Of course, you’re going to upload it somewhere so people can see it. Therefore if you wanted your video to have a black border that was 25 pixels wide, you would need a picture of 2345 x 25 pixels. So, if we want to put a black border around a video that is 640 pixels wide and 480 pixels high, the formula would look like this : Border pixels = (640 x 2) + (480 x 2) + 5Border pixels = 1360 + 960 + 5 Border pixels = 2345 How about 5 pixels on each side? Here’s a quick formula for calculating the total number of pixels needed for a border: Border pixels = (Video width x 2) + (Video height x 2) + 5. It should be selected by default, but if not, like it using your selection tool: First, you need to figure out how big you want your border to be. It will allow us to view both our video and matte at the same time: To make it easier to see what’s happening as we move forward, let’s turn on some additional settings in the Program Monitor by selecting all four corners of your video in the Program Monitor and selecting View>Full Screen>View All Modes. This will pop up the Matte interface and automatically select an Alpha Channel for you: The matte will also appear in your Program Monitor (the big monitor at the bottom of your screen if you’re not working with a full-screen view).

In my case, I’m going to use this video of myself: Next, go to Effect>Matte>Matte. Open up the video you want to add the border to get started. I’m using Adobe Premiere Pro to walk through this process, but the same steps apply to Final Cut Pro or any other NLE on the market today. How do you put a black border around a video? It is a question that comes up every once, so I figured I’d share my process. How Do You Put A Black Border Around A Video? It is beneficial if your video has been filmed at an angle! Just press the arrow keys while dragging them around the screen. You can resize or reposition the black bars using the same method as above. When you’ve selected the right place, click ‘OK.’.A white box will appear, which you can drag with your mouse over the area you want to fill with black bars.Click ‘Tools’ and then click ‘Add Black Bars.’.Highlight the video section that you want to turn into black bars (you may have to scroll around a bit to find it).They look nice and focus attention on the video content rather than distracting from it. If you want to make your video more cinematic, black bars are a good solution. Drag them down so they cover up everything but your clip (as shown in the screenshot below). Step 7: You should see a few sliders when this menu pops up.This time, choose “Alpha Channel” as shown below: Step 6: Once again, go back to the “Timeline” and click on “Create.”.

I chose grey because it’s neutral and doesn’t distract from the footage.įeel free to experiment with different colors until you find one that works for you! Hit Done once you’ve selected your color. Step 5: Here’s where you can change the color of your bars.Step 4: Click on “Edit Color” as shown below:.Step 3: Go to the “Timeline”, and then click on the “Create” button near the top-right corner, as shown below:.In this case, I would go to the left and place my play there. Step 2: Find the spot where you want the black bars to be.Step 1: Open your video project in Premiere Pro or video editing software.Many people ask how to add black bars to their videos, and it’s a pretty simple process.

How Do I Add Cinematic Black Bars To My Videos? Filmmakers use them to avoid cropping or stretching images so they’ll fit different screens. You may also hear these terms used when talking about movies that are displayed on screens with different aspect ratios than they were made for.Ĭinematic bars (or letterboxing) is done for aesthetic reasons. It’s typically done by applying a black overlay to the top and bottom of the frame, in order to focus your attention on the middle part of the image.īlack bars used in this way are usually called “letterboxing.” If a video has black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, then the video is said to be “letterboxed.” Cinematic bars are a type of post-film processing that’s meant to enhance the perceived quality of the film.

Imovie square video black lines