Magic Bullet Now For Sale
 

Magic Bullet, previously only available as a highly-regarded post-processing service to give video "The Film Look", is now available for sale as a suite of After Effects filters as of June 10, 2002. You can get more info, download a demo and order the product ($995) exclusively from Toolfarm.com.

(http://www.toolfarm.com/)

My copy is currently stuck in customs here in Sweden ;)

hey there
 

hi Ken-

Do you have a copy of this plug in? I've read nice things about it online but I don't know anyone who's used it or has any first hand stuff to say. I know it converts your 30 frames to 24, right? Let me know. Thanks.

Christian

Christian,
You can download a demo from the Tool Farm URL above to see for yourself. In general, it can produce some very nice results -if- your footage has been well lit, properly exposed, and well-framed. Amateur 'handycam-style' footage will still looks like, well, amateur footage.

It's essential to play with the demo before you drop $1,000 on the package.

It does convert 30i to 24p but I would not do it. It's not really possible to convert 30 to 24 without serious motion artifacts in any package. I'd do it to 30p if I where shooting NTSC.

<<<-- It's not really possible to convert 30 to 24 without serious motion artifacts in any package.>>

May I ask out of curiousity to whoever might know...how did they get Blair Witch Project to 24fps film?? Wasn't it filmed with NTSC? I know it's a different level cause we're talking professional transfers and all but I'd just like to know how they did it since I do not know. Thanks :-)


Revolver1010.

See this thread:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2072&highlight=Blair+Witch

Some of you on a tight budget might want to try DVFilm Maker. It's only a fraction of the cost of Magic Bullet (i.e., Bite the Bullet) The following is a quote from their site:

"Fans of the Canon XL-1 have known for years that the "frame movie" mode of that camera can achieve a film-like appearance. It appears to shoot 30 NTSC or 25 PAL frames per second, much like a movie camera takes 24 frames per second, without interlaced fields. The result looks much more like film than the 60 fields/sec or 50 fields/sec of conventional interlaced video. However, the XL-1 is not the sharpest camera in the world and the "frame movie" mode has its own problems: for example, NTSC frame mode cannot be smoothly converted to 24 frames/sec for transfer to film. Also, since the camera generates the "frames" by offsetting the green sensor by one scan line, the vertical resolution is slightly reduced and rapidly moving objects show a slight color fringe around them."

For more info, go to http://www.dvfilm.com/maker/index.htm