The shooting of What a Witch was done in an aspect ratio of 4:3 on DV, but is meant to be published in an aspect ratio of 16:9 (Widescreen). As on film, ledger lines were used on the screen:

The Screen is upside down, caused by adding lenses to the camera (Canon XL1S DV, DOP: Michael Franklin). For a great look, this was unavoidable.

After capturing the footage it was turned around 180° (which delays the working process extremely). Really not recommended!

But the actual problem was, how to fit the material of a 4:3 apect ratio to a widescreen project.

An editing project must be configured in a certain aspect ratio before its editing as it is not possible to change this afterwards. The method of resolution must be defined before. There is nothing worse than noticing a wrong strategy in the export.

Of course you might think: Just put black letter bars on it! But be careful: A negative impact is caused by this method of strategy.
Although it looks like a film in widescreen, the actual aspect ratio is still 4:3.
Screens in 16:9 are becoming more and more standard. By publishing a video with letter bars in a 4:3 aspect on a Widescreen-TV, it would look like this:

To avoid this consequence an alternative method was used. Shown on the example of Adobe Premiere Pro CS3:

The project was set up in a 16:9 aspect ratio. With the 4:3 footage, a vertical free zone appears on the left and right side:

By scaling the footage of 136% the widescreen aspect ratio is reconstructed:

The scope on the top and bottom is now cropped without adding black letter bars. The picture would be filled out on a widescreen now. This method has the positive side effect of varying the detail of the photograph in the vertical orientation:

The bad side effect: By scaling the picture the sharpness is decreased in smidgen. With adding a sharpener effect of 20% it can be adjusted:

Indeed it is a wasteful process and takes a lot of time but this is worthwhile for the final product. Especially for the occasion that Widscreen-TVs are removing the used 4:3 screens and are fast becoming standard. Ultimately “What a Witch” shall fit to this new standard!