Advice wanted for some editing I plan on doing.

[ingeborgdot]

Football season has started and I am going to be getting underway with my editing for the highlight film which comes at the end of the year. I want to do some fun stuff with the guys to add a little fun for a video they will have and remember all their lives. I am going to do a cowboy intro with some cool western music. I was planning on using a couple songs from the Good, Bad and Ugly unless someone has some better western songs to use. I have some ideas on how I am going to shoot the video but would really like some suggestions as it looks like a lot of you on here are pros. I am highlighting the seniors for this video so I was planning on having them walking in the practice field up to the fieldhouse where they change. It has some woods in the back and I was planning on have them start walking out of there. I know it is hard for anyone to visualize because you have not seen it so bare with me. They will have their cowboy apparel on with guns, hats etc. As they are walking I will probably zoom in on them to show their faces and put up their names. All will be in slow motion. I will have them enter the locker room in their cowboy outfits. I will then have them go out and come back in so I can get them entering individually. They will go to their lockers and change and then I will have them exit out the doors they go out of to exit on to the field. The first part of the film will be in black and white but as they exit to go onto the field I will gradually fade into color. What I would like to do is have them come out and all be black and white except their uniforms but I have Sony Vegas Pro 11 and I have not found a way to do that with it. Does anyone have any better ideas of what to do with a cowboy theme? I would greatly appreciate any advice from anyone. Thanks for any help given.

[Trippedout]

well you could use arcsoft media converter for black and white output also has an option to have it look like an old clip like flicker from old projector don't know how you would do the transients from BW to color unless you have a fade in out on camera and you could use mpg2cut for editing rembering with mpg2cut you need to reload the file after each edit one edit at a time to keep it ok the file i mean and IM quite interested myself in the audio part to add audio to file ive been using TMPGEnc and its not very good so IM interested to read replies as for the text overlay i have no idea but the chaps here are very good IM sure they will help you out the audio is of interest for adding voice documentary to files and can become very complex with over dubbing and stuff me thinks.

[ingeborgdot]

I have no problem with getting my videos to black and white and just figured out how to make everything black and white except our uniforms. That worked out pretty cool actually. The fade in should also be fairly easy to do. It is more the ideas of what we could do to make our film cool is what I am looking for.

[poisondeathray]

What color are the uniforms?

Did you try secondary color corrector? or chroma key (then composite another layer)?

It depends on how the shot is set up but you should be able to get close with one of these methods . If there is overlap in colors between the background (e.g. uniforms are green and they are standing on green grass) then these methods will fail - you will have to use other techniques like rotoscoping

[ingeborgdot]

I used secondary color corrector and it looks cool. It was actually pretty easy. I am not sure how the chroma key works yet. I have not tried it. I have all those things down I think. I just need to see how my ideas work. I will probably get only one chance at making this and one chance to get all the players together outside of practice. I would really like to try where they walk behind something in their cowboy apparel and then come out of it in their football uniforms. Time lapse I guess. I will keep looking for more ideas.

[poisondeathray]

Shoot as much footage as you can - it's easier to cut stuff out than to not have enough in the first place .You come up with other ideas along the way

Shoot the highest FPS you can for the planned slow motion bits - it's better for slow motion than "fake" software or interpolated methods. Also use the fastest shutter speeds that you can , you need the least amount of motion blur (less blur will interpolate better for software slow motion)

Is it going to be a very long piece ? If you plan to zoom into the face and print the player's name in slow motion it will fun very long won't it? How big is the roster? I'm thinking this specific might get boring unless it's done fast instead of slow motion...

[V Bot]

Maybe you've thought of this. Do you have footage of them when they were starting out (In Football)?

[ingeborgdot]

Yep, thought of that and probably going to do it. I have to talk to parents. Many are on VHS so quality will suck but I have that capabilities to do.
I have no idea how long the piece will be. I plan on it being anywhere from 4 - 6 minutes maybe with different things going on but not sure yet.

[ingeborgdot]

I just can't find any videos out there that are decent to steal some ideas from. Can anyone give my brain a push and tell me what to type in google to get some videos with good ideas???

[budwzr]

Did you try Googling "get some videos with good ideas"?

Anyways, the best shots are natural, funny, flowing, impromptu, embarrassing, silly, etc. Nobody really cares so much for a documentary.

[ingeborgdot]

I'll try that. Sounds great.

[budwzr]

I'll try that. Sounds great.

Instead of SloMo, you might try a still sequence shot at one frame per second. What kind of camera do you have?

I have some good "western music". I'll post it here in a while. Check back.

[ingeborgdot]

Sony HDR-FX7 is the camera I am using at this time.
For this it is a football highlight for the players. The cooler the better for them. They love the idea of doing the cowboy thing. I am trying to come up with some cool ideas on how to incorporate that into them in their cowboy apparel and going into their football uniforms. I have several ideas and am always looking for more good stuff. Funny, silly etc. just won't cut it for the type of video these kids like.

[poisondeathray]

Maybe I'm missing something, but what does the "western" theme have to do with anything ? Why did you choose this? Maybe if you provided some background info, you might get some better ideas and brainstorming from other people

[ingeborgdot]

You aren't missing anything. It is just a fun thing is all. Not all people are going to like it. The kids think it is cool and that is all that matters. Just a theme this year I guess. A bunch of western Kansas boys close to Dodge City doing the tough thing is what it is. They like it and I do to.

[budwzr]

Maybe I'm missing something, but what does the "western" theme have to do with anything ?

Reminds me of "Rawhide" in The Blues Brothers. Das a goo-un. Move 'em on, head 'em in, ride 'em out. Keep them doggies movin'.

Is that "Western"?

[ingeborgdot]

That's a cool song too.

[ingeborgdot]

I do have another question. I have a still that I am going to use but I want it to have a frame around it like a real picture. Is there something in Vegas Pro that I am missing that will put on around a picture? If not, what can I use? Thanks.

[poisondeathray]

I do have another question. I have a still that I am going to use but I want it to have a frame around it like a real picture. Is there something in Vegas Pro that I am missing that will put on around a picture? If not, what can I use? Thanks.

it's usually easier to do in an image editor like photoshop, gimp etc , but vegas has some basic tools you can use too . It depends on what type of "frame" you plan on using

[poisondeathray]

^that's what I meant if you were generating a "frame" from scratch

If you just a want a plain picture frame, a simple way is to download one from google images or on the web somewhere. You can "poke" out the hole by keying out the center (if it already doesn't have alpha channel) with chroma key . Then you just place it over the video on a track above (scaling it to fit) . If you had something more specific in mind , then describe more clearly what you wanted to do

[budwzr]

In Vegas, Create a white square and size it how you want. Then place an image on the track above, and size that to fit the white square so there's an edge.

Then parent/child those two tracks so the objects become as one. Then use the parents controls to animate or what-not.

All this talk of "westerns" gave me an itchy trigger feeling, but nothin' concrete. Ing, you better give up some ideas or we'll all get bored.

============================================
"How the frick did budwzr get those balloons to move?"

[ingeborgdot]

Nothing more than a plain old picture frame is needed. I have shot the video with the guys but alot of what I wanted to do is not working out the way I visualized it to. Probably because I am not a professional and not sure what really works and what does not. I do have a scene of a group of 13 seniors coming out of the trees and walking in the open grass field to the field house to go onto the football field. Used the slow mo thing and it does look cool. I then had them walk in the same order with their uniforms and blended in the walk in scene at the end of them in their cowboy apparel over to their football uniforms. I showed my wife and she loved it. She is my biggest critic so I think the kids will like it also. It all lasts a little over 4 minutes which is about what I wanted. I am going to maybe add one more scene of a bunch of vultures we have that live in a grove of trees right by our practice field. There are about 50 or 60 of those things and it may look cool to put a brief part of them flying around and then when they roost a couple of close ups of them. Those things are huge. I don't know, it may detract from the thing, but as you all know, you never know until you try it out if it is going to work or not.

[ingeborgdot]

Here is a picture of the picture that will start it all out.

[budwzr]

What about something along these lines: