I shot a short film recently and I made quite a few amateurish mistakes I'm trying my best to fix in post.

In one scene, there's something in the frame that I really want to try to hide. It runs from near the top-left of the frame down to the bottom left of the frame. The action I need to save is pretty much dead center...so I'm thinking about adding an iris-like effect where a circle of black would surround the image and rounding it off (silent-era film style).

What's the best way to do this in Premiere? Perhaps putting a black matte behind it and using opacity keyframes? Which video effect would you use?

I hope I'm being clear in what I'm trying to do because I'd love some advice from the experts here.

...I'm not. Here ends your disclaimer.

Sounds like you want an 8-point garbage matte (a 'keying' effect) in the simplest case. A step-up would be creating a mask with a paint program.

I'd say you're right about keyframing the opacity, and I'd have to think about how best to feather the edges of your mask(s). I've been very happy using the more advanced masks in aftereffects, if you have that at your disposal.

edited to add:
I just tried this in Premiere 2.0, ymmv. ;-p
Insert->New->ColorMatte (choose the color, etc)
add into the timeline, and apply these effects to the 'effects control' of the matte:
Effects->Keying->8ptGrbgeMatte, adjust the control pts to shape the boundary
(this will appear to cover your action, and leave the 'artifact' uncovered, then you invert it in the next step)
Effects->Channel->Invert, set it to invert the alpha channel only
Effects->Blur&Sharpen->RadialBlur, not gaussian because that effects the frame edge as well as the 'iris' shape.

Looks like I wasn't wrong about the experts here at all.

Thanks for those very useful tips/steps! I will try it as soon as I get home.


I really appreciate your help!

yw

here's a screen cap, just because I wanted to try an attachment...

Wow. Even better. Thanks :)

You've just done all my work for me... heh