Topic: Bad actor messes up scene. HELP!

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TheCoyote

FXperience: 400 | Joined: 09 Dec 2008 | Posts: 24

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Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 4:51 am Post 1 of 37

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Ok, so I have been filming a movie with all of my friends but in the middle of one of the scenes one of the actors was supposed to get shot and die. When I was standing right next to him, he did it fine. However, the scene did not end there. I had to turn my back on the actor who I expected to still be lying dead on the ground. The moment I turned my back though, he thought it would be funny to sit up and start making faces at the camera. Does anybody have any ideas on how I could get rid of him in the background or something?
I only have effects lab so I can't composite anything over him and even if I had visionlab or composite lab I don't know if I could because it wasn't filmed in front of a green screen.
Any ideas?
~The Coyote

Biblmac

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Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 4:58 am Post 2 of 37

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Re-film and actually kill your actor? (jk)... anyway re-filming isn't a bad idea. If you can get back to the location and shoot a blank slate, then crop part of it over him, with the freehand mask tool.

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TheCoyote

FXperience: 400 | Joined: 09 Dec 2008 | Posts: 24

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Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 5:11 am Post 3 of 37

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I thought about refilming but the rest of the shot is perfect and I already have explosions put in. Plus, the scene is really long. The only other way would be to just mask him with the part of the ground that should be on the spot where he is laying but then I would have to get the camera into the EXACT same position as it was in and I don't think I will be able to do that. I'll just leave him in there if my ONLY option is refilming but does anybody have any other ideas?

Axeman

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Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 6:11 am Post 4 of 37

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Do you have another angle you can cut to? Or another take, perhaps? If not, the first thing I'd try is to re-film the messed up bit of the scene from another angle, where you don't see him, and that way you could do the re-shoot without that particular actor. It would also keep the size of the portion that needs re-filming as small as possible, though it would be somewhat important to match everything for continuity.

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ben3308

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Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 7:18 am Post 5 of 37

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TheCoyote wrote:

I thought about refilming but the rest of the shot is perfect and I already have explosions put in.

The shot's not perfect, because the guy sits up. You can always redo the explosions. They might be cool, but they're easier to eradicate in a refilmed version than masking out or otherwise editing in a hackneyed way a whole actor.

Refilm it. It sounds like you have to.

spydurhank

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Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 7:43 am Post 6 of 37

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Could you post a link to the scene you're talking about? The part before and after your buddy plays the joke on you if possible.

I would like to see a few things before offering any advice if that makes sense... but if you can, you should re-shoot the scene.

I may have some ideas on how to fix it though, but I need to see those two scenes first as I already mentioned.

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pdrg

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Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 11:47 am Post 7 of 37

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Sounds like you're looking for a bodge, if you can't afford to fix it with a reshoot (using live ammo this time...). Ok, sow about digitally creeping into the image which will frame him more peripherally, then use a mist/smoke effect to mask the lower edge. Yes, it's a bodge, but editing is always a bodge job.

Or add some gaussian blur so we can't see his faces? Or go all split-screen juxtaposing your reaction to some other plot element where your friend was important, make it more poingant with lots of black borders, slo-mo, weepy music etc. Or have a blood/gore splatter on the lens to mask him out? Just kicking around a few bodges...

Reading this invokes the curse of the tiny sig! Until you break the curse you'll get random MPEG artifacting on all your shoots bwahahahahaaaaa!

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Tarn

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Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 11:48 am Post 8 of 37

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Another bodge possibility: Composite a foreground item of furniture that will obscure him.

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FXhome Dude

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Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 3:15 pm Post 9 of 37

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Try this.
Make two copies of the footage. when the actor is dead is the slice tool and cut out one frame from where he is fine. Set that frames speed to 1%. Mask it so just the actor dead part shows through. This may require moving, but it's worth a try. And as pdrg said. some smoke/gore could help mask the mistake.

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Aculag

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Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 5:06 pm Post 10 of 37

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Tarn wrote:

Another bodge possibility: Composite a foreground item of furniture that will obscure him.

And just to make sure it doesn't happen again, do this every time the actor appears on screen, even when the setting doesn't call for it.

None of this is my opinion. It is the opinion of a 7-person committee, which meets Tuesday evenings and every other Thursday at a public library in Akron, Ohio. I cannot be held responsible for the contents of this post.

TheCoyote

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Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2009 1:17 am Post 11 of 37

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Ok, thanks. I'm going to post the scene on youtube so you can see it. I will post again when this is done.

TheCoyote

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Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2009 1:18 am Post 12 of 37

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The other problem with making gore splatter on the camera is that I get thrown by the explosion in the scene and I fly in front of the actor so I would cover me too.

TheCoyote

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Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2009 1:34 am Post 13 of 37

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Ok, I uploaded the scene to Youtube. You can view it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW0nbVQ97n4

FXhome Dude

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Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2009 1:42 am Post 14 of 37

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I know what you mean alot better now. If you have a method of doing it that's fine, I think for that u might have to reshoot. With the moving camera etc.

"Don't be selfish or a jerk." Bungie.net forum rules

TheCoyote

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Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2009 1:46 am Post 15 of 37

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ok, yeah, looking at it more closely I can't really see any way to avoid reshooting other than just leaving it there since I keep moving in front of him. I am even in front of him at the only time when he actually looks dead so I can't really take that and put it over him later either.

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