Creating 14:9 Title Safe In A 16:9 Image

[ This article was first published in the December, 2008, issue of
Larry’s Final Cut Pro Newsletter. Click here to subscribe. ]

David Smith, from Glasgow, Scotland, writes:

I’ve had a question from a delegate who is asked at times for 16:9 with a 14:9 Title Safe. I cant think of a way of doing it other than bringing in a layer with a 14:9 Title Safe illustrated from Photoshop or similar and adjusting it’s opacity in some way? Any suggestions?? Can you adjust the Title Safe in Final Cut or is it defaulted to the sequence settings?

Chris Roberts, from somewhere near Birmingham, England, responded:

Your answer is here – http://www.digital-heaven.co.uk/fcplugins/dh_widesafe.php – courtesy of Martin Baker and Digital Heaven!

Larry adds: If you haven’t checked out Martin’s website, you owe it to yourself to do so. He has some wonderful toys: www.digital-heaven.co.uk.

UPDATE – Dec. 17

Elliott Mitchell had a question:

Title safe and action safe areas are a consequence of over-scanning in an analog TV receiver. I might be wrong, but I wouldn’t think that there’s any overscan in digital imagery presented on digital, flat screen screens. So as we move to our all digital future, will those safe areas just be artifacts of the past?

Larry replies: If all you use are LCD or LED displays, you are correct. However, there is a lot of rear-projection HD, as well as front projection HD, which still has to deal with overscan. For this reason, its too early to start taking text all the way to the edge.

Title and Action Safe will be a fact of life for a significant while longer.