Can I edit LIVE while projecting footage?

Old&Green

Old&Green

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(Admin: Not sure this is the best place to post this question, but didn't know where else it would fit. Please feel free to relocate. Sorry & Thanks!)

I'm working on a play that requires live projection of video footage. The conceit is the characters onstage are watching a movie. The problem is, the 'movie' has to end at exactly the right place in the script and being live theatre, the timing of this scene isn't always exact so using a perfectly timed video doesn't work. I'm thinking I'll need to make a live edit -- that is I'll need to have two clips and cut to the second ("The End" titles) at just the right time.

The 'movie' won't suffer from putting 'The End' titles in anywhere. There's no audio and the footage is mostly shot after shot of guys fishing. So the movie can end after any shot. That's not an issue.

I'm cutting the footage on FCP, but I won't have FCP on the laptop that I'll be using during the play. (I don't even know if that would be useful -- if it is, I *might* be able to get FCP on the laptop.)

The laptop is of course hooked up to a projector. During rehearsal, we've just played/projected Quicktime clips. I use Mac (Quad Pro Quad-Core to cut and an old Powerbook G4 to use during the play. Both run Leopard.)

So... is there any way to do this? I figure if anyone knew, it'd be you guys.

Ideally, I would be able to fade a shot to black on the fly, and then cut to "The End" titles.

Any programs out there that could help me accomplish this? (Especially free or cheap programs). Or is there some other, simpler way to do this that I'm overlooking?

Speak, wise hive-mind.
Let me know if you need more information, and please forgive my ultra-green greenness. & a million thanks.

(fwiw, I've tried to get the director to pace the scene, and make the actors wait for certain shots in the 'movie' to say their lines, so it would time out perfectly, but he doesn't seem interested in that simple and I think brilliant method.)
 
lets see,

you want one clip to end at any point you want then see credits roll?

what happens if you use any video player with two videos on a playlist, if you press play once the video plays till it ends the the credit rolls, if after you pressed play at any point you pressed next the credits will roll.

is that it?
 
Amr Rahmy said:
lets see,

what happens if you use any video player with two videos on a playlist, if you press play once the video plays till it ends the the credit rolls, if after you pressed play at any point you pressed next the credits will roll.

is that it?
Click to expand...

Yeah, that would probably be the cheapest and easiest way to do it. You'd just have to make sure whatever video player you're using doesn't have any overlays on (like track title, time, play, stop, etc.). So that way it'll look like one seamless clip.

Obviously a more expensive route would be some kind of live mixing hardware. I'm not sure what's available to do this software wise.

And while it is live theater and timing isn't always precise, you can edit it in a way that certain cuts or clips would give the actors clues as to where their timing should be. That way they could adjust accordingly.

EDIT: Or what Noah said. That would give you the most control.
 
Thank you, Noah! Exactly what I needed. I had no idea such a thing existed. Trying to figure out AVmixer pro even now...

(And yeah, handsome pete is right: the overlays prevent the other method from working for me, but thanks for the suggestion, Amr.)

I really appreciate your quick responses -- thanks to you all.
 
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