“My Most Difficult Case” Update - 2012 March 25

After a long (too long) delay I am back to work on My Most Difficult Case. I hadn’t done any work on it since last October. I wasn’t even sure what I had to do. I was glad to find that I made some notes back then. The major piece of work left to do is the sound track. Thanks to some good advice from Patrick Aull, I solved the problem I had with noise on the sound from the set.

I didn’t work on the sound this week though. Instead, I tried to modify a couple of brief shots in the film. They are the shots where the killer stalks and kills his victim. These two shots were very difficult to get. I had to shoot them three times before I got something I could use.

The problem with them is that you can see some of the pictures on the wall in the background. If I want to sell the film to a commercial network, I need to get releases for the picture. I tried to find out who owned the rights to the pictures, but got nowhere. I don’t see any way I can hope to get releases for them.

I could likely cut the shots out and not affect the film much. However, after all that trouble I went through to get the shots, I find it hard to just toss them.

I tried several times before to use a garbage key to create a composite to cover up the pictures. I did that successfully with another shot in the film. I didn’t have the same success with these shots. I tried a difference matte this time. From what I read, it should have worked, but it didn’t. I think it was partly because I had a monochrome image and it needed some color to identify the differences. Also, since it was a transfer from film, the grain meant that each pixel would change slightly from frame to frame.

I went back to a garbage key. I reviewed all my takes and found ones where the actors didn’t block out the pictures. This resulted in slightly shorter shots. I am not quite done yet. In the middle of one of the shots, the camera shifts a little and you can see where I covered up the pictures. I think I can fix that without too much trouble.

I was disappointed that the alternative takes were not as dramatic as the originals. I have something I can use now, but I still want to experiment some more and see if I can get a better result. The sound track is the priority now.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog