Film look ideas please.
 

I have video footage of two actors, shot in a white environment.
The footage is extremely sharp and toooooo video.

Can anyone help me make this look warmer. What techniques, programs, or AE plugins really work.

I love my XL1 but I'd really like to get a softer, richer look to the piece I'm working on.

Thanks,

Paul Winterton
Vancouver, Canada

If you want a softer look you can always add (guassian) blurs,
motion blurs, un-sharpen filters etc. And yes, post work can change
the look very much! Changing contrast, color correction (timing)
etc. can change a lot!

Just fiddle around with the filters that you've got in your applications
and you should be able to find a couple that can change your
footage to more acceptable looks. One thing that easily enoughs
changes my footage is to get it progressive (if you haven't shot
it in frame/progressive mode you can de-interlace it etc.) and
add black bars (letterbox it).

Just some ideas and hits etc. Good luck!

what NLE or post production programs are you using?

Well... for my editing I'm currently using Premiere, but I'm also
looking at other products like Vegas Video, Avid, Pinnacle Edition
etc. As for other post work I haven't played enough with the
systems yet. I have access to things like After Effects, Combustion
etc. but not much time to actually take a look at those before I
decide which one I'll go with. I do know that Avid and (especially
the new version 4) Vegas Video have some incredible tools for
altering the picture for being NLE applications!

Most post applicatios (like AE, Combustion etc.) are made for these
purposes and have much tools available.

I even know people who (for short sequences) imported all
the frames in Photoshop and did some image manipulation
in there. All depends on what you have (can afford).

Hope this explained it a bit.

RE: Photoshop - there is a open source program called FILM GIMP that is out and about that basically will do the same thing as the whole export by frame/import to photoshop/export back to frame and then import back into NLE thing--- I've not had a chance to play with it but I know that the reviews have been great and a number of h'wood productions have used it for stuff like taking dust shadows off frames and stuff.


re: your toning down the background: I've had great luck toying with the color correction tools in FCP to do a lot of stuff I didn't think I could with it.

Not knowing what program you are using I can't say but with the FCP one I can work with a specific color in a shot to alter/enhance/whatever it.

the other things to ask are what are your actors doing? Lot's of moving around?

for warmer your NLE should have color correction of some kind using your NLE .. if you don't have one yet .. download the beta of Vegas 4 .. www.sonicfoundry.com

for a softer "looK' you might try putting the same clip on 2 video tracks ..

color color correct the TOP track .. and add satuation

2nd track use some type of BLUR FX to soften it ..

then set opacity on top track around 50-60% ( depends on how much BLUR you added) set to your EYE .. always check it on a NTSC monitor ...

Ideas please
 

The other suggestions are good ones for post. But before you get to post, consider using a 1/2 black promist filter. I got a very good one from Tiffen, through ZGC, for about $70, if I remember correctly.

Paul,

Monsieur Donatello hit a homerun solution for your situation. What he is describing is similiar to a technique we call "Field Blending" in Final Cut Pro -- or any other NLE program that allows for multiple layers of video tracks and opacity control for each track.

I would say that a combination of *deinterlacing* via field blending and some tasty color/ level correction will yield you at least 90% of the look you are after.

Here's a good link to Field Blending in FCP:
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage...ideo_film.html

- don

Does Premiere allow for multiple video tracks?

Hello Imran,

What computer are you using? More or less, yes it does - remember though you still have to render out the timeline if you are combining tracks, so you want as fast of a computer as you can get.

If you are on the Mac, you would be getting a better deal with more value even with Apple's new FCP Express
http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress.

You can download the free 60 day trial of Adobe Premiere 6.0 at http://www.adobe.com/products/tryado...tml#product=42

Keep in touch Imran,

- don

Hi Don. Actually, I have a PC and I do have Premiere 6.5. I just had never tried the method mentioned above and before I started trying to figure it out, I just wanted to find out if it was even possible and worth attempting.

Thanks!
Imran.

Thank you Imran,

Please keep us posted about your project!

We'd love to hear back from you.

- don