Shooting 16:9 on Canon xl2 but need 4:3 version as well

[Chris Poisson]

Hey Rich,

You can shoot it wide enough so that you can crop it in a 4×3 sequence, or you could letterbox it. Unless you have a bunch of graphics that you want to preserve the quality on, just do it all DV. The size for graphics if you do DV is 864×480.

[Rsk3527]

What is the process of cropping it in the 4:3 sequence. Is there a way to control the 4×3 crop or do you just drop the 16:9 footage into a 4:3 sequence and final cut will automatically crop it.

-Rich

[Chris Poisson]

Rich,

I don’t have FCP opwn right at the moment but as I recall you just put the footage in a 4×3 sequence and open the clip in the viewer, and go into the motion tab under distort, and I think you just distort it 33%. Anyways you will see when the proportion is right in the canvas.

[Chris Poisson]

I forgot, this is very helpful.

https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/understanding_16_9.html

[Rsk3527]

Chris,

Thanks for your help so far, but I don’t think I was clear. I am shooting two different framings for two different deliveries. I want to end up with a traditional 4:3 square and a 16:9 version. So I want to know how to center extract the 4:3 square from the sqeezed 16:9 into a ntsc sequence. Not just create a 4:3 letterboxed version. I want to fill a 4:3 square with the center extracted image.

Thanks,
Rich

[Chris Poisson]

Rich,

I understand what you want, just put the anamorphic footage into a 4×3 sequence, open the clip in the viewer, go the the motion tab and twirl down distort, and type -33 in the aspect ratio box. Done.

You will see the edges of the clip in image and wireframe spread out and crop the sides.

But as I said in my first post, you will have to shoot wide enough to be able to lose the sides.

[Rsk3527]

Chris,

Thanks a lot.

-Rich