Video Editor Needed to Reformat 32 Portrait Phone Videos for Widescreen TV -- 2

I'm looking for an experienced video editor to improve 32 smartphone videos recorded during a surprise 75th-birthday celebration.

**The problem:**

Most videos were recorded vertically (portrait orientation). When played on a widescreen television, the actual footage appears in a narrow strip in the center, with large black areas on both sides.

I previously converted the recordings into 16:9 format, which corrected the orientation but didn't make the actual footage much larger.

**What I'm looking for:**

- Make the actual video footage wider and more enjoyable to watch on a large television.
- Keep people looking as natural as possible, without excessive stretching.
- Preserve important content, avoiding significant cropping of people's heads, bodies, or activities.
- Explore intelligent reframing, controlled horizontal scaling, or other professional techniques.
- Do not simply add blurred backgrounds on the sides. I want the actual footage to appear larger.
- Preserve the original audio and complete recordings.

I understand that portrait videos cannot completely fill a widescreen television without some cropping, stretching, or generated content. I'm looking for the best practical compromise.

**Project details:**

- 32 videos, approximately 32 minutes total.
- Original high-resolution smartphone recordings available.
- MP4 and some 3GP files.
- Deliver individually numbered MP4 files suitable for importing into DVDStyler.
- Final output should be 16:9 and compatible with DVD authoring.
- Preserve filenames and playback sequence where possible.

**Before editing the entire project:**

I would like a small paid test using one original video, showing your recommended solution. I will test it on a television before approving the remaining files.

Please include your fixed-price quote, estimated turnaround time, relevant experience, and an explanation of how you would approach this problem.