Event Pan/Crop question

craftech wrote on 1/13/2009, 10:35 AM

I don't use this to zoom very often, but I have to in this case. Dancer fell during shoot of a one day show. The director never dressed the dancers in their full costumes during any one single rehearsal despite my pleas. I am generally saved by rehearsal footage in case something happens. Now of course she wants me to fix it, by removing the dancer falling flat on the stage.

The thud was easy to remove using rehearsal footage audio. The Pan/Crop to zoom in on the frames for the fifteen seconds where she fell and got back up looks terrible due to the exaggeration of horizontal jagged interlacing lines across the moving dancers.

This is 4:3 DV footage shot with a VX2000. I searched, but didn't find a good solution to this problem. Maybe I missed something.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

John

Comments

TheHappyFriar wrote on 1/13/2009, 10:51 AM

not really a good solution, sorry. You could render progressive & then crop that, but it could very noticeable.

Ironically, this is one of the reasons I shoot HD. I did a movie for the local 48-hour film project & had a whole section I needed to crop out. The entry had to be SD so I lost nothing in the crop from 1440x1080.

craftech wrote on 1/13/2009, 11:47 AM

Thanks for the reply. I actually tried that, but it didn't help. With the motion of the dancers there is still bad horizontal banding. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to crop it around 50%, but when she fell, her legs went toward where I want to zoom instead of away forcing me to crop even more. I had to zoom in on two of the four dancers instead of three.

I may have to leave it.

Thanks,

John

johnmeyer wrote on 1/13/2009, 1:05 PM

Several ideas.

The most obvious, which I'm sure you've already thought about, is a cutaway. In the Nutcracker, I often have close-ups of the various background dancers doing pantomime, and I can cover almost anything (during Act 1) with that.

The second is a mask. If you have other footage of the stage shot in similar lighting, perhaps you could put that on a separate track, line it up, and then mask out the fallen dancer.

Another possibility is to repeat. Dance isn't quite as repetitive as music, but depending on the choreographer, certain parts of the dance repeat. Splice the repeated section to cover. Even if it doesn't repeat, you might be able to use another part of the dance. I realize this means that you are stepping on the choreographer's toes (because you are re-choreographing what was actually danced), but that's the breaks.

Yet another idea is to simply cut the section and then mend the music at the break point. Again, it is amazing to me how easily almost any music can be cut or looped without the result being obvious. All you have to do is match tempo. Do a blend at the cut.

farss wrote on 1/13/2009, 4:17 PM

johnmeyer wrote on 1/13/2009, 4:40 PM

What I've said at 1) is so vital to getting good results from Vegas it should be a sticky and the default should not be None, ever, never.Yet how many posts have we had in the past few months (including one started by me) where people set it to none? A lot!

srode wrote on 1/13/2009, 8:02 PM

The default for deinterlace method? The default is Blend, not None, right?

craftech wrote on 1/14/2009, 4:38 AM

Several ideas.

It was a ballet with four abreast at the point where she fell.

The second is a mask. If you have other footage of the stage shot in similar lighting, perhaps you could put that on a separate track, line it up, and then mask out the fallen dancer.

The dancer would disappear then reappear.

Another possibility is to repeat. Dance isn't quite as repetitive as music, but depending on the choreographer, certain parts of the dance repeat. Splice the repeated section to cover. Even if it doesn't repeat, you might be able to use another part of the dance. I realize this means that you are stepping on the choreographer's toes (because you are re-choreographing what was actually danced), but that's the breaks.

You are right about choreographers. It is rare to find one that doesn't see their work as a work of art that shouldn't be tampered with even when they copy the moves from someone else's choreography to claim as their own. The choreographer would not go along with any of those suggestions, especially this particular choreographer.

Thank you for the suggestions John. I really appreciate the help as always.

John

craftech wrote on 1/14/2009, 4:46 AM

If you are doing a pan/crop on interlaced footage two things:

1) Set a de-interlace method in the project properties. Blend will preserve as much resolution as possible although with very fast motion you might get more blur than you like. Try both methods to see which you prefer.

2) To state the obvious render at Best.

What I've said at 1) is so vital to getting good results from Vegas it should be a sticky and the default should not be None, ever, never.

Bob.
==========
Thanks as always Bob for your help.

The render settings default to Blend and I always use Best as well. The horizontal shearing (banding) when they move just won't go away even after playing with Mike Crash Smart De-interlace filter. The lines across the arms and legs make it look like they are composed of stacked sections like the white Michelin Tire character in the commercials. Hey are there if I look closely or project it on a large screen even at Normal View, but are greatly exaggerated when zoomed in for a crop.

I suppose I could use more Gaussian blur, but that may look just as bad.

UPDATE: I applied a Gaussian Blur of 0.002 both Horizontally and Vertically and it looks like an acceptable closeup that isn't very sharp. The choreographer will like it well enough and it only lasts for a few seconds.

Thanks again for the great suggestions.

Regards,

John