Help with levels
 

I work on an interview show that airs on the local public access cable channel. Lately we have been interviewing people using the phone. I tape the interviewer and the interviewee tapes themselves and ships me the tape. So far this has not worked out too well. The interviewees are not pros, or even good amateurs, and the video/audio is pretty bad. Case in point is the last one I did. The subject is shot against very bright windows and the foreground is dark. I have made a mask by burning out the windows and working on the foreground, but cannot seem to get a decent result brightening it up. I don't really care about the windows, since I can mask them out.

I have attached a screen grab and would appreciate it if someone would take a crack at fixing it up.

I forgot to mention that I am using Vegas 8.0b.

Regards,
Jerry

Jerry, see if this quick fix works for you.
Apply the Secondary Color Corrector FX to the clip.
Select the "Computer RGB to Studio RGB" preset to drop the whites to a legal level.
Change the Gamma to around 1.2 or so (experiment until you're happy with it) to get the blacks up a bit.