Letterbox for 16:9 TV (Shooting 16:9)
 

Hello

I would like to have the widescreen effect of having the black bars on the top and bottom of the screen when I put onto DVD. Now I know I can add this in post, but I need to frame the image when shooting by putting black tape over the viewfinder or monitor, which I don’t want to do.

I’m shooting using the HD100 and with true 16:9 capabilities. When I look through the viewfinder the black bars are there. That’s what I would like to show up when I put on a 16:9 TV, but it doesn’t, it fills the whole screen.

What are the best ways of achieving this?


Any help would be much appreciated.
Simon

If you're shooting 16:9 and playing back on a 16:9 TV you won't see the bars. You'll need to make your aspect ratio something smaller by applying a mask (unless the HD100 has some in-camera settings you can use). Try something like 1:1.85, that's what a lot of movies use, or 1:2.40 for a really wide effect

However, you can still do it in post. I have not tried it with true 16:9 footage yet but with 4 :3 you will get the possibility and flexibility to position you footage up an down in order to match it perfectly between the bars.

Regards,
Margus

I've done this in post. I composed my shots in 2:35 and shot in 16:9 HDV. I then applied the 2:35 matting in post for a pretty awesome picture. To do this just apply a matte on a seperate video track in your editing software. I built my own. It's really easy.