Creative Way To Save Shot?

jrazz wrote on 4/27/2008, 6:02 PM
Background:Okay, I was filming first communion for the local Catholic church. They called me Friday and I was to film Saturday (one lady thought another was to contact me, and the other lady thought the other lady already did it). I show up early and talk with the priest about what is okay and what is not and where I can set up and to get a feel for what was to be captured.

All was going well and the priest even stood where he and his counterpart were going to stand so I could get the focus and lighting and scene set for the unmanned camera. It was positioned on one side while the manned camera was on the other as there was to be two lines of children.

Problem: I was told there would be two priests giving communion when in fact two laypersons came up front to help. So, the unmanned camera gets the rear end of the lady and to the very right hand side of my screen you can see the children's face, but that is it. Do any of you all have any creative suggestions for moving the footage over (effectively creating a black space on the right hand side of the screen due to shifting the video) and still making it look good? Maybe some sort of graphic on the right hand side? I am just looking for suggestions that can make this not-so-ideal situation turn out for the better.

Thanks,

j razz

Comments

richard-courtney wrote on 4/27/2008, 6:42 PM
Is there enough background that you could create a mask in a paint program?
(some paint programs such as paintshop pro have a "clone brush")
If you are lucky the background is a little out of focus.

Can you post a still of the original screen shot and one with shifted left?
We can we what you have to work with.

Hopefully you also have enough B Roll material you can do a cut to to
hide camera movement between events or the child moving right out of frame.
jrazz wrote on 4/27/2008, 7:41 PM
Here is the screenshot.



j razz
jrazz wrote on 4/27/2008, 7:43 PM
Basically, I need what is on the right side where the boy is and I am sure that most tv's will cut him off due to it not being completely in the safe area and that is really the only place you can see their faces on that side.

I set up the shot for the two priests (that is what I was told would be there) and the shot would have been right on for that.

Thanks.

j razz
richard-courtney wrote on 4/27/2008, 8:08 PM
The girl on the right would prevent you from what I was saying about cloning
the left half of the doorway and making a mirror for the right.

I almost say leave it as is, it may look like you are trying to hide something that
is not that much a mistake.

Is there a frame where the priest, woman on the right, and children are gone?
Might use a difference key.

Check back in morning I'll try something.
jrazz wrote on 4/27/2008, 8:24 PM
It is showing up on my browser (IE7). I can see it in the post.

j razz
jrazz wrote on 4/27/2008, 8:31 PM
Here is one without anyone blocking the view.



j razz
johnmeyer wrote on 4/27/2008, 8:37 PM
Depends on what you've managed to tape.

I assume the cameras were on tripods. Do you have much footage from the exact same angle before the priests and lay people came into frame? If so, put that on another track, create a mask so that track overlaps the people you want to remove, and then loop the video on the mask track as many times as needed.

This will get tricky as people move back and forth in the pews, but it might work.
Serena wrote on 4/27/2008, 9:28 PM
Looking at the frame the major problem is perspective of the woman (recognising that the shot as planned would have been good). I've played with reducing perspective distortion in Photoshop and that does improve the balance, but leaves some blank areas. Maybe these could be filled with flower arrangements. However while this could be acceptable in a still, some nasty things might happen with motion. My guess is that this can't be improved and I'd be trying to use this full shot when the woman straightens up (when the children may also be seen), and otherwise taking portions of the frame (asuming HD going out to DVD) intercut with your other footage. Good luck!
jrazz wrote on 4/27/2008, 9:29 PM
I think maybe I am not explaining correctly (or I am missing what you both are saying). The little boy taking communion is what I want to keep and it is almost outside of the safe area (part of him is). Almost all of the children are in that part of the camera shot (extreme right side). I want to ensure that the parents see their children on that side and move the actual footage over to the left enough to ensure that any tv will not cut off their child. If I do that, it will cause there to be a black border where the video used to be. What I was asking is if anybody has any creative ideas as to how to cover up the right portion of the screen with something that is not distracting and not a black space. If what you are suggesting will do that I am missing it. Sorry if I did not explain in a way that was clear.

j razz
jrazz wrote on 4/27/2008, 9:35 PM
John,

I do have the cam locked down and it doesn't move the entirety of the time it was on, so I do have a lot of footage before anyone ever stands in view of the camera.

I am thinking maybe some sort of split screen and fliipping the camera angles (left on right and right on left). That would allow for both sides to show exactly the parts I want and I don't have to worry about them getting cut off (the portions I want to keep). Plus, it is only about a 4 minute segment of the video that would need to be done this way while the remaining 30 minutes or so would be a normal edit.

Serena, it was filmed in HD and some of it will be output to DVD while some have requested BluRay. So, I have to keep it in widescreen and HD.

j razz
richard-courtney wrote on 4/27/2008, 9:53 PM
Since you have the camera locked down you have a chance to select the area
for a difference key.


of what I was trying to suggest using a paint program. There are two layers
in the psd file so adjust so you can see the before/after.

The statue was a perfect point to mirror.
PeterWright wrote on 4/27/2008, 10:30 PM
To get the children into the safe area, you could simply reduce the size of the video frame using Pan/Crop or Track Motion, then on a lower track put a gradient or other graphic. A soft border applied to the video track may make the blend acceptable

Sympathies for the unexpected "intrusion" into your frame - in size, perspective and clothing design! Next time I would "negotiate" (meaning insist) on being able to man/person the camera so you could re-frame as necessary.
Serena wrote on 4/27/2008, 11:24 PM
Ah! I think I didn't read very carefully. The safest way might be to just reduce the frame to fit within the safe area, put a copy of the original on a lower track and blur that. Maybe not a copy on the lower track, just another shot prior to communion. Yes it will be obvious, but (without seeing the result) I think acceptable and keeps the whole frame (there is stuff happening on the left also).

Very hard to anticipate this sort of thing and while it is nice to have an operator for the second camera that's often not in the budget.
johnmeyer wrote on 4/27/2008, 11:25 PM
Another possibility, although it may be perceived by the client as too "artsy," would be to take b-roll of various portions of the church, and then drop a vignette of just the boy into the b-roll.

I had three minutes while waiting for a short render to finish, so I did this very crude vignette to show what I mean. With a little more time, I would have cropped more closely. I just took some b-roll of the church from the last wedding I did, and then dropped the bride into that so it looks like she is the only one there.



rmack350 wrote on 4/27/2008, 11:25 PM
Maybe you took the screenshot or link to it down, I don't see it.

Here's an idea based on seeing nothing at all. Could the kids be included in a pip? I'm kind of thinking of a couple of Peter Greenaway films that had floating windows in the frame. That example is a bit artistic but NHK also does this a lot where they show a celebrity's reactions to the story in a pip.

But for goodness sake don't do it exactly like greenaway or you'll have angry parents with torches banging on your door at midnight.

Rob Mack
Jazzman54 wrote on 4/28/2008, 4:59 AM
My two pence worth... I would blurr the main video track slightly as a back ground so that the priests are still present and then use an oval border FX with possibly a white border to show the detail of the children and move it away from the RHS, possibly covering most of the 'offending' girl figure.
richard-courtney wrote on 4/28/2008, 5:41 AM
Rmack350:

It is a huge file wait a few minutes. This surprised me too.
jrazz wrote on 4/28/2008, 6:17 AM
Thank you all for the suggestions. I will play around with it and see what I can come up with. I am thinking about adding one of the velvet matter plugins to most of the footage just to add a subtle glow/misting to the footage.

Thanks again for all the great suggestions. Also, sorry for the size of the stills.

j razz
rmack350 wrote on 4/28/2008, 7:51 AM
No problem with the still size, I was just moving too fast.

Whew! There's not much to work with. I'm assuming this is a paid job. I suppose there's a slight risk of dealing with this in a way that's so brilliant and time consuming that they ask for the same effect again, for the same price.

Since this was an unmanned camera, it must be B roll, right? There must be better footage from the other camera? I think I'd still toy with making this shot a cropped pip of what you want. Some other examples I can think of might be "24" or maybe some shots in Spider Man. I only suggest this because I don't think trying to make that shot look like a good shot will work.

Rob
jrazz wrote on 4/28/2008, 9:13 AM
This was more of a favor than a paid shoot (although I do get all the money from DVD & BluRay sales). I have done work for them in the past and they have paid well and have brought more business my way. So, that is why I agreed to do this on less than 24 hours worth of notice.

As for the other cam, it is getting the other side and I was able to man it as it was further back than the unmanned, so I adjusted for the other person. (I was actually told that I only needed one cam- I am glad I brought two, but I wish I would have brought 3!). Needless to say, it was unorganized from a documenting standpoint.

Thanks again for the suggestions.

j razz