Created video in 16:9 project, need in 4:3 (for youtube)

[Joe Garcia]

Hi April
If I understand what you are saying ,,,

It sounds like you started the project in a 720p or higher, HD Preset.
When you do that it all looks good while you’re in the app working and doing cuts and such,,,
but if you burn a dvd you’ll see the frame is off center and nothing is right.

You say “I created a 16:9 project using 4:3 quality clips in order to create the illusion”….. etc

I’m taking this to mean, correct me if I’m wrong, that you shot ‘Standard Definition’ video on a ]Standard Definition’ camera and used a 16*9 preset in the editor to conform your clips to 16*9,,, that does not work

16*9 and 4*3 are hard and fast dimensions in your camera. A 4*3 camera can produce 16*9 by using ‘LetterBox’ , and ‘Squeeze” modes, or by using special lens, or lastly by cropping the footage.

Am I helping at all?

JOE
X-Porter

Gen 1:1

[April Dauz]

Hi Joe,

Thanks for the quick reply.

Some of the terms you’re using are kind of going over my head a little bit, so forgive me, but maybe I can be a little more clear if I give a step by step process of what I did.

1. Started project in DV NTSC with frame size 720×480 and pixel aspect ratio 16:9
2. Imported clips sized in 4:3 (from a tv show, actually)
3. Enlarged these clips to fit the 16:9 frame
4. Exported using frame size 720×480 again
5. Uploaded to youtube, but the sides were cut off and sometimes (uneven) bars appeared at the top

Tried again:

1. Imported sequence created using the project settings above to a new project with settings set at frame size 720×480, pixel aspect ratio 0.9, and in editing mode DVD NTSC
2. This imported sequence appeared in the video editing screen with the sides cut off (so I couldn’t just shrink it in to fit and apply letterbox bars to the top and bottom)

Tried one more time:

1. Used the same settings above, but this time imported the sequence (from the first try) after having exported and rendered it to avi
2. Uploaded to youtube and this is when it looked all “squished”

Sorry, that was a bit convoluted. Let me know if this helps any more. I appreciate you taking the time to help.

– April

Note: I actually successfully got the video up on youtube with letterbox bars, but that was after having rendered and exported it in Adobe After Effects. Surely there has to be an easier way of doing this via Premiere.

[Ann Bens]

If you want to create the illusion of widescreen for your 4:3 clips open a standard project and add a black bars over the clips. There is a standard matte in the titler for this.
Export with 4:3 settings. This will be just fine for YouTube.

[Joe Garcia]

What Ann said for sure. !!

JOE
X-Porter

Gen 1:1

[April Dauz]

Hi,

The problem is, I already created my sequence in a 16:9 project so when I import to 4:3, the sides are cut off. What I’m trying to do is get a smaller version of the 16:9 sequence into the 4:3 project and then add the letterbox effect.

[Ann Bens]

Scale the sequence, it should show up as a letter box movie.