Get your crime fighting shoes on

Well I was going to prat around with the template for this blog some more, make a few more cups of tea, procrastinate about ever actually posting anything, but all that changed this morning with my friend Tom issuing a Cry For Help.

Turns out some git stole his bag in a pub last week.  It contained, "a laptop, my 5D and a shirt I liked".

To make matters worse Tom was between insurance companies at the time so his only hope is the long arm of the law.  The long arm of the law unfortunately had other things to worry about and so he is now turning to the Long Arm Of T'Internet.  Being an enterprising sort Tom got hold of CCTV footage showing the theft in glorious pixelated monochrome and then got in touch with me.

"Can you" he asked "blur out the other faces so I can post this online?"

So I put down the jar of peanut butter I'd been drowning my sorrows in and got to work.

I found a video tutorial at Metacafe showing me how to blur out a single face but being lazy efficient I decided there were too many faces for that stunt, so I opened up Final Cut, stacked two copies of the video over each other, Gaussian Blurred the one on top then added an oval matte shape to selectively reveal the unblurred-video below.

Witness here the resulting masterpiece.

The Bag Git (as he shall henceforth be known) can be clearly seen sitting down, looking around shiftily, then picking up and walking out with the rucksack. 

Tom would very much like his stuff back - the camera especially - if you were at The George on Great Queen Street last Tuesday (October the 25th) at about 9:30pm, please do eyeball this.  Anyone who goes there regularly may wish to also eyeball this and keep an eye out for the Bag Git.

This has been a public service announcement People.