I am working on a project where the footage is letterboxed 16:9 and I need to put a lower third on it. What is the standard for this? It looks really odd with a lower third, so that is why I thought I would ask around and see what others might have done...

David,

The practice is to still use the 4:3 safe area's for all text. It ends up looking odd, but it also ensures that your text is never cut off. Watch some hd broadcasts if you can, you'll see what I mean. They still have to keep text in the 4:3 safe area.

Now, if you're letterboxed, and you're sure that your full frame will be seen even on a 4:3 tv, then it's up to you if you want to use the full 16:9 safe zone. It looks better with the video for sure.

If it were me, I would still use the 4:3 safe zones with all text for tv. For the web, I would use a 16:9 safe zone so the image looks better.

Ben

I have put the lower third right above the black bars at the bottom. It looks ok, but I wondered if some are putting the lower third right to the bottom of the screen, over the black bars as well.