Im a student applying for University applications. I have used shots in my showreel which were shot in 4:3 only camera type but while edit export I cropped top n bottom and made it 16:9 and this is the only format I have of it now.
My worry is,
(A) What could possibly the best professional and correct answer I can have for having a 4:3 shot footage as 16:9 without pillar boxes? (I have to made up a correct reverse methodology to tell them of my working process…as cropping is usually prohibited)
(B) Is 4:3 stretch is really acceptable in professional industry and an accepted practice?
Kindly help with this I am really nervous about the mistake I have done and looking for appropriate cover up that how come I have a footage shot in 4:3 but have final output as 16:9 without pillar boxing and cropping and distortion of framing.
Cropping it to 16:9 is sometimes done but it’s rarely ideal because you are removing picture information from the top and bottom. Many times it is left as is in 4:3 with the black on the left and right which isn’t actually a problem because not only is that how the image is naturally but you would have also have black on the top and bottom if the video is a really wide aspect ratio like 2.35:1 even if the screen is 16:9.
The other option is to replace the black parts with a blurred image of the 4:3 video. There is a filter in Shotcut that is made especially for this. It’s called Blur: Pad. Try it out and see if you like how it looks.
There is a filter called Elastic Scale that allows you to stretch the sides but not the center or near the center. This is a common feature on many TVs (or used to be), but I do not believe it is common to appear in broadcasts. In order to use this correctly, you need to add the Size, Position, and Rotate filter with Size mode set Distort and size and position set to project resolution. Then, in Elastic Scale, start with Non-linear scale factor at 80 and adjust from there.
