Lost Video Island

scarlett_106 · Advanced Vidder Joined: 20 Mar 2011 Posts: 169

Hi guys, so I'm almost done with my Jate/Suliet vid, and the only problem is that some of my clips were widescreen and some were TV aspect, so square. That means that in the latter, there are those ugly black gutters. It kind of ruins the flow of the video.

But when I change them to widescreen in the Pan/Crop window, it takes out part of the image and zooms in too much. For instance, I did it to a Suliet clip, and it was way too close in on Juliet's face and cut out part of her head.

Any ideas for making all the clips in the same format without having to sacrifice part of the image? Is there a way to convert them outside of Vegas?

Thanks!!

This is how it is when I have it normal:

And this is how it is when I do widescreen:

Belle MacFarlane · Expert Vidder Joined: 02 Sep 2009 Posts: 7771

The only other alternative is to stretch the square clips out, but that gives a very squashed look. Honestly I don't think there's a better way than cutting out some of the image but if anyone has a magic method I'd also love to hear it

Debbie · Expert Vidder Joined: 11 Jul 2009 Posts: 4987

Whenever I used to work with clips like that, I'd stick with widescreen. It honestly doesn't ruin it, unless the focus should be on a part that it cuts off which it usually isn't! From what I can see, it looks absolutely fine

littleton_pace · Council Member Joined: 16 Nov 2006 Posts: 55699

it depends on how the actual clip is when it comes off the DVD. like my Lost eps I rip off in widescreen so nothing is cut out. but with Charmed, they are all by default square which is annoying, i just change them to widescreen in vegas and cut out some of it

nikkimonique · Expert Vidder Joined: 27 Jul 2007 Posts: 30478

yeah in final cut the only thing I can do when I use square clips is to zoom in to make it fit the screen which sucks but I don't know another way around it. I'd rather zoom in a little than make the video looks stretched or squished!

eloramoon · Council Member Joined: 24 Feb 2008 Posts: 9077

I think it's better to lose some of the image off the top and bottom than to have the black bars at the edges in some clips. You can also move the pan/crop area up so that it doesn't cut off the top of her head but cuts off more of their chests/shoulders. Although, I realize in the example clip that wouldn't really work, but that's what I usually do when it works out. I just adjust it to where I'm happiest with it.

Aislynn · Council Member Joined: 03 Feb 2005 Posts: 35782

Whenever I have clips that are in mixed ratios, I do the same thing, zoom in with the pan/crop tool and have to unfortunately sacrifice a bit of some part of the image. But it looks infinitely better, in my opinion, than having the black bars pop up or having oddly stretched clips.

I try to do what Julia suggested, which is to adjust the pan/crop tool to get as good a crop as you can and leave in as much of the image that's important as you can.

Good luck with it! Hope we get to see your vid soon!