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Cheating with FCP
I was wondering if anyone had any tips on making footage shot with a prosumer camcorder – in my case an XH-A1 – look like it was shot with a much more high end lens.
I’m using custom presets on the camera, not the factory settings, and the videos look awesome when published to the web.
On DVD however, the footage is almost too clear. It attains this kind of glassy, flat appearance that looks a bit, well, video-ish.
Obviously I’m aware that lighting conditions during shooting have a big part to play in how things come out in the edit. But there were a couple of shots in a recent project – one in a big, glass roofed atrium where I had very little control over the natural light – and the result on DVD just betrays the fact it wasn’t shot on a particularly high end camera.
What kind of tricks exist in post to cheat footage in looking less video-y. Apart from the old re-shoot filter that is.
Thanks in advance!
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6 Replies
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Check out Magic Bullet Looks! Use it all the time. If you watch the digital juice site, you can find it on sale there for around half off if you’re lucky.
Other than that, play around with your color corrector 3-way.
Tony Brittan
Apple Certified Pro – FCP
islandshoreproductions.com -
Yes, time to learn the beautiful “Art of Color Grading”, and to learn tricks like rendering to a codec better than the acquisition one.
You will find plain of interesting stuff using the SEARCH function.
Best,
rafael -
All sorts of stuff you can do in Color. Complete with 90 downloadable “looks” from Apple site to apply.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
Credits include multiple Emmy, Telly, Aurora and Peabody Awards.
Owner, Biscardi Creative Media featuring HD Post
Biscardi Creative MediaCreative Cow Forum Host:
Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, Apple Color, AJA Kona, Business & Marketing, Maxx Digital. -
Thanks everyone.
Grading with Color is certainly a next step – have followed a couple of your Cow tutorials on the basics Walter. (Am interested in buying the DVD, but there appear to be some shipping issues??)
I’m pretty au fait with the 3-way color corrector, and as I say, the videos look great on the web. It’s only on DVD that I’m getting that slightly unreal sensation from some of the shots…
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Now Walter, before you get everyone all excited, make sure you tell them those 90 looks only work with Color 1.5. Those of us who haven’t upgraded to FCP7 yet are just out of luck.
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Nattress (https://www.nattress.com) makes a film look plugin that emulates the framerate and colorimetry of film, it has quite a few presets and cranks to tweak until you’re happy with the look.
Bob Auiler | bob.auiler@mvpcollaborative.com
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