Vegas Settings To Improve This Video Clip?

ken c wrote on 6/15/2006, 11:45 AM

Hi - I shot an interview in a poorly-lit conference room during a seminar, and need to brighten/color up/sharpen the image ... any ideas on what sony plug-ins work best ?

Here's a raw screencap:

Interview Capture

here's a screencap with minor adjustments w/sony brightness (+.1) and contrast (+.21) settings on:

http://www.daytradinguniversity.com/interviewbc.jpg

neither is as good as I'd like... any suggestions? eg color corrector plug-in, or other tools?

thx,

ken

(btw what're the settings to url-encode those links again?)..

Comments

johnmeyer wrote on 6/15/2006, 11:51 AM

Color curves, Levels.

To create a link, you type this:

<a href="http://www.google.com">Google Main Page</a>

and that creates this:

Google Main Page

To open that link in a new window, you type this:

<a href="http://www.google.com/" target="_blank">Google Main Page</a>

to get this:

Google Main Page

How do I include HTML characters in my post so that they show up as chacters rather than generate HTML code?

You use the HTML ampersand (&) codes in place of the character itself. For instance, to get the

<

to appear, but not be interpreted as HTML, you type

&#60

If you type this, and then submit your post to the Sony forum, all you will get is the

<

character, and it will NOT be interpreted as HTML code. You then do this for every other special character in the HTML syntax.

Now, don't even think of asking me how I got &#60 to appear above instead of just the < character.

Here are many of the codes

 &#38 &

 &#34 "

 &#47 /   slash 

 &#48- &#57;  digits 0-9 

 &#58 :   colon 

 &#59 ;   semicolon 

 &#60 <   less-than sign 

 &#61 =   equals sign 

 &#62 >   greater-than sign 

 &#63 ?   question mark 

 &#64 @   at sign 

 &#65- &#90;  uppercase letters A-Z 

 &#91 [   left square bracket 

 &#92 \   backslash 

 &#93 ]   right square bracket 

 &#94 ^   caret 

 &#95 _   horizontal bar (underscore) 

 &#96 `   grave accent 

 &#97- &#122;  lowercase letters a-z 

 &#123 {   left curly brace 

 &#124 |   vertical bar 

 &#8226 bullet

ken c wrote on 6/15/2006, 12:10 PM

thanks, John - much appreciated as always.. will do re color curves/levels...

also, I'm trying to brainstorm ways to make the 20 minute interview more interesting, visually ... occasional pan/zoom shots, and/or lower thirds might help ... let me know, if anyone has any ideas, on how to make a single-cam 20-minute dual talking head interview more exciting, upbeat, dynamic?

I'm thinking of splitting the one long interview into 3-4 segments (it'll be broadcast on the internet) ... any other ideas?

ken

winrockpost wrote on 6/15/2006, 1:50 PM

Ken, the white balance seems off, you can try this, go into color corrector and change the high wheel to 316.3 angle and .437 mag, boost saturation to around 1.5 , gain to 1.102 and gamma 1.111, see if that helps.
Good luck

jaydeeee wrote on 6/15/2006, 2:07 PM

Wow.....

Excellent post/reply JohnMeyer!! An answer to the question, plus excellent HTML forum help.

That should be a sticky.

GlennChan wrote on 6/15/2006, 4:54 PM

I played around with it a little...
my results here (jpeg)
.veg file

2- Making interviews more interesting: Maybe add in b-roll of what they're talking about, or graphics illustrating what they're talking about???

If not, you can always add a 3-D cube spin ;)

ken c wrote on 6/15/2006, 5:28 PM

Hey Glenn, thanks - looks terrific ... agree great tips ... appreciate everyone's kind help ... I'm still learning all this stuff ... nice to see how Vegas can clean up signals so well!

ken

Grazie wrote on 6/15/2006, 10:03 PM

Ditto Glenn's comments.

PLUS:

* Tell people what you are going to do - in detail and why! I tell 'em that we will be doing 3 angles of each and every reply - yes! Apart from anything else this does get them relaxed and sometimes it gets them to the point of be eager enough to be WANTING to be responsive 'cos they want to get on WITH the rest of their day - yeah?

* One-man-band? OK, plan your shot so that back at the Edit you can pan, ever so slightly, the interview. This gives an almost subliminal urgency to your work and keeps the "motion" and story line moving along. It is a very, very subtle ploy/use but I'm now using this to great effect.

* Decide if you are going for the "Voice In the Sky" approach or the fireside chat interview. "VITS" are quite dramatic and require a slightly low shot of the interviewee and them looking at a point above and to one side of the camera. I dress on the left - normally!!

* Do do CUs of interviewee and also EXTRA-CU shots too. You may not use them BUT it could just bring in that drama and statement you want. Get some "nodding-donkey" of yourself and a fair amount of your interviewee listening - that is when you are asking the questions. You don;t have to do this for ALL the interview. Maybe TWICE or even only once is just enough.

* I love doing B-Roll. I just know that what they have said or are going to say with them speaking over the B-roll is just sooooo nice! I love it. Get them walking towards and away from camera. Have them looking out of a window and use shadows to implant drama in the viewer's mind. If the speaker is explaining an idea or concept, then a short 4 sec maybe, of them "looking" thoughtful can be the difference between "ordinary" and "special".

I adore doing interviews. They are full of opportunities and ways to make the speaker, who is often excited anyway, a very special part of the video. Too often I see and hear camera people speaking of interviews as being a PITA - they aint! OK, deadlines are one thing, and yes they are a PITA - but not the humans. It is the HUMANS that make the movie - well I think so anyway . ..

Grazie

farss wrote on 6/16/2006, 12:15 AM

If the shot is static then it'd be pretty easy to mask the table and bumpe the rest of it up a bit. Without masking out the table and paper you risk blowing it out.

I'm with Grazie on how to make it more interesting. Two cameras are kind of mandatory and you can leave one locked off on a wide shot while you drive the CU camera. Me thinks shooting in 16:9 would help but hey if it's only going ott as a low res stream you could mask it to 16:9 anyway. Watch out for noise, that can gobble up the bits, try Miks'e DNR filter, it works pretty well.

Bob.

rextilleon wrote on 6/16/2006, 6:32 AM

The background needs some light in order to seperate these guys and make it appear to look less flat. Only problem is the background is kind of bland to begin with.

ken c wrote on 6/16/2006, 6:44 AM

great points... hey Grazie, you're an artist! nice insights, thx for sharing those...

agree too re 2-cam shots would be much better to work with... the more experience I get w/vegas and videography, the more I realize the need for 2-3 cams, for more interesting editing in post and more engaging video...

will do re CU/pan in shots, those are fairly easy to edit in w/vegas, hopefully if I CU it won't lose too much resolution; though since this will just be compressed to a 480x360 streaming .flv for the internet, likely wouldn't make a difference, so thanks, will do...

interesting re masking out the table, I was thinking of that too, but not sure what design/graphic elements to put there, and/or the background ...

what I wanted to do, but didn't have cams w/me for, is two OTS shots, eg a cam over each speakers' shoulder, plus a wide cam.. that would be the best setup for an interview... that and choosing a more interesting-looking background area to do the interview in..

ken

PeterWright wrote on 6/16/2006, 6:50 AM

> "that and choosing a more interesting-looking background area to do the interview in.."

.. and remember Ken that if the interview is in itself interesting, all the shots/background stuff becomes far less important.

ken c wrote on 6/16/2006, 7:10 AM

true -- I'm very very interested in learning how to improve broadcast interviewing skills, and anything that a tv anchor would study, for example... but haven't found any commercial courses (other than voiceover) or books on amazon ...

I'm also looking for a TV anchor style microphone, eg the type that has the box around the top of the mic, for field reporting... all that would help... the courses/books on broadcasting/interviewing skills.. (and studying people like Larry King, Letterman, etc), and the hardware to 'sell the shot'..

anyone have any resources specifically for broadcast interview skills etc?
Ive got all the public speaking/vo books already..

ken

JJKizak wrote on 6/16/2006, 7:13 AM

You can also use the cookie cutter and blend in another scene of flowers or trees or buildings or oceans or something to change the dull background. Have to use a lot of blend though. Even blend in another picture on the wall of something.

JJK

ken c wrote on 6/16/2006, 8:03 AM

right - that's a good idea... since it's about stock trading, maybe I could blend in some footage of stock exchange floor, or charts moving in the background ...
haven't used cookie cutter except for simple ovals.. I'll take another look.. thx!

ken