How does one remove hits / dropouts?

[David Roth weiss]

Howie,

Combustion is the desktop tool of choice for this job. Of course if you have unlimited funds, taking it to a facility with Flame would be the way to go.

How many dropouts are there, and over how much running time? I have Combustion and its quite possible that I can save the day for you, but I’d would need to see a sample typical of the problem. If you would like, send me a short QT file with a few seconds of video conatining a couple of dropouts, and I will be happy to send you a sample of what’s possible. You can email me at “drw” at “drwfilms.com” for further info.

Hope this helps,
DRW

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Post-production Supervisor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

[Howie Young]

David

The clip is 15 seconds long. The first dropout occurs at 1;14 and lasts until 1;16. The second dropout occurs at 2;22 and ends at 2;27, and the third dropout occurs at 5;21 and ends at 5;25.

The dropouts / hits appear as long thin horizontal green lines.

Howie

[David Roth weiss]

Hi Howie,

Huh!!! Not a typical dropout… Seems to last longer than normal. That can make things a bit more difficult, but I won’t know until see it.

Let me tell you briefly how dropouts are typically dealt with, and you will know from looking at the footage if there’s a good chance the normal technique will work…

The proceedure is essentially to take either the next, or the preceeding good field or frame, and layer the two in a composite. Then, using “reveal,” paint through the bad pixels on the top layer, revealing the good pixels below from a very similar portion the nearby frame. So, as long as the dropout is not messing up the face of your interviewee in a really bad way, and if the information obscured by the dropout is similar to nearby frames, there is a good chance the problem can be fixed. In a sitdown interview where movement is limited, things tend to be a bit easier…

Let me know if you’d like to discuss it further…

DRW

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Post-production Supervisor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

[Howie Young]

David

The dropouts go right through my interviewees forehead.

Howie

[Bob Vick]

Add a blur or mosaic over the face and say he/she wanted their identity withheld. lol

sorry

If it is thin enough then do what is done with the clone tool in PS and add the same clip to the layer above. Grab some good pixels from above or below the thin line and place it ove the line. maybe you can hide enough of the line so that the viewer will never realize the issue.

b

Bob Vick sr promo guy @ ch3 wwmt tv, kalamazoo, mi

[Vince Sanchez]

I’m not sure how this would work for you problem, but I use DH drop out, a plugin by Digital Heaven. Its been a miracle worker around here. I just did a project that had a lot of drop out and they fixed perfectly.
Because of the way the program works, it takes fields before or after the drop out, it might not work with you problem unless the hit was on different fields. Its got a lot of useful settings so you might give it a try. The price is right $10.

Thanks,
Vince Sanchez
G5 DP2.0ghz 2.5gig ram
AJA IO
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3X250gb SATA Hitachi HD 8meg cache stripped in array
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OWC firewire card

[Jerry Hofmann]

Be sure too that the playback machine is clean.. sometimes those dropouts are simply caused in playback and aren’t really on the tape…

Jerry

Apple Certified Trainer

Author: “Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4” Click here

Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D

[Howie Young]

Bob

Thanks for the response. What version of FCP has the clone tool? I’m working with FCP v 2.

Howie

[Howie Young]

Hi Vince

Thanks for the suggestion. Will this work with FCP v 2?

Howie

[Howie Young]

The dropouts are unfortunately on the tape.