I am editing a photo montage for a 1st birthday party. The project is standard DV aspect ratio and the client has given me a 2 min clip she wants added into the project that is widescreen. I wanted to ask for opinions on the best way to incorporate this new clip into the project. Thanks in advance for any input.

Aloha,
Ron

I would leave the main project at 4:3 and letterbox the widescreen. Basically, just drop it on the timeline and Vegas will letterbox it.

Thanks Guy,

I agree. That sounds like the most reasonable thing. Maybe I will mask out the upper and lower black letterbox areas and place the video on top of a background. Maybe something that does not distract from the video. Thanks for your reply.

Aloha,
Ron

Or you could use the event pan/crop and make the 16:9 footage into 4:3, and then do a pan and scan, just on that clip.

Just a thought.

SB

Yeah.

If viable, I'd crop the widescreen to 4:3.

SB,

Forgive me, but I am not sure I understand what you mean by "scan". Is it another reference for pan? Could you set me straight:)

Aloha,
Ron

Pan and scan refers to the technique of selectively cropping to leave a smaller clip with the most important part of the original.

Yeah, just keyframe the movement of the 4:3 frame to see what is going on inside the 16:9 frame.

SB

Got you loud and clear. I thought that might what you were referring to, but wasn't sure. Thanks everyone for your responses. Very helpful as usual.

Aloha,
Ron