Creating Multiple Framing Options by Scaling Down
You’ve already created a new project and named it something appropriate. You will need to select a 720 sequence preset. Just remember that when you drag your 1080 onto the timeline, select the “Keep Existing Settings” option when the “Clip Mismatch Warning” box appears.
Now, double-click on the footage in your timeline, under “Motion,” go to the “Effects Controls,” and change the scale percentage to, “66.8.” This will scale your 1080 footage to fit in the 720 timeline.
The last thing you have to do is find the part in your clip that you want to “jump-cut” to a different frame set-up. You will need to split this footage. Once you have completed the splitting, adjust your scale and position so you can crop-in and reposition the shot. This is how the “jump-cut” is created, jumping from one frame, say, wide angle, to something tighter, an extreme close-up. This creates the illusion that you are using two cameras to shoot your video.
The one rule you cannot forget when creating multiple framing options by scaling down is, you can only scale down—this doesn’t work in reverse. It turns into a hot mess!
Stephen Schweickart is the co-founder of VScreen. For more information on this topic visit VScreen’s site at www.vscreen.com.