How do I remove an item from a piece of zooming footage?

[Gruniongal]

Thank you for responding to my post. It is impossible for me to re-shoot the footage, as the subject of the interview is Cinematographer Conrad L. Hall, who passed away in 2003. The issue is that there is a lamp next to him that takes over the frame. The first 5 seconds of this 12-second clip (NTSC DV) begins with a zoom in on Connie. What are my options as to how to deal with this issue? Is redoing it frame-by-frame the sole option, or is it possible to cover the lamp with paint over a still frame, lay that part of the frame over the footage, and zoom out the paint at the same rate as the camera?

Thanks again for any advice.

Jen

[Jack Hilkewich]

Could you do some sort of thing where by you crop out the lamp and put some sort of identifier “Name, Title” in the space left and then moving the crop back out when the lamp is gone? Not sure if it fits in with the style but some sort of treatment like that could work.

You could also try taking a still frame of video at the spot where the lamp is finally out then take it into photoshop and add some filters/masking out a shape to it to give it a look then use that still over the audio portion of the lamp shot with some sort of super maybe with the DOB and DOD supered some where on the screen. then transition from the still to video on the right frame.

[Mike Clasby]

Your (gruniongal) solution sounds possible, or maybe similarily masking out the lamp revealing a layer underneath that matches the wall. It all depends on the shot and lighting asn such. Can you post a pic somewhere (Putfile?) , maybe 2 pics, 1 before zoom, one after or near end?