[Mark Suszko]

In Final Cut you can turn on a time code overlay, it is in preferences I think. You can also set a user preference to “burn-in” a time code window in the master output, for copies. DigitalHEaven makes a plug-in called “Big Time” that lets you make a big floating time code window as well.

If you are trying to get the same display going in Final Cut that is exactly the same as seen by a user of the camera’s viewfinder, I think you’ll have to set the import up as an uncontrolled composite video source thru a video card like the IO or Kona, or an outboard box like the ADVC 100 from Canopus then DV in from there, and then use user menus in the camera to turn on the display overlay and feed your FCP system and attached interface/converter a composite video output from the camcorder, not a DV firewire signal.

(Edit) To make that clearer, it’s 1: camcorder you shot this on, attach the composite video cable that lets you play right from camera onto a TV. 2: Use the camcorder menu controls to turn on the on-screen display, called an overlay. 3: Plug that composite video into the video input card or box that your computer uses, and if you don’t have one of those boxes, 4: you’ll need an analog to DV converter box, like those made by Canopus and others. 5: That box then connects to your FCP editing system via the firewire cable. However, you will not have computer control of the camcorder for digitizing, you’ll set up the digitizing window in FCP for “uncontrolled device”, hit “capture now” and roll the camera playback controls manually.

Maybe you can get the actual data off the camcorder thru the firewire connection, but if not, try the analog method outlined above. You’ll have to run the camcorder playback functions manually, is my guess. But there will be no question that the time display is original and not altered if you grab it that way.

Best of luck, let us know how you made out.

[Mark Suszko]

If the machine running the app is a mac, use Snapz Pro from Ambrosia. On a PC, Techsmith’s Camtesia is the popular choice. These are screen-recording software and work really well. If the computer is using an LCD screen, yes, you can capture off the screen using a camera. For shooting off a CRT display, you would need your camera to have what Sony calls “clear scan”, an adjustable shutter that can be synchronized to the monitor’s refresh rate. Otherwise you get a bar drifting down the screen over and over.

One other means to get this is to hook a scan converter to the VGA output between computer and display, or the VGA out of a laptop. The scan converter sends an NTSC compliant and recordable video signal to a VCR or what have you. Audio captured separately.

Each method has strengths and weaknesses, useage depensd on your budget and program goals.

[Mark Suszko]

You can’t email Mark, he is not a real person, but actually a quasi-fictional composite of several people, Like Mario Oratzio.

(grin)

Sit tight, there are others on this forum that do this kind of shot for a living, they know how to do it much better than I.

[Mark Suszko]

Here’s how I would do it on my super-low budgets:

Shoot each room by itself in HD, as big and high-rez as possible. The camera for each room is static and positioned close to the “wall” in relatively wide shots, wider in fact than the final desired result. The final comp will be SD 3×4, maybe letterboxed, maybe not, as needed. This lets me zoom in and warp the frames and get away with it pretty much.

Using just the FCP timeline keyframing controls or Apple Motion, apply the same pan move to each with the same speed, so they pass thru the screen visual center as a pair.

Photoshop the “inside” wall bit with as much or as little detail as needed and save with alpha channel. This may also contain the left and right actual walls, grabbed from a sample frame of the HD video, with the left and right edges blended in opacity.

Stack this above the previous tracks, position it, and give it the same speed as the rooms. It wipes across and hides the seam.

[Mark Suszko]

“The trick to this is that at a point in time, both rooms must be in view with the wall between them. An example of this can be found in the beginning of V for Vendetta, where V and Evey are getting dressed.”

In Hitchcock’s day, shooting that on a practical stage with the actual half-wall was about the only way, advanced opticals couldn’t track well enough in the printer. And Coppola I think actually did it the old fashioned way on purpose in “Tucker”, to get an authentic period look in his film.

But today, you have options, and most of those “thru-the-wall” shots are done digitally in a compositor now, using footage shot on motion-controlled cameras, where the speeds of the pans and their positions on the screen are all keyframeable. The wall in between is a digital matte painting and warping/mesh tools ease the transitions and matching of perspective between the rooms. There actually does not *need* to be any wall in between, it is as easy now for talented folks to comp in the wall to cover the transition.

[Mark Suszko]

Editing:-)

[Mark Suszko]

The easiest way for this is not very realistic. Put your replacement mouth footage on a track above the original, make a soft edged wipe, use motion keyframing to maintain position. This give you an effect on par with the running gag they do on the Conan O’Brien show. Quick and dirty.

For something more like the talking baby on e-trade commercials, you need heavy-duty compositing and the use of a morphing tool. As a beginner, this is above your level and should be farmed out to an expert.

[Mark Suszko]

The cow’s bad-words filter held my last post response in a case of mistaken identity. I’ll repeat part of it:

I think they used the bright spot from the light as their point to motion-track, then used a plug-in from trapcode like 3-d stroke to draw the trails automatically from the tracking data, add in some expressions for decay rates and some wiggler, and you’re done. But just a guess, as I’m not a AE guy. Besides 3-d stroke, I have atheory that you could also use particles in particleillusion to do this from the same tracking data.

Did you notice the parts where they were writing names in the air, you never saw them draw anything but the last one or two letters? I’m guessing because the people using the flashlights could not see what they were drawing and following their actual paths for a whole name would yield ugly looking stuff.

Nice direction with the little visual joke at the end, where the guy runs out of light. Cute.

[Mark Suszko]

Dunno, not an AE guy. But it’s cute. The light makes a bright, easy spot to motion track. I’m guessing you just motion track the bright spot and use a plug-in like one of Trapcode’s to draw out the line and give it a glow and a decay rate. I think it might also be possible to be done with a particle system like particleillusion, once you have the tracking data. Did you notice nowhere in that piece did anybody write their whole name out in the air, on-camera just the last 2 or 3 letters? I’m guessing the reason is it would look too irregular. I’m guessing, because I’m not an AE specialist.

I particularly liked the little joke where the kid runs out of light and gets another flashlight at the end.

[Mark Suszko]

That’s when you look for another job, or at least do some moer advanced stuff at home on the side or on weekends, to keep sharpening the saw.