Black Bars on video

[fla_cpl]

Ok I know this is a stupid question for this place.....but how do you put the black censored bars...ON... a video?

I have several video editing programs and can't seem to figure it out. I am a total newbie to video editing.

If anyone can point me in the right direction I would appreciate it.

TIA

[fla_cpl]

come on guys, Someone here must know how to do this.

[gawker8]

I've been trying for several years to figure out how to selectively censor some of my videos -- shower and bathroom scenes with friends and relatives where I don't want the faces to show. All without much luck -- unless I'm missing something, only the more expensive editing software comes with such a feature. I'm using Pinnacle and the latest version does have zoom capability in the editing mode so I can crop out some faces but the quality suffers a bit.

Maybe one of the real experts out there can help both of us!

Gawker

[fla_cpl]

Well thanks for the reply. I can't imagine that it is this hard.

I emailed someone that had this effect on a video and they said it was really easy using the software they had on a mac. But since I use a pc they do not know these programs. I will keep searching I guess.

I pm'd vidpro figured he could help but he has not got back to me, I guess he is busy.

[rktectgreg]

I am not an expert, but my only suggestion is to make sure that whatever method you use is indeed permanent, so that someone with technical knowledge cannot merely use an editing program to remove the black bars.

It reminds me of several high level government cases lately where a document was created using MS Word and the passages intended to be confidential were covered with thick black bars. The document was then converted to a PDF, to prevent readers from viewing the information below. What the U.S. Attorneys did not realize, apparently, was that readers could use the text selection tool in any PDF viewer to copy the text beneath the bars. The readers could then paste the text into any word processor and read what the government had wanted to keep secret. One journalist used Adobe Acrobat's "Touch Up Object" tool to select the black bars covering the text. He then hit the delete button. The black bars disappeared, leaving just the text. Almost humorous, but I guess the consequences could be serious.

The moral of the story is that there are proper ways to add those black bars. I think it's called redaction. If you do a Google search under "redact" or "redaction", there will be a gazillion hits, including for videos.

Good luck. I hope it helps.

[fla_cpl]

Thanks for the help, I will google it now