Create Cinematic Letterbox 1080p Videos in Premiere Pro

Premiere Pro 28/04/2021 4 min read

Want to give your videos the cinematic look and feel they deserve? Feeling restricted to 1080p because you don’t have any anamorphic lenses to hand? Adding a cinematic letterbox to your footage immediately adds a wide-angle feel to it, even if you haven’t shot it with that in mind. It forces audiences to watch your videos in aspect ratios other than 16:9, allowing you to unleash your true director’s vision.

Part 1: Add a Letter Box to Your Videos in Premiere Pro

So how do you go about adding a letterbox effect to your video and changing the aspect ratio of your footage? Let’s take a look at how to do that in Premiere Pro.

Change the Aspect Ratio

The first way to do this is to change the entire aspect ratio in the project settings.

  1. Go to Sequence > Sequence Settings
  2. If you’re working in a 4K sequence, change the frame size to 3840 horizontal and 1632 vertical. This will create a cinematic 21:9 aspect ratio.

Use a Letterbox Overlay

Bear in mind this will resize your entire video to 21:9, but you might only want a specific part to be letterboxed. If you want more control over your image, try adding an overlay.

  1. Download a letterbox overlay of your choice. There are plenty of resources from which to download these. For your ease, we added a couple of free letterbox templates below!
  2. Import the overlay into Premiere Pro like you would import any video or other visual asset.
  3. Drag and drop the overlay from the project window onto the timeline.

Create Custom Letterbox

If you want even more control over your letterboxing, try creating your own.

  1. Using the rectangle tool, drag a black rectangle over the entire frame.
  2. Activate the safe margins to use as a framing guide.
  1. Select the four-point polygon tool in Effect Controls to create a mask.
  1. Position the rectangle on the edge of the frame and drag it out to cover the center of the frame, leaving the footage at the very top and bottom where you’d like the letterbox effect to be.
  1. Under the rectangle mask in Effect Controls, click Inverted. This will reverse the effect, revealing the center of the frame and leaving the top and bottom black.
  1. Drag the graphics layer across the part of the timeline you would like the footage to be letterboxed.
  2. Export this graphic as a Motion Graphics Template for future use.

Part 2: 3 Free Cinematic Bar and Letterbox Templates

Looking for some free cinematic bar and letterbox overlays to use in your own projects? Here are our favorites. Simply download them, import them into your Premiere Pro project, and drag them onto the timeline.

1. Bart Johnson Productions

This pack from Bart Johnson Productions comes with a wide range of different styles of letterboxing, for both 1080p and 720p HD footage. Each transparent PNG is clearly labeled and compatible with Premiere Pro – all you need to do is import it to your project and drag it onto the timeline.

Download Bart Johnson Productions Now

2. Film Crux

Film Crux is a premium resource hub for filmmakers, and these letterbox templates will give you plenty of options to play with in the edit. Each one is high quality and compatible with Adobe Premiere Pro, guaranteed to make your footage look instantly cinematic.

Download Film Crux Now

3. Yonaz

Download this amazing aspect ratio pack from Yonaz, a filmmaker who has released a collection of letterbox assets for completely free use. Simply download the file, unzip it, and import the visuals into your project the same way you would use still images. Drag them onto the timeline to use as overlays.

Download Yonaz Now


If you’re looking for a way to make your 1080p footage more cinematic, other than shooting in a specific style and using cinematic lighting and premium lenses, changing the aspect ratio is a simple and affordable way to achieve instant results.

There are plenty of different ways to add a letterbox, ranging from creating your own effect in Premiere Pro to downloading existing letterbox 1080p assets and using them as overlays. If you’re a Final Cut Pro user, you can still create the letterbox look by following the tutorial here.