Advice on setup and formats for my project
 

I've shot some DV and edited in iMovie and FCE, outputting to the web and DVD. I've recently purchased Final Cut Studio and am working on a documentary short in a workshop I'm taking.

I think I've already done some things that are going to give me headaches, but I'm not sure. I shoot with a Canon XH A1. I wanted to use a second camera, and since the workshop only had GL2s for rent I decided to shoot in SD. But for some reason I can't quite remember now, I really wanted to do this in 16:9.

So I think have XH A1 footage shot SD 16:9, 30F, and GL2 footage shot SD 16:9 (which I think is anamorphic) using cinema mode. (I think that's what I have meaning that I'm still learning, so I may have missed some settings at times and shot some stuff in 60i. Especially with the GL2 stuff, since it was a rental and had different settings every time I got it. But everything is definitely SD, and definitely 16:9.)

I also have a number of jpeg stills that I'll be using in the project, so I need to get them in there and displaying 16:9. I'm worried about this. Maybe it has something to do with how it was output for the web, but I looked at someone else's film from a previous workshop and found a lot of aspect ratio changes. Some of the footage seems letterboxed, and some fills the entire web clip. You can see that film here to get an idea of what I'm talking about:


I think the output will be to DVD; we'll be turning these in on a data disk, they'll get compiled into a timeline so we can show them all at a local theater.

So to get to my question: What sequence settings do I need to use to make this look right? What am I actually going to get by shooting 16:9 in SD? And when I turned it in, how should I save/output it so that it doesn't look weird next to all the other projects that have been shot 4:3?

I'm still not sure why I created this confusion for myself. Next time, I think I'm shooting SD in 4:3 and HD in 16:9 and not try to be too clever.

Any advice -- on this or for future reference -- would be greatly appreciated!

cheers,
tom