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Activity Forums Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy FCP 7 – isolate/darken tv screen in frame?

  • FCP 7 – isolate/darken tv screen in frame?

    Posted by Brad Dececco on December 3, 2012 at 11:28 pm

    So I shot a VERY low budg job of a speaker talking in front of 2 tv monitors. Of course the client wants them darkened down because they are “distracting” (even tho at the time they said: “Don’t worry about it.”) I’m good at basic FCP but haven’t done a lot of advanced stuff and I def cannot afford to send this out. the camera changes angles about 10 times so I will need a bunch of different mattes I assume. SOmeone suggested a Garbage filter, but wouldn’t I have to duplicate the clip to do that? That seems like extra work. IS there a way to mask and darken down the two tv screens in frame that is easier and quick? Any advice greatly appreciated.

    Jeff Meyer replied 13 years, 5 months ago 3 Members · 5 Replies
  • 5 Replies
  • Jeff Meyer

    December 4, 2012 at 1:40 am

    You might be able to use the Limit Effect area of the 3-way Color Corrector to accomplish this task. Limit based on the top of the Luma range, then bring the right-most highlight area down. Also consider adding a yellow shift on the right-most circle of the 3-way color corrector. Monitors tend to have a blue shift.

    Do be careful using this method. It will tame highlights on your subject – possibly unnaturally – and doing the color shift could bring some unwanted results. When in doubt I would focus on making the person look better instead of the monitor.

    For the future, this is the kind of thing that adding more/better lighting for the subject, or putting a sheet of ND (under $20) on the front of the monitor would take care of in the future.

  • Nick Meyers

    December 4, 2012 at 7:29 am

    possibly it will need a combination of what Jeff suggests, PLUS a garbage matte to keep the trims off the subject.
    yes, that will require a second track.

    COLORISTA was (is?) a 3-way cc tool similar to the FCP one that had build in window creation.

    as Jeff points out it would have been simpler to fix on set.
    i hope you are charing for this.

    nick

  • Brad Dececco

    December 4, 2012 at 11:11 pm

    Ha, I KNOW! It was os low-budget, they specifically said, just bring your camera, no lights, etc. Because they couldn’t afford me. So I just took the subway with my camera, and OF COURSE< I was like “This is the one time I need my lights!” AND I showed them on the monitors, we tried to mess with the house lights, and they said “IT’s fine, we don’t care, don’t worry about it. CLIENTS – AURGH>

  • Brad Dececco

    December 4, 2012 at 11:12 pm

    yeah, I got a tiny bit more, but not what it should be considering they told me they didn’t care ON SET. Same old story right? Sigh.

  • Jeff Meyer

    December 5, 2012 at 1:23 am

    If you’re shooting for free, make sure you leave with something you’re happy to put your name on. If you don’t you’ve given away a mediocre product with your name on it, and you have nothing you want to show for it.

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