Perhaps an advanced compositing question?

Trying to figure out how to do this in FCPX...

I have two takes of a shot that I want to merge. On the left side of frame a boy exits a door in the background and on the right side of the frame, the dad turns his head to look. However, it takes way too much time (a fix it in post kinda problem) and so I'd like to mask the dad so that he looks as the boy exits, rather than exit (beat) then turn. Hope that makes sense.

The shot is handheld, not jerky, but still has some movement so that if I duplicated the mask on top and tried to divide the shot in half, it doesn't quite match up. I could probably keyframe it but I was wondering if there is a way to track the back layer to match the camera movement of the top layer and then I can just crop in to make it work? Would SliceX be good for this?

Thanks for the help!

Hey Matthew,

Manual keyframing is out of the question, that never works with handheld cameras.

I don't think SliceX has a Match Move option, so this will not help either.

You could try using the Match Move feature in Motion 5 but the result will be very much depending on how different the shakiness is between the back plane and the front plane. As there is a time difference between them, the camera movement between the planes will obviously also be different.

I think your best option would be to stabilize the shot before doing any compositing on it. That would certainly improve your chances for a better composite. If you choose the Inertiacam stabilizing option in FCP X you may have the option to use the Tripod stabilizing method, which will lock the shot as if it were shot on a tripod. Or stabilize in Motion 5 and do the masking and compositing in the same application.

- Ronny

As previously said, if the movement isn't too bad, FCPX stabilization may be all you need on both clips. Otherwise...

The current APTS book for Motion has a lesson on this very subject. The previous book had a much better lesson on it, using hand held shots. Either lessons walks you through the process really well.

In Motion, first, stabilize one clip.
Second, match move the second clip to the stabilized clip.
Finally, mask the second clip to show only the part of the frame you want.
Works like a charm.

What about good old editing?

distance: Dad foreground, boy bg, leaving room
cut, close up: e.g. Dad has a look on his watch/e.g. boy yelling "I'll never come back!"/e.g. door knob turning/whatever as 'cut away'
distance: Dad turns head .. .

I'm noticing, many people (beginners...) tend to do movies as 'theatre plays' = all in one single take. Edit. Edit!! EDIT!!! :woohoo:

Thanks Ronny and Ben - stabilizing the clip and then masking worked like a charm.

Karsten, many people (not beginners) like to shoot long beautiful master takes. Look at the work of Spielberg, Hitchcock, Wes Anderson, the list goes on and on. In this case, the spot was originally a 90 and the client wants a 30 second cutdown. Editing together the two moments from the same take to compress time helps move the story forward without making the spot feel too cutty and lose the nuanced pacing.

Choosing NOT to make the cut is as much editing as cutting would be

Citizen Kane

fcpguru wrote: ....Karsten, many people (not beginners) like to shoot long beautiful master takes. Look at the work of Spielberg, Hitchcock, Wes Anderson, the list goes on and on....

... yep, so called 'plan sequences' ... 'plan', because Spielberg & Co wouldn't be crazy enough, to decide in post to shorten a single, hand held shot ...
"fix it in the post!" is a beginner's talk ... (says me, the hobbyist)

to edit was meant as suggestion, and not as an offense to you, [strike]Mr Spielberg[/strike] fcpguru