How to blur out logo in film

Hey everyone,
I've been spending the last few weeks shooting a feature film, and all's been going well so far.

Trouble is, one of the actors forgot to cover an adidas logo on his trousers, and none of us noticed during filming. Now that I'm editing, I've noticed it!!

Anyone have any ideas? I've tried quite a few different things, but all of them involve basically pasting a small shape over it of a similar colour/a blur, and then keyframing to follow the actor's movements. Trouble with this is that it's V. obvious when I play it back, and it looks pretty silly.

I'm not hugely familiar with the software, but I was hoping there might be something like a 'brush' that I could use to just subtly blur the lettering of the logo with on each frame - a bit like the blur tool that used to be on 'paint' on windows when I was a kid!! :silly:

Any ideas anyone?

Thanks!

I'd have to see a shot, or a bit of the clip before deciding how far you'd need to go, or not go, to fix it.

You could try adding a "Colour Mask" to the logo and a "Shape Mask" to restrict the adjustment, then make any necessary adjustments to blend the logo with the trousers, it might work.

Why not contact Adidas, tell them you're "planning" to shoot a film, & you've always loved their fine quality products. Would they be willing to offer some incentive for product placement in your feature?

It may sound silly but I would in fact contact Adidas, unless there are other sportswear logos shown in other shots.

As far as replacement the defacto standard for the type of replacement is Mocha:

www.imagineersystems.com/

However, it is not cheap software, but if you have AE you might have a bundled version, but it doesn't do the kind of automatic replacement that Mocha Pro does. So if you really need it done and it is only a few shots, I'll bet you can find a Mocha artist who is able to do it and it won't be terribly expensive.

We had to pull some stuff off in After Effects using the paint tools and then I discovered Mocha and you can't even compare. Mocha is lightyears beyond and the results are fantastic.

Depending on the shot I've had great success with Motion's tracker. I also use Mocha with Motion when needed, too.

I would also suggest contacting Adidas, it will bring up your production value.
The guys at Adidas are really cool. But. If a fails as tpayton mentioned Mocha will be your best friend and if you have the latest After Effects then you have the dream team anyways.

I believe there is a lot of confusion between trademarks and copyright in these issues.

In a lot of daytime reality tv, interviews and so forth you will see logos been blurred out. This is not to protect the trademark, but rather it is a voluntary act by the filmmakers to avoid promoting brands (especially if they have sponsorship from other companies, or use product placement). So this blurring is to prevent advertising, and not to avoid legal action generally.

Trademarks, such as logos, are there to distinguish companies and their products from the competition. You can have your business and call it McDonalds Hardware, and there would be no confusion. But try to set up a McDonalds Fast Food joint and you will have trouble.

In film it would be illegal for you to make it look like you are affiliated with the company in any way, or in anyway confuse viewers about the brand perhaps, but not to have a brand seen incidental to the story.

Tarnishing or diluting a trademark will bring you problems; if you show a product in bad light (like you have a character spit out some coke and say it tastes like crap), then you might have an issue again.

But if every logo had to be erased from film unless it was cleared in advance, then there would be no end to it. Think of all the branded cars you see in movies in the background for instance.

Thanks for your comments everyone, especially simonpwood. My only concern is that the character wearing the adidas trousers is an exaggeratedly dirty townie on community service, so I hope adidas wouldn't take that as tarnishing their name! Anyway, I'll look into this. I may contact them as people are saying.

Thanks everyone!

BenB, you asked for a shot of the scene - here's one. Annoyingly the logo has blurred a bit when converted to PDF, but it's the small white triangle on the guy's black trousers.



Thanks again.

With copyright the owner creates it and owns 100%. No one can use it without permission. This is different from a trademark, which exist through use. Trademarks tell people the source of the product. A filmmaker can show a logo in a movie without clearing it as long as they show the branded product accurately and it is being used the way it was intended to be used.

If a person wears Addidas trousers that were bought legally from Addidas, then technically no law has been broken, and the item is doing what it was designed and sold to do.

If however you have a character who talks to a possessed pair of Adidas trousers that convinces him to kill hookers by strangling them with the trousers, well then you’ll have an issue as the product is being taken way out of context.

The social status of your character should not be grounds for the tarnishing of the brand of clothes he wears. I'm pretty sure that would be against the basic human rights of people he resembles in real life, and discriminatory against people on community service! The argument wouldn't hold in court.

"Possessed Adidas trousers?" Surely you're thinking of Nike, possessed with the spirits of Chinese preteen sweatshop slaves who died chained to their sewing machines.

Laugh all you want, but I hear it's part of Tiger Woods' legal defense for the divorce proceedings. (Don't even get me started on scientology demons & Tom Cruise divorces...)

Thanks, very lucid

That tiny thing? I wouldn't bother...

TrixTrax9000 wrote: (Don't even get me started on scientology demons & Tom Cruise divorces...)

WOW what brought this up? Mission Impossible 4 must have sucked.

I didn't mind the MI flick.
But the couch jumping crazies & the "house of horrors" National Inquirer lawsuit threats, gave a glimpse into the workings of the science fiction writer's "religion." That being said, if you do want to belong to an alien worshipping cult that costs you millions of dollars, $cientolgy is definitely for you.

But they STILL won't let you use their logo in your film...