16x9 to 4x3 The letterboxing is different colors for each clip

I just finished editing a 30 second TV spot and I needed to convert it to 4x3. The way I did this was through the "Modify Project Properties" wrench.

I down converted it from 1080 to 640x480 so it can air on a SD TV channel (those still exist?). When I did this FCPX created a letterbox for each clip, but FCPX seems to have some sort of "Match Color" feature where it thinks that it's better to make the letterbox color match the colors in the image.

How do I just make the letterbox black for each of the clips? This is just a really stupid problem and I can't seem to find an easy fix.

Thanks!

You would be surprised how many TV channels in the world still broadcast in SD.

Do you get a white color or a checkerboard pattern where the black borders should be?

If so go to Preferences > Playback and set "Player Background" to Black.

If not please post a screenshot so we can see what is happening.

What I usually do is export the 16X9 file and use Quicktime Pro to convert to a Quicktime SD mov using "Preserve Aspect Ratio using Letterbox" setting under Export Size Settings. Quick and easy. I use QT Pro for all my conversions. I find it much faster than any other way.