Problem For The Keyframe / Masking Pros

[Jason Robinson]

At a commercial shoot this week, I didn't notice a highly reflective glass picture frame which reflected off camera movement (namely my assistant holding the marker and occasionally moving). See attached screen shots to see what I'm talking about.

The assistant usually doesn't move, but some times it is pretty visible. All of this was not apparent though my GL2 viewfinder, or using the 7" DVD player / video monitor via the RCA outputs on the cam (I was probably too distracted with the other aspects of the shoot).

For the next shoots, I'll obviously have to remove pictures from walls, or find different angles. As it was, we were filming in a very tight operating room and there was little room to change camera angles (hence why sets only have 2-3 walls!)

I moved the camera a many times (we shot story sequential, instead of by angle / cam placement), so I might not have the exact same camera angle in other shots.

So does anyone have suggestions / veggies to help fix this? Possible fixes are:

-leave it alone and make the story / edit compelling enough that people don't notice
-slight key frame blur on the picture frame with the blur moving to compensate for actress head movements
-crop out the frame and replace with frame from different shot
-something else?

The "re-shoot" filter is not an option on this project. :-)

Thanks in advance!

[Don Bloom]

Use a cookie cutter and blur the edge of it, the apply a blur to the cookie cutter. Very slight. It puts it's out of focus enough that no one should notice it or the amount of reflection thats might be left. If you put the cookie cutter around the entire picture it might be too much so try to place it onlyover the reflection.
That MIGHT do it for you. (keeping fingers crossed)

[Jason Robinson]

Originally Posted by Don Bloom

Use a cookie cutter and blur the edge of it, the apply a blur to the cookie cutter. Very slight. It puts it's out of focus enough that no one should notice it or the amount of reflection thats might be left. If you put the cookie cutter around the entire picture it might be too much so try to place it onlyover the reflection.
That MIGHT do it for you. (keeping fingers crossed)

yeah that is what I told the client I might have to do. Not going to mess with that till I have rough cut assembled. might get two cuts: 1 with best acting / content and one with least BG movement but passable acting / content. :-/

is the BG noticable enough so that you think a fix / blur is a necessity? I dont' want these scenes looking like an episode of Cops.....

[Don Bloom]

I think the shot to the RIGHT is passable. It's very hard for me to see the reflection in the glass.

For the one on the LEFT I would use just a minimum amount of blur just to knock the reflection down a bit. If you go too much it will have the Cops look.

Just thought of this also. Depending on how long the shot is you COULD render that clip to an image sequence, bring the images into photoshop (or similar) and use the BLUR toolto blur the reflection slightly. Of course remember, 1 second equals 30 frames so it could be a lot, actually, a whole lot of extra work.

Let us know how it works out.

[Jason Robinson]

Originally Posted by Don Bloom

Just thought of this also. Depending on how long the shot is you COULD render that clip to an image sequence, bring the images into photoshop (or similar) and use the BLUR toolto blur the reflection slightly. Of course remember, 1 second equals 30 frames so it could be a lot, actually, a whole lot of extra work.

Let us know how it works out.

Yeah my photoshop-fu is weak (and I don't own the app) so my ability to do this is almost not there. I have Paint shop pro (which I am much more familiar with and could probably do the same thing) but I'm even more comfortable in Vegas than in PSP.

I'll post more later.

[Mike Calla]

Jason, was the camera static?

[Jason Robinson]

Originally Posted by Mike Calla

Jason, was the camera static?

For the most part, the camera was static (only a very few shots involved slight panning movements). But the camera was not locked down for all the takes / scenes shot from the same angle. This isn't a studio, so there was not precisely positioned tripod, with marks on the floor, etc. So between shots I moved it around (mainly to let people in to the room because the camera blocked the door).

[Mike Calla]

thats good,

a lot of movement would make masking much more difficult ...which is when I'd pop in to after effects to do a quick motion tracked blurred mask!

In addition to suggestions mentioned above, I'd try duplicating the track > add a positive mask to the picture frame slightly smaller than the picture frame > blend the edges slightly > add blur or maybe even the median plugin. That way if there is any movement you can just pan your key framed track instead of the key framing the actual mask.

i'm not at my workstation, so i can't test it but i'm a little worried about the crew members movement. even with a blur you'll still see movement...just blurry movement!

[Jason Robinson]

Originally Posted by Mike Calla

i'm not at my workstation, so i can't test it but i'm a little worried about the crew members movement. even with a blur you'll still see movement...just blurry movement!

right. I have opted for the "choose a different take" filter. :-)

the bonus is I did a cool tracking / glidecam opening shot that I'll use instead. Not sure about some of the later shots. will have to work with it once I get there.

I might also do some split screen / side by side stuff and see if that crops out the problem areas.