Letterbox

[whoknows46]

Sorry if this is a silly question, but is the letterbox effect achieved in-camera or are the black bars placed in post?

 

[kevinottawa]

There should be no black bars from the camera.

 

[John Froton]

Ideally the footage is cropped to a wider aspect ratio in post (editing software) and it is the display medium (TV, Flash player ..etc) that fills in the black bars to accomodate the standard ratio for display, such as 16x9.