Can this footage be saved?

[Zane Barker]

[Lisha Rigney] “But there are dropouts (I’m thinking Nattress filters to correct that)”

Filters cannot fix drop outs.
Are the dropouts on the tape or just on the captured footage.

And please teach whoever shot the footage how to white balance.

Don’t let technology get in the way of your creativity!

[Michael Gissing]

The color correction is not a big deal. Without seeing the other camera angle, I don’t see an issue with matching.

The drop-outs can be fixed either manually or via a plugin. CHV make a drop-out fixer which I have used. As the shot is locked on a tripod it is an easy fix. (Digital Heaven also have a dropout plugin).

To fix manually put a copy of the clip on the layer above (with the same grade of course). Crop the image to the area where the drop out occurs and put the frame before or after over the drop-out. You only leave one frame of the copied clip to cover the drop-out.

[Russell Lasson]

Using AE you can fix the noise by painting/cloning it out, though I don’t know if that feature is in AE 5.5. Even if it isn’t you could just take samples of the wall use a mask to replace the noise.

But if you have an hour of this lady doing yoga and noise all the way through it, that will be a major pain!

-Russ

Russell Lasson
Kaleidoscope Pictures
Provo, UT

[Rennie Klymyk]

Is that even the original camera tape? It looks like decompressed dvd video converted back to dv.

“everything is broken” ……1st. coined by Esther Philips I believe.

[Lisha Rigney]

Exactly! That’s how the footage came off of that particular camera. The other camera looks fine, aside from the color, which I will color correct.

There is a QuickTime Sharpen filter in FCP. I tried using that today to sharpen the picture and it helps a little. I’m still concerned about the “noise” by the arm, on her hair and around her head.

The noise is not constant, but during a couple of the exercises it is throughout the entire exercise. Then some of the exercises there is no distortion on the video at all.

I’m leaning towards telling my dear friend that she will have to cut her yoga video down drastically. I can’t imagine fixing all of this footage in AE. 🙂

Thanks for looking at this everyone! Still interested in any other suggestions. I guess I’m looking for the rabbit to come jumping out of the hat! LOL!

Lisha

[Michael Gissing]

CHV also have a noise reduction plugin which is OK but not as good (or fast) as hardware denoisers.

For sharpening I found the FCP sharpener noising and horrible looking. Lyric make a sharpen mask that is much better.

You could go crazy and buy heaps of plugins.

[Dean Sensui]

Your lights are mismatched. Some shadows are green and some are magenta. They should all be the same. There could also be something wrong with the imaging chip. I’ve seen that happen with at least two XL1’s before. In one particular camera the lower left and right corners of the video it shot were cyan on one side and magenta on the other.

Making certain the shot is properly focused is an absolute essential in a commercial product. Imagine what the viewer’s reaction would be when they find out they paid for something that was poorly produced. It can permanently harm the instructor’s reputation.

A more dramatic lighting setup would also help. That light colored wall is distracting. Flag your lights to knock them down a bit.

You’re getting some sort of chromatic aberration, and that’s a camera problem. Could be the lens or something else in the optical chain. That camera might have to go in for some serious maintenance.
The dropouts could be a tape problem. Either the heads need to be cleaned or the transport system has dust floating around in it.

Hope you will be able to sort all this out. Good luck…!

Dean Sensui — Imagination Media Hawaii

[Nathan Shuppert]

re: the dropouts–are you digitizing straight from the camera? or are you using a deck? whichever the case, try the opposite. I’ve seen dropouts magically disappear when switching what you’re digitizing from. crazy, yes. but sometimes it works.

[Lisha Rigney]

Thanks Nathan. I’ve tried capturing from my DSR-11 deck, the camera AND I had a post house make copies of the original tapes using the camera for playback. Footage still has dropouts. 🙁 The tapes from the post house have the least drop outs and noise.

[Rennie Klymyk]

[Dean Sensui] “A more dramatic lighting setup would also help. That light colored wall is distracting. Flag your lights to knock them down a bit.
“

I wasn’t going to go there given the condition of the instructor. The main thing that keeps coming back to me is the lighting. The back wall is the brightest thing and the subject should be. The talent should have the main light striking her face more from the front. There is more light illuminating her from the sides and back than the front. I would make the talent 1-2 stops brighter than the background to create some depth and isolate the subject. Then have the camera people address the camera problem, follow Zane’s recommendation about white balance and re-shoot if that is possible. This is one of those situations where a re-shoot is feasible because there aren’t a lot of people involved. You could do a lot of work in post and still never achieve decent results.

“everything is broken” ……1st. coined by Esther Philips I believe.