Cutaway to portrait image displays on top of video instead of on black background

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Level 1

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Cutaway to portrait image displays on top of video instead of on black background

I am making a movie in 16:9 landscape aspect ratio and I want to cutaway to a portrait image. I was hoping that the movie would completely cutaway to the portrait image with the space on either side filled in black (i.e. the portrait image would be displayed on a black background). However, the image simply appears on top of the video like a picture in picture. Is there any way around this? Is there any way to get imovie to automatically put black bars on either side of a portrait image so it can be used in a regular landscape project?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Oct 27, 2020 8:08 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Rich839

Level 8

47,676 points

Oct 27, 2020 9:17 AM in response to JonnersHR

Well, if you apply the Ken Burns effect then you will be overriding the Fit setting and I think that that will eliminate the black bars that you want. You could create a separate project and put your image over a black background with the Fit setting. Then apply your Ken Burns effect. Then share out the project and import the shared out video back into your original project and overlay it.

-- Rich

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Answer 2

Rich839

Level 8

47,676 points

Oct 27, 2020 8:43 AM in response to JonnersHR

Hi, JonnersHR,

Place and select your portrait image in the upper timeline above your video clip, and then click on the crop tool (the one that looks like intersecting angles) in the tool bar in the upper right of your screen. In the selection box that appears, choose "Fit". Then click on the blue reset button to the right of the screen to apply your crop selection. That will place black bars on each side of the image to make it fit the 16:9 screen.

-- Rich

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