Hello. When I rotate and resize clips, the black bars on the side seem to have disappeared. So, when I play the full video, the clips bounce back and forth from having black vertical bars on the sides to none. Is there a way to lock that in while I'm editing and rotating? Many thanks. Jason

Hi Jason - I'm not a FCPX user myself (I'm an audio guy) but a quick search seemed to suggest that it might have to do with Project properties vs Media properties..? I also saw a [very old] thread that suggested that using stabilization might have something to do with black bars..? I'm not sure if any of that would relate to what you're experiencing, bu I've attached a FCPX course to this thread -- perhaps there'll be something useful in there, or maybe a regular FCP user/guru will take notice and weigh in with a more definitive response..

Hi, course author here. If you've put vertical shots in a widescreen timeline, or vice-versa, then you'll probably see black bars on the sides (or the top). The best way to avoid this is to shoot in the same format that you want to deliver, portrait or landscape, and match the project settings to that. If you try to mix portrait and landscape, you'll end up with black bars, or compromising quality by scaling and cropping. If you *do* want to force black bars all the time, you can add an image of black bars on top, or use the Letterbox effect on an adjustment layer. That effect is built for widescreen, though.

Very Helpful Thanks