Can portion of video be "blacked" out?

Debby

Newbie Location: Texas, USA Joined: Apr 10, 2009 08:46 Messages: 8 Offline

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Apr 10, 2009 09:24

I was wondering if a portion of my video could be "blacked" out but still have the sound on? I am doing a wedding video and during a speech by the best man, right before the couple comes down the isle, I had to walk backwards to the door to get a front shot of the bride and groom. As you can imagine there was considerable camera movement. I thought it would be best to kind of fade out the video or freeze it at that point but still hear the best man. Is this possible or am I dreaming?

JL_JL

Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline

Apr 10, 2009 09:30

Deborah

Many ways to mask that, try this

1) put a black colorboard in the PIP track over the time duration that you want to "black" out
2) stretch to whole screen

The colorboard could also be a pic or a screenshot. You can also control a few properties of the pic in the PIP track by double clicking it.

Would that work for you?

Jeff

Debby

Newbie Location: Texas, USA Joined: Apr 10, 2009 08:46 Messages: 8 Offline

Apr 10, 2009 09:37

That is an awesome idea! How come I didn't think of that?? Thank you so much, I know just the right shot to use there too.

James W

Senior Contributor Location: Lakeland, FL USA Joined: Aug 18, 2008 10:36 Messages: 911 Offline

Apr 12, 2009 09:12

Hi Debby,

Can you post your overall experience using PD for your wedding video when you finish? I'll be doing a wedding video this summer and I am interested how the editing process went. Any tips and suggestions would be very helpful.

Jim

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Apr 12. 2009 09:13

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babindia

Senior Contributor Location: India Joined: Aug 16, 2007 06:11 Messages: 884 Offline

Apr 12, 2009 09:39

James
My 2 cents
1) Zoom in only when you want to catch candid expressions
2) Pan gently, dwell on an interestiong subject for about 2 secs and move on.
3) Use a tripod if possible
4) Get the lighting even
5) Use fades and straight cuts while editing. It looks more natural.
6) Keep the title of the video simple. People are more interested to see themselves on the video

7) Use voice overs if absolutely nessacery.Everyone knows what they are watching so need of explanation.

Keep the finished video not more than 45 min to an hour. People get impatient after that.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Apr 12. 2009 09:40

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Debby

Newbie Location: Texas, USA Joined: Apr 10, 2009 08:46 Messages: 8 Offline

Apr 12, 2009 19:40

James,

I may be the wrong person to do this for you as I'm new to it myself. I really didn't do a lot of editing as they wanted the entire wedding on tape.

Babdi posted a lot of really good advice above and pretty much did a lot of those things but I think you are really asking about my experience producing the DVD itself. Right?

I did want to use fading out in a couple of places but since that would have also meant losing the sound I didn't. I did however make several chapters. One chapter was of course the wedding. The next chapter was the Reception and the bride and groom driving off "into the sunset!" The last chapter was a slide show of all the pictures I took with my digital camera.

The overall process with PD was really pretty good except there were things I wanted to do but couldn't figure out how, like fading the video but keeping the sound. The advice I got above for doing that came too late for the video I already sent the bride and groom so they didn't get that. I will remake it with that feature though because even though they said the camera shake wasn't that bad I wasn't happy with it. They really seemed to like it though and expressed their delight with it so I guess it didn't turn out too bad...

Hope this helps you and good luck!

Debby

James W

Senior Contributor Location: Lakeland, FL USA Joined: Aug 18, 2008 10:36 Messages: 911 Offline

Apr 13, 2009 08:49

Thanks Debby and Babdi for your comments.

The biggest problem may be that I'm the groom so I have to educate my camera people in advance so that they don't go crazy with the zooms and such. I think I'll tell them to find a good zoom and keep it there. I plan on having three cameras: side, front, and balcony (may not be manned). Q9300 2.5 GHz
4 GB Ram
Nvidia 9800 GT

Debby

Newbie Location: Texas, USA Joined: Apr 10, 2009 08:46 Messages: 8 Offline

Apr 13, 2009 09:01

That is good that you'll have three cameras. I was the only one so it was hard for me. I found a great place to film from during rehersal, behind and to the right of the pastor. I was able to use the tri-pod, got good shots of the bride and groom, maids of honor and best men and even the pastor.

The only problem was when one of the brides maids (the brides sister) sang a song. She was facing the crowd so even after moving around to the side I wasn't able to get as good a shot of her as I wanted. And then of course getting to the front doors to film the bride and groom as they were "pronounced" and coming down the isle.

This church had a balcony and I could have filmed from there but I really didn't want to be limited to back shots. I think the bride and groom really liked that I got them from the front.

It was good experience for me and gave me plenty of ideas for any future filming I may do. This was family and they pretty much told me I could anything I wanted so I wasn't under pressure. That helped a lot!

Good luck and congrats on the upcoming marriage! I hope God blesses you with a wonderful married life!

Debby