Using a phantom mask

[Carlos E. Martinez]

Last year I shot a documentary in DV which I might be airing in commercial TV. As some of them do not accept 16:9 images, I shot in 4:3 ratio already thinking of using a 16:9 mask on the final copy. Then I could have two versions for my doc: one in 4:3 and the other in 16:9.

So I shot everything framing for 16:9, using a translucid tape to set that frame. The semi-transparent tape let me be safe that nothing I did not want would show on the 4:3 area.

Now I am going to edit all in Avid Xpress and I would like to find a way to show a 16:9 area during my editing those 4:3 images. It would be something like a "phantom mask". From what I checked, there might be some images that may need some re-framing using Avid's own effects for the 16:9, and such a frame would let me see that.

Any suggestions on how to achieve that?


Carlos