[Neil Orman]

Much appreciated Roger, and thanks for the Youtube link too! I’m gonna try this today and will let you know how it goes.

[Neil Orman]

This is a big help Roger, because the kind of problem you correctly identified, with things like trees and signs ruining this effect during a panning move, is exactly what I’m running into. So when you did the cropping of the trees etc., did you do all that in Final Cut or something else like Photoshop? And if you did it in FCP, how did you accomplish the cropping? Because I’m still not sure how to crop with any Photosho-like precision in Final Cut, and shapes like trees and signs will take some finesse, like you said.

And thanks very much also Mark for mentioning the keyframeable point about the 4-point masking tool, as well as the others.

[Neil Orman]

Thanks so much for the great step-by-step suggestions, Mark! I’ve been trying to take your advice on using the 4-point garbage matte tool within FCP7. I know you mentioned the 4-point ‘mask’ tool, but I only saw the 4-pt garbage ‘matte,’ so just let me know if that’s not what you meant. It’s working pretty well in some, not so much in some particularly challenging clips, especially ones with more camera movement. I think I might try the Photoshop method for a few of these, as these clips are all a few seconds at most.
Thanks again.

[Neil Orman]

Let me try embedding the image again sorry:

[Neil Orman]

Much appreciated Mark, attached is a still of the problem, in the upper left corner (just let me know if you can’t see the image). So I need to approach this as a rotoscoping/wire-removal type job that steals good pixels from nearby and layers them over the object? That’s a big help. Just let me know if you have any quick tips or resources to recommend for how to do that. I have some After Effects experience but none in this area. Thanks again!

[Neil Orman]

Thanks for the quick response Mark, much appreciated. Is this the one you mean, or something similar to this:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/164922-REG/Sachtler_5395_Monopod_Carbon_Fiber_with.html
If so this is $810, and B&H also has monopods for about $50-$150. Do you or anyone else have any quick takes on what you lose going with a lower end model? I got a nice tripod recently and was trying to get a basic but decent monopod that didn’t break the bank.

[Neil Orman]

Much appreciated Paddy, Bill and Warren, for that great feedback on tripods. I know all this feedback was geared toward helping me make a budget purchase, but since posting this I’ve had lots of people on other forums urging me not to cut corners on my tripod purchase, saying that I needed to spend more than $500 and even north of $1000 for a really professional one. Specifically I got the feedback below, and another person chimed in raving about the Vinten Vision Blue head:

‘When I first started, I had a cheaper sub $500 tripod that was pretty decent, I think it was a LIbec. It worked fine and wasn’t too large either. However, I really started to feel its limitations after a few years, and upgraded to a nicer tripod that cost around $1,200 I believe. I pieced my own head and legs together using Gitzo carbon fiber legs and a Vinten Vision Blue head. It’s still pretty small, and I’ve been really impressed with the Vinten head considering it’s pretty cheap (relatively speaking). It’s a great fluid head for smaller cameras, in fact my camera rig is probably a bit too large for it and it still works great. There is a huge difference between the sub $500 category and above $1000 category. Once you go beyond $1000 you’re really only paying for tripods that are capable of holding more weight and still function well.’

I would like a tripod, for example, that allowed me to add plenty of rigging with the camera, and be stable for challenging uses like time lapse. So I just wanted to check and see if anyone agrees or disagrees with the feedback above, and if you do are there any specific tripod models. People talk about Manfrottos a lot when I mention I’m not looking to break the bank, but still want t a professional product, but I have no idea which Manfrotto of all the choices out there is best. Any thoughts on the Vinten Vision blue head? Do you have to buy a Vinten Vision tripod to get that, or is that just a component that comes with tripods from vendors like Sachtler and Manfrotto?

Thanks a lot!

[Neil Orman]

This info is hugely helpful, much appreciated Mark.

[Neil Orman]

Thanks Dave. That sounds like a great approach, in terms of him just creating the background. When you say ‘still,’ I’m assuming you mean he could give me a JPEG, PDF or whatever, or do you think some, like TIFF, are better? Just let me know if you or anyone else thinks the file type matters, and also how high-res or big the file needs to be. Then I guess I’d just lay the text on top of it. And I’d definitely be interested in that fancier text app you mentioned for Final Cut, because when I create text in Final Cut it usually doesn’t look this slick. So just let me know if you come across that info.
Much appreciated again,
Neil

[Neil Orman]

Thanks Shane! I was able to get there this time and everything worked great.
Thanks for the tip too, Warren. I’ll keep that software in mind in the future.