Editing video to allow only main subject to appear

[audioqueso]

I know the title sounds weird. But here's what I'm trying to do.
In the first Matrix, the part where they are in the white room... is there a way to edit my video to take a clip that I have and make only the main subject (person) appear and the rest is all white?

[sacajaweeda]

How much time do you have to spend editing frames one by one?

[Sugar]

This is not easy. It depends on what background the main subject was shot. If ti is on a background with a uniform colour, ideally blue, you can create a matte and edit your subject with a software like Premiere.

I have never tried it myself but it is supposed to work.

[housepig]

it does depend on the background - even if it's not a totally clean background, if you have enough contrast between the person you want isolated and the rest of the surroundings, you might be able to make a motion matte that will allow you to cookie-cut around the person, and blank out everything around them.

I've seen it done in theory, I haven't tried it in practice. If you download the Vegas 4 manual from Sony's web site, it has a quick tutorial on motion mattes.