hi! :confused:
I have a two-hour feature film, The Tragedy of Albert [[url]www.unrealcityproductions.co.uk][/url] which needs colour correcting. It was shot on DV [Canon XM1 and Sony PD150] for the most part, with some super 8 sections. I want to make it look as filmic as possible, giving it a bleached look throughout, and altering some of the b/w DV to make it look like Super8.
Which would be more effective for this? Nattress filters, or Magic Bullet? What are the relative advantages and disadvantages. I have used the Nattress filters and they seem pretty good, but the filmic effect seemed a little slight in places.
Also, if I end up having to colour correct it myself, I don't have a broadcast monitor. Would my best bet be to connect a TV screen to the Mac directly using the DVI --> TV convertor cable, or would it be better to connect it to a camcorder / miniDV player via firewire and then connect that device, in turn, to a TV set or sets.
I hope someone can help!
All the best,
Matt. :)
Nattress are very good value and Graeme is an occasional visitor here, info from editors I know have told me he offers exceptional backup and is known for his helpfulness via email. Magic Bullet is very expensive for the smaller studio and from productions I've seen using both, Nattress wins by an edge, IMO Graeme is driven by his passion not his desire to make money.
You do need a production monitor, at least a Grade 2 - you cannot grade via a TV! Grading is one of the most difficult jobs around, I've heard stories of graders getting up to $500K per job in the States! If you do decide to grade yourself, buy Nattress and use what you save over Magic Bullet to hire a decent monitor from a hire company.
First thing, is this supposed to be broadcast or for other use? If its broadcast then you cant avoid lots of effort tools etc etc and would probabaly be best trying to hire/blag some facility time, if not you can get great results using either tool and they both have free evals so you can just try them out.
Magic bullet does some in 3 levels editors for use in editing apps (home video and wedding market) colorista mid level tool, Magic bullet Suite pro level works inside After Effects, all have 'deep colour' rendering engine which uses technology based on 'ELin' I wont go into the detail but it processes colour in very high precession not matter what you footage a application settings. When you use specifc 'look' in these suite form DV footage this is useful as othersie you end up with nasty footage.
One thing you may end up needed to do is grain and stock matching for this you really need a compositor (After Effects, Shake etc), AE has a free 30 days eval which would give you enough time to match/correct/style your final edited film, I'll be happy to show you how to match grain, add remove etc and if you want to keep it simple I have a preset for After Effects that will give you bleach bypass for nothing, not as controllable as a plugin but it is free and works well.
Nick, I just bothered to read your sig, I like it :)
And, BTW, your advice on grading is right, it all depends on what you expect to do with the footage.
HI Alan, glad you liked it, It's good to have a laugh and quoting processors and disk arrays doesnt float my boat! The only extra use I find for the 'tools of the trade' is that with enough units switched on I dont have to heat my office even in winter :-)
I'd be interested on your thought on grading for broadcast, I have recently seen a few people using very high quality LCD monitors rather than Sony Broacast LCD/CRT, when quizzed they said the precession of these devices was better and when used with correct look up tables. The other comment I got was that as most people buy their TV from Walmart (Tesco for us in the UK would suffice) that as long as your colours were within range no one could tell the difference and that it was now more important to view the output on a crappy TV as that was the likely viewer experience.
What's "precession" in this context, chaps?
What's "precession" in this context, chaps?
How accurately the colour output maps to the colour requested basically.
Steven
Sorry missed the reply, as Steven said above how accurate the values are compared to what you see on screen, a good LCD monitor now with a quality colourimiter will let you know that what you see on screen is what its technically supposed to be.
High spec moniors now have 16bit processing to make greayscale rendition on par with the very best CRTs, 12bit Gamma with look up tables so you can set whatever style gamma you need to enmulate accuratley for PC, mac for TV, wide gamut and contrast to be able to produce accurate vaules. The real advantage is if you use a colourimiter you can calibrate the monitor well, rather than rely on factory settings and built in quality drift rates or subjective methods (blue gun etc - which can only be as good as your eyes).
I have no doubt the new line of reference monitors for video by Sony etc are very good and have advantages in terms of video inputs and format/frame rate detection/production.
I think if your entire setup is based on broadcast video the Sony style items are still the best and easiest way to go but for anyone else the cost may be more than its worth eg 32" sony HD monitor with the unit so you can put video into it and HDSDI it 5k+ for less than this you get a BMD or AJA card, Eizo or equiv monitor (24"+ full HD) and a good LCD TV I have the Sony 40" W series one + your colourimiter and still a heck of a lot of change ( I still use a SD Sony CRT monitor for SD reference and to see how it looks on CRT).
I'm not trying to knock broadcast monitors but for some (me) they are very expensive and a good PC/Mac card will let you monitor on both HD and Sd at the same time.
Thanks, Steven and Nick.