How To Set Up New Project With Variety of Media?

I don't know exactly how to ask this, but I know I need to ask it.

I will be starting a project soon which will include video clips from 8mm film transfers, VHS video as well as still photos. How should I set up the project at the start so that all the different media will "fit" without distortion?

I have seen videos that people have made where images were obviously "squeezed to fit" to the point of gross distortion.

Many thanks for any help. I am pretty new at this.

Well, you should first determine what your deliverable frame size will be. Then, make sure that the media you use is at least that frame size (unless you're going to do some sort of stylistic thing, like having standard definition clips centered in the middle of an HD frame). You may be able to have the 8mm film transfers done at a high enough resolution during scanning (ideal situation).

Same thing applies for still images (smaller of length and width dimension in pixels should be at least as large as the smallest dimension of the deliverable frame size).

The VHS media is inherently standard definition but depending on the transfer you might be able to get a larger frame size (it will be scaled).

If you don't ensure that the media is large enough to cover the deliverable frame size, you'll have to scale it up, which isn't ideal. FCP can do this, as well as other tools...

You should also familiarize yourself with the "spatial conform" options for clips in an FCP timeline/Project (done via the Video inspector).

Before you start editing in earnest, you should consider testing each type of media in a test timeline/Project. Once you've worked out the settings, you should be ready to proceed...

Addendum: If you'd like to be able to pan or zoom (in/out) on an image (stills), you might want to have dimensions of 2x or 3x the deliverable frame size. That way, you can zoom in and maintain image quality. Moving around an image also requires a larger image. For video, if the resolution of the source is twice that of the deliverable frame size, for example, you could zoom in up to 200% without losing image quality.