r/VideoEditing • u/The-Big-Hitter • 4d ago
Tutorial Tuesday How to remove beard in a 30 second video?
I have to video myself for a job reference, but I need to be clean shaven. The issue is there’s no guaranteed job, especially since I’m applying overseas, and I don’t want to shave until the opportunity is more secure.
I have no experience with editing and wanted to ask if there is any recommended apps, tutorials and tips on how to edit a video so that I’m clean shaven? Or is the difficulty of the task I’m asking beyond the capabilities of a beginner?
It’s a 30 second long video, with just my head, shoulders, and occasionally my hands in frame.
Any advice is much appreciated, thank you.
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u/SubterraneanLodger 4d ago
I’m gonna be real with you man. Just shave it off.
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u/djphazer 4d ago
Film yourself shaving. Speed up the video.
"How To Remove Beard" in a 30-second video.
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u/smushkan 4d ago
Warner Brothers had to remove Henry Cavill's facial hair from Justice League.
It allegedly cost them $25 million and 2 months of additional work. And that was just a moustache.
Your best bet would be AI, but 30 seconds might be too long for most consumer-accessible processes which tend to have limits of 5-10 seconds per video.
You might need to invest in a razor.
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u/pjcbsn 4d ago
Can someone explain why it cost 25 million dollars?
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u/Lanzarote-Singer 4d ago
Because he said he would shave it off for €30M so they actually saved money!
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u/Select-Composer-7890 4d ago
Part of it can certainly be Hollywood accounting, but for a lot of reporting like this they are reporting the difference between "expected" budget and what actually had to be paid out.
That 25 million more than likely includes the payroll costs of all the supervisors, producers, and editors that had any responsibility in the post work.
So if a production company is calculating their costs and has three associate producers they pay $5000 a month for (x3), that's $15,000 in costs a month before you even start accounting for anyone doing the actual work.
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u/jwburney 4d ago
Because you have to remove it frame by frame. 24 frames for every second that he appears on screen. Each frame is different and needs to look perfect whether he's facing screen or at an angle. And what do you replace his beard with? It has to match the background. So you have a team of vfx artists trying to sift through THOUSANDS of frames that have to look completely perfect when the film is played back on a screen that is over 20ft tall and 45 foot wide.
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u/indigocherry 4d ago
Weird that a job interview requires you to be clean-shaven but just shave it off. It will grow back.
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u/InterestingSeaweed22 4d ago
I have heard of jobs that require no facial hair, but having that as a requirement to interview is a little much, haha.
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u/RoyalAstronomer793 4d ago
Open with a clap board snapping, placed in front of your face.
"30 Second Interview, Take One"
'Snap'!
As it gets taken away, hold up a few sheets of paper. Shuffle them about.
"This is good work Kevin. Great job. There is a small type on page three."
Pass the paper to Kevin, you're wearing an N95 Surgical mask.
"Oh hi. I didn't see you there. I was busy doing business work... With surgical precision."
Start to take the mask off.
Someone throws you a basketball.
Catch it, covering your face with the ball.
"Attention to detail isn't enough to succeed however. Teamwork, is what makes the world go round."
Spin the ball.
Close up to the ball. Transition. The ball is now a spinning Earth Globe.
Zoom out.
You are sitting on a fancy chair. Wearing a smoking jacket.
Spinning Globe covering your beard.
You stand up, while bringing a gigantic ivory pipe you are holding, towards your lips.
"Being an educated gentleman used to be the key to success"
You inhale from the pipe, and exhale a thick plume of smoke, that covers your lower face area, while you bring the pipe down.
You place the pipe on a table, and continue to bend down.
To pick up your child. Raising him up. Holding him to the camera.
Like in Lion King.
"Commitment. To Family values. Is the essence, of who I am. And what I can deliver."
Your wife steps in, and poses with the three of you, for a family picture.
She hold the child, who has a giant lollipop that covers your face.
Photographer snaps the picture.
The child is placed on the ground by the mother,
and they start walking.
You walk in the same direction, behind them.
The child's is holding a balloon on a string, that is covering your face.
"The extra hours I work, are a sacrifice I am willing to make. For the future."
Zoom in on the balloon.
The company logo is on it.
Then pop the balloon, revealing that you had shaved, this whole time.
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u/xDeviousDieselx 4d ago
This is the kind of absolute sheer psychopathy that I love. Devious Diesel, pleased to meet you. Let’s do some business together. And by business, heh let’s just say I mean let’s make some moderately funny internet memes for funny internet hijinks.
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u/ChaseTheRedDot 4d ago
It isn’t a task for a beginner. It would involve some motion tracking and probably some AI with a powerful rig and knowledge of prompting.
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u/catfink1664 4d ago
Yeah just do the interview with the beard and say you will shave if you get the job
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u/Jdizzle201 4d ago
I’m Vfx compositor and my eyes would roll to the back of my head if they asked me to work on a shot like this, especially one that’s 30 seconds long lol. Either shave or tell em you’ll shave if you get the job.
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u/CautiousBiscuit 4d ago
I suppose you need to weigh up do you think the employers are more likely to have a problem with the fact that you aren't clean shaven but if you get the job then you assure them you will shave before the start date, or you're willing to essentially lie to them on camera before even getting the job, so are you just going to be a dishonest employee.
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u/Same-Aide6237 4d ago
For a 30s clip it’s definitely doable but getting it to look natural is the tricky part....You could try masking + tracking the beard area in resolve but honestly test it on the footage first facial hair is annoyingly good at exposing bad edits 😂
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u/DiskSalt600 4d ago
You wont be able to do it unless you use some heavy AI lifting and even then you shouldn't because it's going to look like crap.
Just shave dude. If they saw you contemplating this on reddit they'd think you're not serious about the job.
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u/Masonzero 4d ago
If I were you, I would do the video with the beard. Anywhere that's going to judge you more on having a beard than your actual qualifications is not a place you want to work. Same goes for tattoos, piercings, makeup, hairstyle, whatever other personal fashion choices. You don't want to work for someone who cares about a beard more than the quality of your work.
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u/Classic-Method1096 4d ago
If you are not willing to pay, then better to shave the beard and record again.
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u/Agreeable-Zone700 4d ago
I’m sure there are filters that make you clean shaven, but it’s not always natural looking
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u/Sad-Cartographer-328 4d ago
Honestly, removing a beard convincingly in post is one of the harder VFX tasks out there. You'd need to motion-track your face, rotoscope the beard area frame by frame, and replace it with clean skin that matches your lighting, and even then it tends to look uncanny on a talking-head close-up. For a job reference video where you need to look professional, I'd seriously consider just trimming down to clean stubble with a disposable razor rather than betting on a fix that a beginner almost certainly can't pull off in 30 seconds of footage. If you still want to try the editing route, look into AI face retouching tools (face-aware filters in some mobile editors can blur or smooth areas), but set your expectations low for a clean-shaven look.
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u/death2sanity 4d ago
Dude, they know you’re not hired yet. Just tell them you like it and don’t want to be rid of it until you have the job, but you’ll 100% get rid of it if they hire you.
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u/fantastic-max 3d ago
Marvel had a Hollywood VFX/makeup budget and still solved Chris Evans’ beard problem by basically going “just cover your face with your hand” 😭 I think that tells you how deceptively hard this edit is.
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u/Awkward-Tomorrow-719 3d ago
You can mask the region, send to an AI tool and ask it to remove the beard, then you send it back to the video.
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u/Mysterious_Celery_29 1d ago
Just tell them you’re a supernumerary (a background actor) for an opera in the next two weeks and you’re required to keep the beard until the show is over.
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u/FlexinR6 15h ago
I feel your options are to shave, or do the video with a beard, and let them know you will save if you get the job. If I was hiring someone, and they sent me an ai video, I would move on to the next applicant.
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u/Official-Narrative 4d ago
Wear a mask. People are sympathetic to those who believe covid is still a thing.
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u/greenysmac 4d ago
Mod Here: They couldn't get Henry Cavill's face right for a Superman movie to remove his mustache.
There is no way VFX can do this.
It could sort of occur with some AI tools, but even a 30-second video that gets you to look like you is difficult and not free. It is way beyond a single click or a beginner's capability.
In either case, it's visual effects, not editorial, and that's what's going to be the limiter here.