Newb needs to zoom in on a piece of footage. Best option?

I got a gig editing a rebel horror/comedy and I'm putting together a making of/behind the scenes trailer right now. I am forced to zoom in on a clip of footage over an actresses shoulder to view the book in her lap (so her nekkid breast doesn't show in the trailer) but the footage obviously looks out-of-focus and full of artifacts after the zoom. How best to achieve the zoom and keep some quality?

Up-convert the footage to HD and then just use the part I need? (Magic Bullet Instant HD for example.)

Some other laughably easy way I just don't know about?

Some other long and painful way I just don't know about?

The footage is shot on standard DV tape. This is my first foray into getting my hands dirty editing; I have the tools (Adobe Crative Suite CS4) and am gaining the know-how on-the-job.

Any advice appreciated. Thanks!

That's a big problem with zooming in after the fact. I had a serious problem in post with a bad crossing-the-line situation in one climactic shot.

In After Effects, first I flipped the best performance 180 degrees, then use the Scale operation in the basic transformations to "zoom in" in just enought to hide some of the obviously flipped background. The problem was the amplification of the video noise the same amount. The actor's skin tone was horrible.

It took a bit of playing around with the Denoiser, combined with some of the MB Looks filters. I consider it about 80 - 85% fixed, and I just couldn't figure out how to make it any better. Fortunately, it's only this one shot, which is only about 6 seconds long (i.e. it takes forever when I watch it).

The problem with your shot of the book is that you can't make something better focused than your raw material. Sharpen is a filter that just can't be pushed too far, and anyway, text is pretty detailed for Sharpen to work well.

I think your best bet is to shoot a closeup of the book and cut to it from the back of your actress just after the camera first sees the book in the shot with her.

You can dick around with your flawed shot for weeks and not get anywhere near where you want to be.

-- Paul

Thanks for the insight. The good news is I don't need to see any text in the book; she is just opening it and we fade out just before you see any text. I'm looking for alternative shots now.

Obviously the only solution is to show the damn boob!!

Laughing

I'm not sure if you're allowed to show the boob in a trailer in the US, if you want the trailer to run in theatres and TV/cable.

	vasic wrote:
	I'm not sure if you're allowed to show the boob in a trailer in the US, if you want the trailer to run in theatres and TV/cable.

I believe that's the point of the question. And my comment was a joke. (but not really Twisted Evil

)

Maybe if you can show your - erh - "source material" here, some of us can come up with a solution. Rolling Eyes

lol

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Jussing, you're one funny guy!

Well, after some wrangling I finally got a finished trailer together and permission to post it online.

I cut out the offending scene as it was un-workable but I hope you will all enjoy the ones I put in. Check it:

http://www.vimeo.com/10963377

FYI, there are R rated trailers. They only show them prior to R rated films.

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Yeah, but the director wants a YouTube friendly version first. I think just about all the other footage will fall into the "R" category cuz all the talent is running around nekkid. (If that doesn't get a few people to check out the trailer, nothing will!)

Maybe you can make a roto-mask to add a shadow over the breast? I believe a nudity scene in Schindler had that treatment in a TV version. (because we all know nipples to be more dangerous & traumatizing than holocaust)

	Quote:
	(because we all know nipples to be more dangerous & traumatizing than holocaust)

There are somewhat more than 12,000,000,000 living human nipples on Planet Earth at the moment, about half of which are attached to female homo sapiens. Nevertheless, male nipples are not considered dangerous and available to camera lenses at beaches, swimming pools, and endless media productions; it is the female nipple only that has attained the status of Power Object, the source of a massive tarpaulin of anxiety, fear, and danger that covers and smothers a huge number of people, especially in the USA. Consider the coast-to-coast hysteria that occasioned several seconds of the revelation that Janet Jackson, a female human being, has nipples. This terror has also infected the Powers That Be at youtube. Clearly it's in the best interest of filmmakers not to frighten those people. If you're planning a production that will eventually spend some time on youtube, it would be wise to obscure all views of the female nipple, realizing that sophisticated audience members will correctly assume that your female cast members are equipped with them. Feel free to explode human heads, rip human beings apart, etc. Those activities hold no erotic terror for the youtube controllers.

-- Paul

Lol, well said... Very Happy