Shooting Doc - Older 4:3 footage to 16:9?

[reelmike]

Hello, I have a quick question for all of you pro's out there. Your help is much appreciated. I am shooting a 24p documentary that is intended for screen. Much of the archival/past footage shot is 4:3 - how will this work if the project ends up 16:9? How will i cinorporate this footage into the project? (Excuse my ignorance) also, in going forward (still have a bout a year left of filming)... what would you suggest (in terms of aspect ratio, modes, etc) if my project is intended for screen?

Your thoughts and comments are much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Michael

 

[bpotter]

Re-scale it for 16:9. If it's old, archive footage people won't note the loss of quality if you scale it for 16:9 from 4:3.

 

[Joshua Provost]

You can put the 4x3 footage in the center of the screen. It will have black bars on the sides, pillarboxes. If you don't like the empty space on the sides, you can insert a backgroun behind it just to give it some more visual interest.

Or, you could scale it up, so the top and bottom are clipped, but it will fill the screen.

Here's a great article about both options.