut (ie shows transmitted in 4:3 with a viewable picture area cropped to 14:3) then you need to specifically use a 4:3 safe guide (not 14:9)

I realise you know this but just wanted to post it for clarity to others who may be less familiar and easily confused

[Ben Mullins]

Thanks guys,

ANDY – Cheers for the plug-in, this is what I was looking for.

WALTER – My work around was, as you suggested, to create my own title safe. I was just hoping FCP would have such an option as standard. I know that Avid does. Any ideas why FCP hasn’t included this?

Once again thanks guys,

Ben.

[Jonathan Capra]

Yeah they need to add this ASAP.

[Timmy Heydon]

Andy is right. Here in Oz the tech spec requires you to allow for “zoom”.. when the sides are cut off and the image is blown up…on an old analogue TV using 4×3 (with overscan of up to 20%).
It means your ad looks crappy in 16×9, but it leaST it’s LEGAL! Also, clients tend to complain that there’s a lot of empty space in the image..”why is there so much space around?” So i do one version for approval, then apply changes for the actual ad.
-timmy