A little resource for Marquee

Software: Avid (all with Marquee)
Platform: Any
Skill Level: Intermediate

One slightly annoying thing about Marquee, is that it won't display a 4:3 safe / title action grid inside a 16:9 aperture, the way that Avid's inbuilt grid will.

To get around this, I've made a marquee title that includes a 4:3 aperture grid which you can compose with, and then turn off when you save the final title.  I've only tested this on PAL (and Windows) but it should work for other applications.  At any rate, it would be easy to modify for other applications (like 14:9 aperture for instance).

To use this template you'll need to:

1. Download this marquee title file, and put it somewhere on your Avid so that you can find it again.
   
2. Start Marquee, and then use File > Open to open the file 4x3 Inside 16x9.mqp that you just saved.
   
3. Once you've opened the file you should have a safe action and safe title box with accompanying text.  These four objects are on a layer called 4:3 Safe inside 16:9.
   
   
4. You can then create your title on the Main Title layer and line it up correctly inside Safe Action.
   
5. When you're finished, click the eye icon (with the line through it) to the left of the 4:3 Safe inside 16:9 layer and it will be hidden.
   
6. You can now save your title and it will appear in Avid with only the elements you want, not the Safe Area boxes.

I've locked the objects on the Safe title layer so you can't move (or remove) them by accident.  If you create your new title objects on the Safe title layer by accident, you can cut and paste them so they are on the Main Title layer.

There are other ways of doing this, of course, but I hope for the dedicated marquee users out there, this might prove to be a useful technique.

Disclaimer