Remove waving guy, what software should I use?

There is a scene in my movie where there are two actors talking and in
the background a man waving at the camera is seen, I would like to know
what software I need to cut this guy out, as this is the take I would
like to use. I would also like to darken the background around the
actors and brighten the actors.

 

The hard way is to use some composite package such as After Effects and
mask the guy out. (You can use another copy of your shot without wavy
guy to fill in that background)

Another way, depending on where wavy guy is, and how big he is and how
noticible he is in the scene is to blur that little area, or, perhaps
you can get some everyday object on an alpha background and place the
object over wavy guy.

Hopefully the dork is separated from your actors. If one or more of your
actors partially obscure him, it will create more work as your masks
will have to be quite precise.

Its going to be time consuming no matter what. If your camera was locked
down and did not pan, then your mask won't have to move, which will make
it a bit easier, but if your camera was handheld or pans, you will have
to take parts of the shot frame by frame. Best case, for you, is he's
standing off to the side and you can plop a mailbox or telephone pole in
front of him.

 

Chances are the audience for your video will, or at least they should be, so
interested in what your actors are doing that they won't even notice the guy
waving in the background. If they do notice then chances are your "movie"
isn't that interesting after all.

There are plenty of these types of things in the background of many of our
most popular favorite movies. For instance. In the movie "Teen Wolf" at the
end of the big basketball game scene there is a guy in the background that
actually pulls out his "perdoinger" and waves it at the camera. No one
watching the film even noticed. Not even the editors of the film.

In an Alfred Hitchcock film there is a scene where someone walks into a
restaurant firing a gun at someone else. In the background of that scene is
a little boy who, since he knew the loud gun fire sound was about to happen,
covers his ears with his hands. The director and the editor knew it was in
the scene but calculated the audience would not notice.

Near the beginning of the movie "Mad Max" you can clearly see a vehicle
overturned in the background of a scene when that vehicle is not shown
crashing a few seconds later in the film. These are just a few examples of
what goes on in the background of films everyone watches and do not notice.

Next time you watch a movie pay attention to the background instead of the
main characters and action. Particularly when there are scenes of crowded
city streets, etc. There are people that stare at the camera, wave and make
faces alll the time. The only way to come close to controlling it is to hire
alll the background extras. But even in "Teen Wolf" there was an uninvited
"member"

 

In the previous paragraph I meant to say the vehicle overturned in the
background of the scene actually does not crash until later in a subsequent
scene.

 

Thats ok, we were so engrossed in the action of the narrative, that we
did not notice the little flip flop.....