Shot on HVX with taped lcd screen, how to letterbox?

evolvnyc

Well-known member
I just shot a short film last minute on the HVX, I wanted to shoot in a wider aspect ratio than the default 16:9 so we shot in squeeze mode at 24PN to the P2 cards. I taped off the top and bottom of the lcd to make a more rectangular view. Can anyone knowledge me on how to create a custom sized letterbox in FCP to mask the footage to how I was shooting it? I assume there is a way to adjust a mask or filter in FCP without having to make a photoshop file?
 
FCP widescreen filter or make a mask in Photoshop and drop it over your timeline.

Noah
 
Make a slug and put it on the top layer. Add Mask Shape filter to slug. Open filter controls, click invert, and adjust horizontal scale to 100 percent, vertical to whatever you want. Any footage underneath will be masked, and this is better than the widescreen filter because you can reframe your shot if you need to. Also, you don't have to apply the filter to every shot, just stretch out the slug on the top layer.
 
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or you can go the really freakin' simple way...

go to the motion tab & move the crop sliders to where they need to be.
 
or you can go the really freakin' simple way...

go to the motion tab & move the crop sliders to where they need to be.


That works great if you only have a few clips. But if you have a bunch, it's easier to use Batutta's method. I just did an edit of some interviews that were half 4:3 and half 16:9. Dropping in some masked slug over the timeline was a lot faster than cropping dozens and dozens of clips.

That mask shape filter also seems to have cleaner edges than the widescreen filter.
 
The cropping way of doing this is not slow at all. Do one clip, copy it and paste attributes to the rest of them all in one shot.
 
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