Cinematic Letterbox L08
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Previews are illustrative demonstrations of the technique — not your footage. Your real edit is produced later by Claude Code.
L08 · Layouts · beginner · 2–120s
Black bars close in from top and bottom to a true 2.39:1, 2:1 or 1.85:1 band, cropping (never stretching) the shot into a cinematic frame.
Controlled letterboxing instantly changes the register of a video from creator content to film. Bars ease in to a mathematically exact aspect ratio, the shot is re-cropped (or fitted over a blurred fill) inside the band so nothing is squashed, and the empty bars can carry titles or captions. Used for a section or the whole piece, it signals a deliberate, cinematic moment.
Try the parameters
Shift the visible band up or down from centre.
Best used for
- — Story-driven sections
- — Travel and B-roll montages
- — Brand films
- — Dramatic reveals
Assets
- ● Source video required
- ○ Brand fonts optional
Pairs well with
If assets are missing
If key content (faces, on-screen text) can't fit the band, use the 'fit' reframing with a blurred fill, or limit the letterbox to B-roll shots and keep talking-head sections full frame.
Accessibility
Letterboxing shrinks the picture — on 9:16 a 2.39:1 band is only ~24% of the frame height, so move captions into the bars and keep important detail large.
Individual prompt
updates with the parameters above# CES style instruction — L08 Cinematic Letterbox You are an experienced motion designer and video editor working in Claude Code. Apply the **L08 Cinematic Letterbox** technique to the supplied footage as specified below. **B. Project configuration:** 1080×1920, 9:16, 30 fps · Source video: not provided — ask the user for the path before starting · Video language (on-screen text & captions): English **Layouts** — Controlled letterboxing instantly changes the register of a video from creator content to film. Bars ease in to a mathematically exact aspect ratio, the shot is re-cropped (or fitted over a blurred fill) inside the band so nothing is squashed, and the empty bars can carry titles or captions. Used for a section or the whole piece, it signals a deliberate, cinematic moment. ### L08 Cinematic Letterbox - **When:** ≈ 00:00.00 → 00:08.00 (≈ derived — adjust to the nearest natural beat in the footage) - **Layer / track:** V2+ (overlay above the picture) - **What it does:** Black bars close in from top and bottom to a true 2.39:1, 2:1 or 1.85:1 band, cropping (never stretching) the shot into a cinematic frame. - **Parameters:** Letterbox ratio: 2.39:1 (anamorphic scope); Reframing: Crop to the band (no scaling); Bar animation: 0.6 s; Band position: 0%; Bar colour: #000000; Use bars for titles/captions: on; Easing: Ease in-out (smooth) - **Steps:** 1. Between 00:00.00 and 00:08.00, letterbox the 1080×1920 frame to 2.39:1: visible band 1080×452px, bars 734px each (top bar 734px, bottom bar 734px with the 0% band offset) in #000000. 2. Reframing: crop the source to the band without scaling; position the crop so the subject's eyes sit on the band's upper third (track per shot if the subject moves). Scale every source uniformly (object-fit: cover for crops, contain for fits) — never stretch footage, screenshots or recordings to a region's aspect ratio. 3. Bars animate in from the frame edges over 18 frames using a smooth ease-in-out curve (cubic-bezier(0.65, 0, 0.35, 1)) at the start, and out the same way at the end; the crop moves in sync so the subject stays inside the closing band. 4. Use the bars as typographic space: titles or captions for this section sit centred in the bottom bar (and labels in the top bar) in Inter, never overlapping the picture band. Text comes from the user's params or the transcript only. 5. Implement in Remotion with two absolutely-positioned bars whose height is interpolated, over an <AbsoluteFill> crop; or in FFmpeg with crop=1080:452:0:(ih-452)/2+0,pad=1080:1920:0:(oh-ih)/2-0:color=0x000000. 6. Verify one frame with a circle test: any round object in the source must remain perfectly round after letterboxing (no aspect distortion). - **Assets:** Source video (⚠ MISSING) · optional: Brand fonts - **Fallback:** If key content (faces, on-screen text) can't fit the band, use the 'fit' reframing with a blurred fill, or limit the letterbox to B-roll shots and keep talking-head sections full frame. **G. Asset integrity and restrictions:** - Do not create or present invented testimonials, comments, quotes, reviews or endorsements. - Do not fabricate numbers, metrics, charts or results. Data visualisations use only the supplied data. - Do not create fake screenshots or UI and present them as real. Illustrative graphics must be clearly illustrative. - Do not attempt unsupported 3D reconstructions or perfect subject separation without a mask; use the documented 2D fallbacks instead. **I. Quality verification:** - Check output dimensions and aspect ratio with ffprobe — they must match the configuration exactly. - Check the output frame rate and that the duration is within ±0.5 s of the target. - Check audio/video synchronisation at the start, middle and end (lip-sync and SFX hits within 1 frame). - Inspect frames at every beat boundary for text clipping, overflow and safe-zone violations. - Confirm the output file exists and plays — never claim a render is complete without an actual output file. - Report any missing asset or unimplemented effect explicitly.
More layouts styles
Use a layout when two things must be seen at once. Only one full-frame layout can be active at a time.
- L01Vertical Split ScreenThe frame divides into two regions — speaker in one, a screen recording or second shot in the other — split by a divider at an adjustable ratio.
- L02Picture-in-Picture FocusThe source media fills the frame while the speaker sits in a rounded window in one corner that glides to another corner when detail appears beneath it.
- L03Triple StackThree media bands stack vertically and the focal band grows to take most of the frame while the other two shrink and dim, shifting with the script.
- L04Floating Device FrameA screen recording plays inside a polished phone, tablet or browser mockup that floats in with a gentle 3D tilt over a soft background.
- L05Editorial SidebarA clean text panel slides in from one side while the speaker re-centres in the remaining frame, then fills with a heading and numbered notes.
- L06Center SpotlightThe shot contracts into a sharp central frame with a thin accent ring while the surrounding area becomes a blurred, darkened copy carrying context labels.
- L07Grid ConversationSpeakers or references populate a 2×2 (or 1+2) grid tile by tile, and a highlight moves to whoever is currently talking.
- L09Collage CanvasPhotos, a speaker cut-out, a screenshot and a note card fly onto a paper canvas and settle at slight angles around a bold headline.
- L10Adaptive Proof PanelWhen evidence appears the speaker's shot shrinks into a band and a proof panel takes the rest, resizing as more evidence arrives, then hands the frame back.