The Montage Format Challenge

By Diana Weynand

In storytelling, the montage can be an editor's best friend. Using different video and audio combinations, you can use a montage to fill in gaps bringing a sequence to a desired length. You can also use it to further define a character or location or to simply move the story forward. However, if your montage consists of still images cut to a music track, which is frequently the case, you could get yourself into format trouble–if you don't take certain precautions

First, let's prep the montage. If you're a project organization geek (pog) like I am, you might choose to create a new sequence just for the montage. This allows you to work on the montage separately from your master story sequence–which could include an assortment of interviews or possibly dramatic scenes. Having the montage stand alone in this way creates 'elbow' room and allows you to experiment with length and other options before committing it to the final sequence.

So if your first step is to create a new sequence to edit the montage, what's your next step? You might suggest editing the music track into the Timeline or perhaps the still images you want to cut to the music. Here's where the format challenge comes into play. The default Final Cut Pro sequence settings are DV-NTSC (or PAL). But music tracks and still images will not by themselves trigger FCP to convert the current sequence settings. The only thing that will do that is a video clip.

Let's say your story footage was shot on some type of HD 16:9 footage. If you look at the Canvas image of the new montage sequence, you notice the image area is a boxy 4:3. If you're cutting DV footage to begin with, you're good to go.

But since your primary video footage is HD with a 16:9 aspect ratio, and many of your images are probably closer to widescreen, you're not so good after all. And if you want to edit this new montage into the master story sequence, which of course you do, you'll want to match the settings of that sequence or you'll end up with still images shrunk down to fit inside a 4:3 image area in letterbox style. Yuck! Not what you want! (In fact, if you ever start a sequence that utilizes 16:9 footage and it looks like the following Canvas image, then STOP and re-read this article.

This creates three problems. One problem is the still image (of the bear) is reduced in size to fit the default 4:3 aspect ratio image area. So now you've got the letterbox black bars at the top and the bottom. Another problem is that you don’t get to see the still image in its fullest possible size utilizing the entire frame. The third problem is that when you get ready to edit this montage sequence together with your original footage, the sequence settings won’t match.

So, you need a way to first convert your montage sequence settings before you begin editing your stills or music. Those of you who are already familiar with this process might ask, “What happened to that question – 'Do you want me to change your sequence settings?' – that usually pops up?"

Well, guess what? That question doesn't come up when you edit a still image into an empty sequence because a still image is not an accurate representation of your footage. The way that Final Cut Pro deals with still images is to conform the still images to the settings of the current sequence.

So here’s what you do to avoid this problem. Open your new montage sequence, the one with a 4:3 aspect ratio image area. Then, from your bin of video source material, open a video clip into the Viewer. Edit that video clip into the montage sequence first. This video clip brings up the question you want Final Cut Pro to ask – "Change sequence settings to the match the clip settings?" And of course you would definitely click 'Yes.'

Final Cut Pro changes the montage sequence settings to the correct 16:9 aspect ratio which will match your master story sequence settings. Now you can go back to your still image folder and edit that .JPG or .TIFF image back into the sequence. You’ll notice you've got a 16:9 aspect ratio of the still image, which is exactly what you want. Such a beautiful thing! No black letterbox bars and the still image fills the frame.

With the sequence settings correct, all you have to do is click on the video clip and choose Sequence > Ripple Delete to pull it out of the montage.

Continue building your montage by editing other still images and music and maybe even some sound effects to give the stills some added depth. You can feel safe knowing that you have a sequence that will match and play quite nicely with your other story segments or master sequence.

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