Replacing a stationary background object with blank

theK

Need your help!
So I got this interview. Here's a short clip - 
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HCUZ4cSDGjqpdQrAK5dNvoTO-TKd9jn2

As you can see there is a grey object in the background (a fan holder) which is stationary. On any other case I would replace it with a clone stamp to match the wall behind.
The problem is that interviewer's head occasionally get in the way, and masking the stamp on each frame seems like a big bother and will look awkward (it will be difficult to mask all the tiny pixels between the hairs etc..)

is there any automatic / faster way to replace these grey pixels and match it to the wall, with an exclusion - every time the head gets in the way, it will be in the front and there will be no replacement. I hope I was clear...
Thank you guys!

Triem23

Express or Pro? 

In Express you can try HUE/RGB key. In Pro, that, or Chroma key (doesn't have to green, y'know). 

That said, the gray fan holder is pretty close in value to the rest of the wall and somewhat close to the occluding hair. There will likely be some "shimmer" to the key if you don't dial in your settings correctly. 

theK

Yes the Chroma key worked for me, thank you!
If anyone else need, here's how to do it - 

top layer: the chroma keyed footage, maintaining the interviewee's head
mid layer: the pixel replacement for the blank spot (I sampled a small piece of the wall in photoshop, exported the picture and placed it in the blank spot)
under layer: the regular footage. This because the chroma key also key out some of the details in the footage, so the regular footage compensate all the lost data in the chroma keyed footage.

Triem23

Clean key, no "shimmer" in the hair? Excellent! Glad it worked!