Automatically cut to the beat of music

Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

Automatically cut to the beat of music

Posted by Jim Burns on February 13, 2011 at 2:05 pm

Hi,

I’ve got some problem footage from a live concert. The camera stabilisation was switched off and as a result the image is blurred every time the drummer hits the bass drum. This is happening “in camera” rather than the entire camera being moved.

Stabilisation software can’t fix this – I’ve tried Mocha Pro and a few other packages (FCP plugins and iStabilize). I’ve consulted with a couple of software vendors – their products can’t help. It looks like the sensor has vibrated and the interlacing fields are flipped. Unfortunately even a deinterlacing filter doesn’t help and a field inversion plug in only helps with the occasional error. I can provide some sample footage if required, however, I need to do this privately.

So it looks like I need to cut out two or three frames on the timeline around these “blurs” and tween the frames to fill the gap. I’ve tried this and it looks pretty good. Dropping a transition onto the gap seems to help. It’s very time consuming though and I want to fix 90 minutes off footage which is part of a 6 camera multiple sequence.

The footage is HDV, Pal 50i.

I’ve noticed that in Apple Motion I can use audio events to do stuff to the image. Is there a way I can automate some part of this in FCP or another piece of software? I have a 24 track recording of the audio and the bass drum was miked separately so I could sync to this if necessary.

Is this do-able or will I need to do this by hand? Are there any other tools that I can leverage to achieve the same end?

Thanks for your responses.

:-J

Jim Burns replied 15 years, 3 months ago 3 Members · 6 Replies
6 Replies

Jeff Greenberg
February 13, 2011 at 2:23 pm

Well, I have one of two ideas. First, look at XMLEdit. You might be able to build an action with it – no don’t ask me how; contact them.

Second, you could use Quickkeys to build a macro; something like:
Left arrow 15 frames, Match frame, Make freeze frames, mark 3 frames on timeline, overwrite.

That would work, but you’d have to figure out how many frames the beat is; and also you’d have to deal with the times where it shifts one frame earlier or less.

Good Luck!

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer
Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC
Avid & Color Videos Vasst.com
Compressor Essentials Lynda.com
Jim Burns
February 13, 2011 at 3:19 pm

Hi Jeff

Thanks very much for responding. Very kind of you.

I have already built a keyboard action mapping ctrl+0 to ctrl+v, left arrow, etc etc. I should look into how this might be enhanced to include your actions.

XMLEdit looks very interesting. I’ll drop them a note. Maybe I can use something to generate an EDL and incorporate it into the FCP project file. Nice thinking Jeff 🙂

All the best,

:-J
Jonathan Ziegler
February 14, 2011 at 4:43 pm

Funny, I was thinking it might make for a nice, stylish take that goes with the music. Then again, I don’t know what you are looking at, either.

Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293
Jim Burns
February 14, 2011 at 10:15 pm

Hi Jonathan.

I managed to get a short clip online.

I’d appreciate it if you had any ideas.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1166471/Shaky.mov

Thanks!

:-J
Jonathan Ziegler
February 15, 2011 at 6:02 pm

Sorry it took so long to get back. I just saw the footage and I see what you mean. Is this the only footage that does this? Also, do you have any other footage or camera angles (like other stage views or people dancing) to cut to? I like to cut a LOT so I always try to capture something to cut TO/FROM. If not, consider getting some people together to just dance and groove so you have something to edit (don’t forget to get releases).

Here’s my thinking on the vibrating footage: the average person may not notice it. I know that’s a gamble, but there are sooooo many things we notice while editing that the average person never even sees. It’s not an excuse for bad footage, but I was thinking of a grindcore band with double-bass hits vibrating the camera. I was thinking of the old film projector look in movies like Fight Club as a way to hide the vibrations (minus the penis shot…). Put in graphics in time to the music (or the vibrations). Things like that. They help hide bad footage and can add some real style to the video that the musicians generally love. Music videos are always fun because you can take many, many liberties with the visuals – things that won’t work in a narrative, but will in music. Let us know what you wind up doing.

Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293
Jim Burns
February 15, 2011 at 6:17 pm

Thanks Jonathan 🙂

This is one camera from a 6 camera shoot so I have plenty of footage to cut to, however, this is the longer shot and if there was a way of fixing it i’d rather do that.

I completely understand what you mean about the average person not noticing it. Most of the average people I’ve showed it to don’t! But when it’s being projected on that big screen I will be squirming in my seat wishing I’d cloned myself that night and had sorted the camera out for myself.

I can certainly hide some of it but I was hoping there would be a systematic fix I could apply.

Thanks again for your help. I appreciate it very much 🙂

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