Internal Conflict by Jonnie Ross

Assignment #5 Masks

  1)  30 seconds to 1 minute in length.
  2)  Make a narrative video where you interact with yourself.
  3)  Start with a slug for 6 Seconds (this 6 seconds is not included in the length [line 1] limitation).
  4)  Superimpose a credit shot (your name) over the last 3 seconds of the black slug.
  5)  Create a piece with at least 3 versions of you interacting.   You may use one shot (as in the Melies) or a sequence of several shots (as in the Ross). Make the interaction intresting
  6)  In at least one shot there should be 3 or more moving versions of you in the shot at the same moment.

A) To put more than one version of you in a shot, you need to shoot separate takes without moving the camera where you are in three different areas of the shot, like left frame, center frame, right frame.   Make sure the background is exactly the same. Now capture these 3 takes in Final Cut.

B) Put the first take on v1 of the Timeline.

C) Now put the second take on v2 of the Timeline above the first one and highlight (select) it.

 D) Use the crop tool (c or click on the second from the bottom tool in the tool palette) to crop part of the area from the second take, exposing take 1.  Remember you need to turn on the image+ wireframe in the Canvas window menu in order to use the crop tool.

D2) You can also use the 4 or 8 Point Garbage Matte to do the same thing. Highlight the clip (select it) and Effects > Video Filters > Matte > ...

E) Put the third take on v3 on the Timeline and crop it.

  7)  At one point you must noticeably pass in front of or make contact with yourself (Cut a mask).

     A) Export a series of single frames as psds (aka Image Sequence).

1) Find the area on the Timeline that you overlap. 

2)  Cut the area that you want to be on top.

 HINT: Pick the layer that you want "in front" to cut out in Photoshop.

3) Double click on the area (in the Timeline) and it will open in a Viewer window.
4) Click on the Viewer and then Export your area as a sequence of Photoshop files  File > Export > Using Quicktime Conversion... > Format: Image Sequence > Options.  In the Options window select Format: Photoshop, Frames per second (either 30 or 15).  Make sure you save it into a new folder inside "your folder" where your Final Cut project is.   Save as:  something simple like "a".  Final Cut will name the frames a 01, a 02, a 03, etc. and place them together in your new frame folder.

5) Save your project.

B) Open and modify these frames in Photoshop.

1) Open your frame (s) in Photoshop.  Drag your frame (s) to the Photoshop icon in the dock,  or open Photoshop and then Open your frame (s) File > Open > lead it to your frame (s).
2) Check Image Size and Pixel Aspect Ratio:

a) Image > Pixel Aspect Ratio > ...  It should be D1/DV NTSC (0. 9) if it is Square you need to change it.
b) Image > Image Size>...  It should be 720 by 480 if it is 640 x 480 uncheck Constrain Porportions (at the bottom of the Image Size window) and change the Width to 720.

3)  De-Interlace your frame.  Filter > Video > De-Interlace ..., you can select either odd or even fields and either interpolated or duplicate, just try one of each and if it doesn't look good undo and try something different.
4) Duplicate your layer  Layer > Duplicate Layer.
5) Turn off your background layer so only the duplicate layer is visible.  In the Layers Window turn off the "eye" in front of the Background layer.
tools in CS2   tools in CS3  

6) Cut out the area you want to overlap.  Remember you only need to eliminate the area where there is overlap.

a) Use one of the Selection Tools to outline the area you want to eliminate.

1) Under the Rectangular Marquee are the other Marquee tools, etc. 
2) Under the Lasso are the other Lasso tools.

b) Remember you can add to selections by holding down the shift key and you can subtract from selections by holding down the option key.
c) When you have selected and area use the delete key to erase it.

7) Save as: like "b01" in a new folder.  Make sure you change the name but not the number. This will give you the old frame for backup and the new frames will Import into Final Cut in the correct order.

C) Import your altered frames back into Final Cut. 

1) First, set your preference for Still Duration at 2 or 1 frames, depending on the frame rate you exported your overlap at (15 fps-use 2: or 30fps-use 1).  In Final Cut Express HD > User Preferences > click on the Editing tab > Duration Option: Still/Freeze Duration: 00:00:00:02. ( or :01)
2) Import your folder.  File > Import > Folder... lead it to you new frame folder.
3) Put the Playhead on the Timeline where you want the first frame of the overlap to start and drag the folder to that point on a new video row (v3 in this case).  The frames should be 1 or 2 frames long each.  They should be in order (b01, b02, b03) overlapping the row below.

a) If you frames are not 1 or 2 frames long you forgot to change the Still/Freeze Duration Preference before you imported them. Delete them from the Timeline and their folder from the Browser and re-import them after you have set the Still/Freeze Duration Preference for 1 or 2 frames.

b) If your frames aren't transparent in the areas you cut out, double click on the frame in Timeline and it will open in a new tab on the Timeline as a psd.  Make sure that the Background layer is turned off and the other layer (the one with the hole in it) is turned on.  If it doesn't open a new tab on the Timeline then your psd only has one layer.

  8)  Your piece must have Audio, use the audio to help tie the piece together.
  9)  End your piece with 2 seconds of silent/Black.
10)  Export your movie using the DV/DVPro-NTSC compressor (720X480: 48kHz. 16bit, stereo). This movie should be a less than 400mb.  Save this on your server.   You will need it in a couple weeks.
11)  Make A DVD image of your finished piece and drop it in my box. Label it "YourName"_Masks.img.