How do I create an 'exaggerated letterbox' effect?

[UKPal]

Not sure quite whether what I've put in the Subject line is the right way to put my question but here is what I want to try and achieve:

I have some 1080i footage. I want to create a short highly-stylised piece of video from it. I want to keep the original screen aspect ratio but have deep black bands to the top and bottom, essentially masking those areas of the picture.

I can think of a couple of ways that I might go about this but I just wondered if anyone had done this before and could help me out with a definitive answer (possibly based on experience)?

Any help gratefully received.

[Paul LS]

Clip or Crop effect will do the job. With the Clip effect you can set the top and bottom clipping percentages and then select black as the background colour. With the Crop effect you can crop the top and bottom... in this case you can have something behind the video.

[UKPal]

Thanks Paul!