How do you add a black strip to the top and bottom of a film to give it the widescreen movie look?

That's it really... I want to make my film look like a widescreen movie. I watched a tutorial on YouTube that suggested adjusting the Top and Bottom numbers under the 'Crop' options of each clip in the Inspector window. The reason this hasn't worked for me is that my film includes a few clips where I had to use Transform to 'tilt' the clip to compensate for a wonky horizon. As such, when I change the Top and Bottom px numbers in the Inspector, it applies the changes to the original angle of the clip, so the black strips basically end up at an angle for that section of the film.

Any help much appreciated. Is there not an Effect that you can download/buy for this?

Thanks,
Dom.

Hi dom,
The way I do it is to use an adjustment layer www.rippletraining.com/using-the-adjustm...final-cut-pro-x.html and add the letterbox effect to that. Extend your adjustment layer across the whole timeline and viola!
If you don't want to download the adjustment layer, you can do this with the basic title and just delete the text from it and you will get the same results.

Hi Jason,

Thanks a lot for the help... much appreciated

I've downloaded the RT Adjustment Layer Title and dragged it across my storyline, but for the life of me I can't figure out how to add the letterbox effect!?! Is it a change to the settings in Transform?

Thanks,
Dom.

I use ALex4D Widescreen Matte plugin. It's free:

blog.alex4d.com/2011/07/22/fcpx-widescreen-matte/

Gives you the option to choose what type of widescreen look you want. Try it, you will like it!

JT

Widescreen is an effect, accessible from the effects browser under the name "letterbox."

I have a related question though. Is there a keyboard shortcut for moving a layer up or down relative to another?

no

But if you're talking about the Timeline, holding the Shift key while dragging clips above or under each other restrains them to vertical movements only. Really helps.

JasonP wrote: Hi dom,
....
If you don't want to download the adjustment layer, you can do this with the basic title and just delete the text from it and you will get the same results.

I've never gotten this approach to work. Is there another step when using the basic title?

Thanks, Ben. The shift key is a big help : )

JasonP - the basic title won't work. You need a title with the landscape thumbnail. You don't want "instant replay" because you can't ditch the graphic. The first one on the list that works is "lens flare." Delete the title text and uncheck the build-in parameter. No lens flares will show up, and the title will now work as your adjustment layer.