Zoom H4 in the shot

Elmer_Lang

Elmer_Lang

Well-known member
Hi
In one interview, my little Zoom H4 audio recorder appears in the shot down in the corner of the main shot, and more plainly in the b-roll shot. I like cutting to the b-roll a couple times because the guy (an artist) insisted on sitting in the corner up against the wall and the b-roll being a wider shot there's some interesting artwork on the walls and gives a better sense of space and place.

I could use the main shot and easily fuzz out the H4 but then I couldn't use the b-roll. Or maybe I could fuzz the main shot and not the b-roll. Or I could just let it stay as is in both shots. It's not a big deal to me but I can see purists at festivals and what not dissing it.

Your thoughts...
elmer
 
Use after effects to key out the Zoom.
Do a simple search on youtube for tutorials about keying items out in AE.
 
Or, if you're oversampling (delivering at a lower resolution than your source material) then you could zoom it in a little to avoid it? Perhaps you could clone it out in AE, depending on the background, by duplicating the footage, offsetting it and then masking around the H4 with a soft edge.

The best idea, of course, is to be careful while shooting and check to see if anything is in the frame that you don't want to show, 10 seconds on set could save hours in post. The last spot I produced, I left my car in the background of the shot. It was motivated but I wish I'd have moved it so that I didn't have to obscure my license plate.
 
what I would do, is take a frame, send it to photoshop and paint that part, and then to after effect I would track it, if there was any movement in the shot, and would mask any objects or figures that pass in front of it
 
Yes, if your footage resolution is higher than the resolution you need for output, then zooming in is the easy option. Some people deliberately shoot in high resolution just for the framing/panning/zooming freedom it gives in post.

Or presuming both shots are locked off, it should be fairly easy to either blur the H4 or create an inconspicuous fake object to place 'on top' of the H4 screen position, in either case so that the viewer ignores it.
 
I was editing a scene once that took place in someone's back yard. Unfortunately, the boom and boom operator could be VERY clearly seen in the left side of the frame, reflected in the large plate glass window.

The scene was shot in SD, so cropping it out really wasn't an option.

What I did was I went into my own back yard and shot footage -- a closeup of a bush in direct sun, against a virtually black background. I framed the bush to cover the left side of the frame, top to bottom. Then I was able to layer the clips together in a way that made it appear the bush was in the yard, blocking the window and its reflection.

Maybe you can do something similar.
 
Here's the original, and my first venture. I can see the edge of things, but couldn't see how to feather.

Who knows, maybe the original isn't that big a bother. On another forum someone said it's environmental, i.e. not a problem.

Original

Julius 2.jpg

First venture

Julius Gauss Master.jpg
 
What you've done looks fine - presuming the interviewee doesn't occasionally wave his hands over the faked area :)

But given it's such a wide shot, zooming in would be my first choice - presuming you have 'spare' resolution in your footage, of course, which will depend on your output requirements.
 
I'll assume you've got a pretty good handle on how to resolve this, so for the sake of bettering yourself (and the rest of us) in future shoots...


how the hell did that get in the shot in the first place? I was thinking, like, you caught the edge of it on a messy desk and didn't realize what it was in hectic, time-crunched shooting but... it sounds like you (and again, let's make it a discussion for the benefit of everyone) need to rethink your shooting strategies if you're not even aware enough of your frame for such a blatant production item in shot. Someone purposefully set it there without any regard for the shot, it's not like someone accidentally left some gaff tape in the background...

So let's talk about it. How did this happen? Was someone not checking frame at all? Were you assuming you'd crop in significantly? Did production departments cross wires and a young camera op didn't realize they were allowed to speak up? It just so easily could have been moved elsewhere, to the floor, to the guy's seat, or punch in on the frame, or covered or...
 
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