Long story short: the camera that was set up at Bob Greenberger’s roast to record the reactions of the roasters during the show ended up yielding less than wonderful footage. There were two problems with it.

First, a pair of backstage lights were in the shot, and the camera’s iris shut down because of the bright light shining into the lens, turning the footage kind of magenta and murky.

Second, the camera got turned a few degrees somehow during the time between rehearsal and the show, and the lectern and guest of honor ended up intruding upon the left edge of the shot—causing the camera to lock its focus on them in the foreground instead of on the people in the background. So the focus is a bit … soft.

Tweaking the focus in post-production is not easy but can be done to a small degree. Color correcting the footage to match that of the other cameras, however, is going to be all but impossible.

I despaired of salvaging the footage … and then, earlier tonight, I had a moment of inspiration:

What if I turn all the roast footage black-and-white? No more color-timing mismatches, and it will look like one of those classic comedy films that used to be produced back in the ’60s or ’70s. I could even add some old-style film grain (not scratches or damage, just a bit of texture) in post-production.

Yes, I think this just might work….