Pixel Aspect Ratio Changes

S

SarahC

New member
Hello....Working with Premiere Pro CS3- I have 60 plus minutes of film shot in mini dv on 16:9. This summer I will be screening at a film festival, but the screening is done in only 4:3. To top that off it has to screen on mini dv as well.

Do I need to convert my footage to 4:3? Or do I leave it 16:9 and add a letterbox? I am having a very difficult time visualizing what this will look like up there with all these different formats(this is my first film). If anyone could walk me through this I would be very appreciative.

Thanks
Sarah
 
You should be able to edit everything as 16:9 and then export as 4:3 -- it should automatically add letterboxing for you.
 
Thanks...I have been exporting 4:3 to get the letterboxing. But I was told that for this venue, if I want to retain that widescreen look I will need to letterbox before rendering otherwise it wil look "sqeezed". This has all been really confusing and I am really concerned about losing resolution and quality (I shot on a Canon XL1 so that's already 1 strike against me)
 
It'll only look squeezed if you export it as widescreen and they display it as 4:3. Exporting it as 4:3, as you've been doing to get the letterboxing, will be fine. Standard NTSC (or standard PAL if you're in a PAL country) will be what you want.

It's an odd festival which would screen from Mini-DV tape, and with no provision for widescreen, but I guess that's that. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top