Working with 16:9 footage in FCE 4

Question

I have 16:9 footage that I am working with in FCE 4. When I drop the footage into a sequence, the viewing area is 4:3. Then when I export it, I export it as 16:9, and it looks like stretched 4:3. Help! How do I fix this problem? Is there a setting that I need to change? I have already tried changing both the video clip settings and the sequence settings to anamorphic. That didn't help; it looked like stretched 4:3.

Answer 1

You are looking for Anamorphic.

To make a sequence anamorphic, right click on it and select Item Properties... In the resulting window, check Anamorphic (or the space where the check should be). To permanently change this setting for all future sequences, select DV-NTSC Anamorphic under Final Cut Express > Easy Setup...