This Just In...
Kevin Fischer is an award-winning veteran broadcaster who has been seen and heard on Milwaukee TV and radio stations for nearly three decades.
Kevin, who is a legislative aide to state Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin), can be seen offering his views on the news on the public affairs program, “INTERchange,” on Milwaukee Public Television Channel 10. He lives with his wife, Jennifer, in Franklin.
Elvis, Celine, and Franklin Alderman Steve Olson
By Kevin Fischer
Friday, Apr 27 2007, 05:03 PM
Franklin Alderman Steve Olson was listening to me fill in for Mark Belling Thursday on Newstalk 1130 WISN during my opening segment on the incredible Elvis/Celine Dion
duet on American Idol.
Like me and the many, many callers to my show, he was impressed. Olson wrote me the following e-mail:
Kevin:
Welcome to my former world.
I used to sell the software/systems used to make this kind of video.
The technology is called “compositing.” It’s the technology of removing one (or more) backgrounds and replacing them with new images. The trick comes in “cutting out” the image that will become a foreground from the background, then matching camera moves (rotoscoping) and lighting and focal lengths to make it appear in such a way that the normal viewer would believe it real.
Remember “Forest Gump?” Same technology.
Cheap software can do this ($1,000) but it wouldn’t be as refined and would take forever. The stuff I used to sell that has tons and tons of tools to make the end product look like this cost upwards of $750,000 (in my day) and the product is called an Inferno or a Flame from a company called Discreet. (click on the “Watch our best of the show reel” for an interesting video experience)
Whoever did this did a great job. The comments you got on the air today proved it.
It was NOT live. Matching a taped moving image to a live moving image is really difficult.
This is definitely an award winner for whomever was the effects artist.
S.
Steve Olson
Alderman, 1st District
8091 S. Meadowcreek Ct.
Franklin, Wisconsin 53132
414-425-9060
414-427-7285 fax
solson@franklinwi.gov
www.steveolson.us
www.franklinwi.govIn a second e-mail, Olson wrote:
The people who do this kind of compositing work are really, really creative. Plus, they’re really, really smart. But the people who write the software are even more creative and smart.
Imagine writing software code that will look at each pixel on a screen and be able to mathmatically determine whether it’s Elvis’ hair (pick the shade of black) or the background, then remove the background without removing any of the hair (or sequins or threads on his duds) and insert a new image. Then, calculate the grain characteristics of the original footage (recorded on film) and apply that characteristic (colorimetry, grain pattern, focus diffusion, contrast ratio) to the new background so that they look like the same image… or do it in reverse. Make the Elvis film image look like modern video!
Really cool stuff.
The mantra of an effects artist is: “If you can’t tell it’s an effect, it’s good and I’ve done my job.”Here’s
more on how they did it.
