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Activity Forums Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy FCP filter tips needed

  • FCP filter tips needed

    Posted by Ivor Banham on February 19, 2009 at 6:10 pm

    I’m currently editing a project about street dancing in Tokyo. You can probably visualise the rushes in front of me, i.e. lot’s of young talented people in jeans/Tshirts/baseball caps dancing on their feet, hands, heads, backs. The camera angles are often arty/obscure (Dutch tilts, etc) with lots of operator movement (swift tilts/pans, head to feet, walk in/outs) + camera crash zooms in/out. The music bed I’ll be using is fast and electronic sounding with a thumping bass beat.

    My edits will be quick and jarring (in an MTV sort of way) I’ll probably throw in some cross stretch/squeeze transitions, white flashes and blooming one shot into another.

    All the above I can cope with, however I am fairly new to FCP and I have not had much time to play with combinations of filters re a project like this.

    Keep in mind that the underlying ‘feel’ I want to stylise in is colour, speed, techno, neon, animation. Think along the lines of Tokyo Drift meets Manga on speed!

    So can anyone suggest a combination of FCP filters to use (with suggested settings)? I don’t have much time so I would prefer to use whatever is built in to FCP rather than external apps or plug ins. That said I am up for some layering or channel usage provided someone gives me very clear instructions on how to achieve the effect in their reply.

    Many thanks to all you creative luvvies!

    Gerry Loew replied 17 years, 2 months ago 5 Members · 6 Replies
  • 6 Replies
  • Steve Eisen

    February 19, 2009 at 7:16 pm

    You gotta play with it yourself to see what suits your needs. That’s the only way to learn.

    One freebie, composite modes.

    If you were having trouble with a filter or FCP, we could assist you.

    Steve Eisen
    Eisen Video Productions
    Board of Directors
    Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group

  • Ivor Banham

    February 19, 2009 at 7:35 pm

    Unfortunately that’s not very helpful. If I had more time I would. But for years I used Premiere and I could quite easily list a number of filter combinations that would work well in different scenarios.

    Here’s an example of something I’ve recently been using in FCP for a ‘dreamy’ effect. Bloom + Light Rays + Vignette. Adjust Bloom and Light Rays for personal taste mainly using brightness and threshold settings, but I suggest you set ‘darken’ to 0 for Vignette and mix it to approx 50%.

    This is the sort of thing I’m hoping someone can share with me.

  • Steve Eisen

    February 19, 2009 at 7:45 pm

    I wish I had more time!

    Steve Eisen
    Eisen Video Productions
    Board of Directors
    Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group

  • Shane Ross

    February 19, 2009 at 7:56 pm

    Tip #1 – DO THIS SPARINGLY. Do not make every cut into a funky transition. This hurts…seriously. Quick cutting is fun and can produce great results on it’s own. If you make every cut a wild transition that is too much for the eye. I see that and I turn off the TV. CLICK! And I have worked on many a VH1 and MTV show. We relied mainly on cuts, and used SAPPHIRE plugins sparingly.

    That being said…

    Tip #2 – https://library.creativecow.net/articles/ross_shane/filter-transition.php

    Use with any sort of built in filters.

    Don’t have time? Then the producers can’t expect you to do a whole lot can they? Art takes time.

    Shane

    GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
    Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

  • Nicole Haddock

    February 19, 2009 at 8:54 pm

    Steve and Shane are right- you’ve just got to take the time and noodle around. Even with the canned filters from Magic Bullet, the now Tiffen 55mm suite, etc, once you slap it on, you still have to spend time tweaking it to get something you dig. That being said, blending modes, contrast filters and gaussian blurs can yield some pretty interesting looks.

    Once you’ve made looks you like, you can drag the filters over to a bin, label it with a look, then drag those filters onto other clips.

  • Gerry Loew

    February 24, 2009 at 7:20 pm

    You’re probably going to get the results you want by just keeping it simple and using the color corrector 3 way. That in conjunction with some blend modes should give you some nice, street looks. Then perhaps play with some of the “Time” effects filters, such as strobe.

    Have fun!

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