Using freeze frames on bumpy clips

Although i often use Smoothcam, it's time consuming and i've discovered that where static shots are involved, i can get away with simply performing a shift/N and dragging the still on top.

Even blown up on my 23 ACD I'm unable to tell the difference between the frame from the original clip and the "frozen" clip. And of course the latter is perfectly still.

My current project involves lots of handheld shots of tiles, religious icons etc, where there is nothing moving in the image whatsoever. Obviously i would grade it first, but is this a bad habit to get into?

It would certainly save me a lot of time, and the film is only for web streaming anyway.

Cheers

Dom

It is a bad habit, yes, generally speaking. If you lock a camera down on a tripod and shoot ten seconds of something unmoving, then compare it to a still frame from the same shot, you'll clearly see that the still frame looks flat and dead. There's no grain in the shot to make it look alive.

Maybe you're over-relying on post-stabilization. A little camera movement ? a little movement ? isn't a bad thing.

Thanks Jeff. I know exactly what you mean, however i'm doing some quick montages of mainly wall tiles and think i might be able to get away with it in small doses.

Another trick i do sometimes, is to take the smoothest part of the clip and fit to fill it so i'ts a little slower, but less bumpy. Does this cause loss of quality too? and is it preferable to making a still?

I have no idea what "montages of mainly wall tiles" could possibly mean, so I can't give you specific creative advice.

But you need to understand what retiming does, technically. It's a frame-blending operation, and it works differently on field-based material and on frame-based material.

Inappropriately using stills and using digital retiming techniques fall into the same category as setting your shutter angle to something other that 180°. It'll make your audience go, "I might not know exactly why, but that looks weird to me."

"montages of mainly wall tiles"

you know, a tile, on a wall...
lots of shots of tiles on walls cut together.
(where i live is gradually being "gentrified" so we have lots of tile shops!)

inanimate objects.

freeze frames may well be the best solution here.
but i would try to keyframe in small zooms,
just so there is some "life" in the shot.

also, it might be best to group them together,
so there is some stylistic consistency.

there will be a difference in the "feel" of these shots,
so be aware of that when editing your montages.


nick

Which brings up a natural follower-- is there a plugin to add random grain/noise motion to stills or freeze frames to give them exactly that "live" look Jeff aptly describes?

I want one!

- Loren

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Thanks everyone.

I was in Iran last year, and have many shots of the lovely turquoise tiles that adorn the mosques there.

Because Iran is not the greatest place to walk around with a video camera - as well as being ridiculously hot - i often went out without a tripod, to keep a low profile. I also had to zoom in a fair bit making steady shots even harder.

"also, it might be best to group them together,

so there is some stylistic consistency. "

Agreed Nick. That was my plan.

That sounds like a nice plugin there Loren.

D

"is there a plugin to add random grain/noise motion to stills or freeze frames"

that's a good point.

and there are a lot of noise and grain filters out there.
FCP comes with one.

as well as filters, which can be added directly to clips,
there are also generators, which would be laid over clips, on another track.
filters are simpler, but whatever gets the job done is good.

i did a little tinkering with this a while back,
and of the one's i had access to at the time,
Graeme Nattress's noise filter (or generator?) seemed to be the best.

The Foundary also have a grain filter as part of a $500 package.
i've now downloaded a demo of that package,
but have only used the dust busting filter.
of the dust busting filters available for FCP, its the best i've seen,
so there's a chance their grain filter is also very good.


i was using these to simulate film grain,
but i imagine you could do a fair impersonation of video noise with them, too.


i reckon if you add a "Blend fields" filter to your freeze frames,
or the FCP de-flicker filter set to max,
you will maximise the resolution.
then you can add noise etc.


cheers,
nick

Thanks, Nick. I got the QuickLooks package from Magic Bullet, as part of my VideoGuys upgrade, I'm going to look in there too.

- Loren

Today's FCP 7 keytip:
Jump-back to your pre-roll value with Control-Command-Spacebar !

Your Final Cut Studio KeyGuide? Power Pack.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
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