This is a site for people wanting to share information on filmmaking or TV production. There are very talented people creating new and exciting films and media everyday. This site will promote to those filmmakers that want to know more. And marketing info for targeting to your audience.
OK people. I see everyday, every hour someone posting "I have this color grade and I don't know what to do?" If you have to ask that question you need to delete your edit software and leave it too the professionals. This is why this industry is having such an issue with paying professional what they deserve because clueless people think just because they have a laptop, edit software and a powerful grading software they are colorists. Real colorists went to school for art, tv, design, or any number of courses that taught what "looks" and "colors" effect our emotions. Go rent every DVD out there and watch and take notes. Get a pen and notebook and make notes of how things look. Study Study Study. When you see someone explain it like Denver you think it's super simple. Denver has many years experience and knows what colors should be in the shot but more importantly then what colors shouldn't be in the shot. Turn your fb off, turn your computer off, go out the front door down the steps and walk too your nearest art museum. Walk the halls, look at the colors and make notes of how you feel when you see those colors. Do that every day for a week. Then you'll just begin to start to understand what it means to be a colorist.
"+Jim Robinson Hey Jim, If I am honest I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about - but you sound like you know what you're talking about so I'll ask you this question. I am a guy who has a GH4, doesn't know shit about video but wants to make some nice footage. I've been watching videos here online which first recommended vlog-L over Cinelike-D, after watching a bunch of vlog-L videos, I have discovered a bunch of people complaining about it, but I have still seen some great video using it? So in the most simple terms possible, what would you say to a newbie shooting in vlog-L who wants the footage to look great (recording internally), I am going to shoot something, take it home and import the file onto my computer and throw it straight into Premiere Pro, and throw a LUT on it (as cringe as that probably sounds to a professional). Do I need to do anything else such as this "decompression" you speak of? What other recommendations would you make to a newbie shooting in vlog-L, please speak to me like a retard. I only want to be informed..."
This was copied from a youtube comment I read on this guys post about v-log. It got me thinking there are tons of people out there picking up these awesome cameras and then watching a few videos and suddenly they are the next Kubrick, Deakins or Kovacs. It takes time to study and learn about the reasons for the settings that we choose to film for each lighting required for that moment.
If you want to learn how to take better pictures of videos then get out there and go to school. Sit under a master, buy an actual book? People do your homework don't try to take shortcuts.
This is an excellent performance of Ian Fleming's classic Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. You must get to the Artisan Theater if you can still get tickets. Most shows have been sold out! This just in they are adding new show times.
I've been an editor for many years and always had to send a finished project to a "colorist" for final grading on most of our projects. But now with work, practice, studying and understanding art we can handle most of our smaller color grading assignments ourselves. We were using Davinci Resolve 12 until recently when we came up Color Finale for Final Cut Pro X. I'm sure I wasn't the only one that ran from FCPX when it first arrived. I went to Premier or AVID for my edit system of choice. Now that APPLE has listened to the professional editors out there they've made some awesome changes. I'm not back to the edit system that just works the best. This blog isn't about the edit system it's about the color grading tool at our fingertips.
This time around, something bigger: an entire color correction suite, supporting multiple instances of several different adjustments. This is a big deal for FCP X users: let’s find out how big. (Note: footage here was shot in ProRes/Film mode on my Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera. You’ll need high quality footage to stand up to serious grading.)
Interface
Instead of on-screen controls that overlay the video, or packing the content into the Inspector, the Color Finale user interface lives in a separate floating window that sits above the FCP X interface, launched by pressing a button in the Inspector.
This floating window has benefits and drawbacks. Obviously, being free of the constraints of the Inspector allows the use of a much wider screen area, and not using on-screen controls allows you to see your entire Viewer at once. So far so good, but a floating window requires management, and you’ll likely position it above most of your timeline so you can see the Viewer clearly. You’ll still want to see the top part of the timeline, so you can be sure which clip you’re adjusting, but it’s not too hard to manage if you have enough screen space.
At the left side of the window, you can choose one of four types of adjustments to add to the mix. Multiple instances of each are possible, and (like Layers in Photoshop) you can adjust Opacity of each and rearrange the layer order too.
(Note, though, that the floating window also sits above other apps if you switch out of FCP X, so you’ll probably need to close it if you need to work on something else.)
Curves, Curves, Curves!
I don’t know how long I’ve been asking for this, but I finally have proper Curves controls in FCP X, and I couldn’t be happier. You can put a point anywhere you want to, then push it up or down to finesse a very specific part of the image. Just the highlights too bright? No problem. Shadows a touch too blue but highlights perfect? Just move the shadows in the blue channel. It’s actually better than Photoshop’s implementation, because you can see and adjust the composite RGB channel or any of the component channels at any time. (Interestingly, if you use Curves with scopes visible, you can see some stair-stepping, but it disappears after rendering and therefore isn’t a problem.)
Weighted color wheels with a bonus global Saturation control.
Wheels
Those of you who’ve been missing the Three-Way Color Corrector finally have a (near) replacement. There’s no auto-balance here, and the Shadows/Midtone/Highlight wheels are now called Lift/Gamma/Gain to reflect colorist sensibilities, but it’s otherwise the same kinds of controls, with weighted pucks to make finer adjustments easier. Very nice.
Here’s a basic LUT to get started—note you can reduce Opacity of any layer if it’s too much.
LUTs till you drop
LUT Utility is now more or less obsolete, with a LUT layer you can use to perform quick corrections. Ideal for those who shoot with Log-gamma clips (Canon C-log, Blackmagic Film, Sony S-log etc.) and also anyone who wants a more aggressive “film” look, this will adjust colors but won’t add grain or sharpness. As you can add multiple LUTs, it’s quite possible to correct from Log first, use Curves, then add a “film-style” LUT on top. Great stuff.
Here I’ve pushed the Reds to be more saturated, and more pink.
Vectors
These controls look simple, but aren’t. They let you adjust Hue, Saturation and Luminosity (so far so good) for only specific colors in your image — not the whole image at once. This is the tool you want if your blues aren’t blue enough, or your yellows not orange enough.
Before/after, featuring a LUT, a couple of curves and some saturation.
Conclusions
While it’s not perfect—I’ve been steadily sending feature requests through the beta period—it’s very good indeed, and further updates are promised. Color Finale really does make some advanced corrections quite simple, and it’s terrific to finally have Curves. The fact that they’re alongside three other very useful corrections makes this an easy recommendation. Try the trial now.
Editors could learn a thing or two from 91-year-old editing legend Anne V. Coates.
Legendary editor Anne V. Coates has won two and been nominated for five Oscars (including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007). The nonagenarian editor refuses to use Avid; instead, Coates said she "has her own system" which was custom-made to her preferences—much like the one made for Thelma Schoonmaker—though she refuses to elaborate on the details.
At the Sight, Sound & Story event at the NYIT Theater in Manhattan, Coates sat down for a wide-ranging conversation in which she dissected clips from some of her most famous films and dispensed wisdom about editing and working with directors (from David Lean to David Lynch).
Here are five lessons you can learn from her.
1. Have the courage not to cut
Coates, whose career has spanned more than six decades, won her first Academy Award in 1962 for David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia. It features one of the most famous cuts in movie history: the spatial/temporal cut from a lit match being blown out to the blazing sun rising over the desert. The sun fills the 70mm frame, jolting the viewer forward in time and space. (While frequently referred to as a match cut, David Bordwell argues that it should be referred to as more of a "graphic match.")
Originally written in the script as a dissolve, the famous edit is the result of the so-called limitations of cinematic technology at the time.
The scene is also notable for the length of time that the two-shot is held before the camera cuts to a close profile of a smiling Peter O'Toole as he blows out a match. Usually, such a scene would be cut with the shot/reverse shot technique, though the hold makes the graphic match that follows far more effective.
Coates revealed that Lean was interested in French Nouvelle Vague techniques, to which she had introduced him. The cut, however, wasn't planned; originally written in the script as a dissolve, the famous edit is the result of the so-called limitations of cinematic technology at the time. All dissolves and other effects on film had to be processed with the use of an optical printer, which was not employed until the end of the editing process, when credits and other elements were added. The temporary cut, though, was so jolting that they kept it, and Lean's affinity for the French New Wave made him more amenable to the choice, though he instructed Coates to take "two frames" off.
Imagine how much less of an impact the transition would have were it a slow dissolve; by taking advantage of an unplanned opportunity, Coates and Lean made the film far more cinematic.
2. Silence is power
A similar example of restraint Lawrence of Arabia is the scene at Ali's well, often cited as one of the best character introductions in the history of cinema.
A striking element of this scene is its use of diegetic sound. Coates revealed that, usually, there would have been "all sorts of suspenseful music cues," but while editing, Coates and Lean recognized the power of silence inherent in building suspense. (It should be noted that the film's score, by Maurice Jarr, also won an Academy Award; all in all, the film won ten Oscars.) This sequence is also frequently cited as one of the best introductions of a character (played by Omar Sharif) in movies.
In fact, the lack of music actually works far better than the "suspenseful" music usually placed in order to "cue" the audience to the fact that something is about to happen. The long shot of the approaching Ali on horseback, appearing in the distance as a shimmering mirage, is much more mysterious because we don't know his intentions; we can infer, however, from the behavior of Lawrence's Bedouin guide, that they are almost certainly not good. The sound of the horse approaching plays out a kind of music—a rhythm—that doesn't increase in volume as Ali gets closer, but rather remains at a steady level throughout his approach.
3. Get creative with character reveals
When working on David Lynch's The Elephant Man, his second feature after the groundbreaking Eraserhead, the director had to contend with producer Mel Brooks (who, because of his reputation as a satirist, left his name off the credits) regarding the issue of how to reveal the titular character, otherwise known as John Merrick (played by John Hurt in a masterful performance, both for its devastating emotion and the heavy prosthetics that took seven hours to apply). Coates, who was frequently on set, said that during a meeting in pre-production,Brooks told Lynch: "Listen, David, I know you're a genius, but..." and then enumerated his ideas for the introduction of the character.
Brooks' sensitivity about the subject matter and his own involvement (at the time, he had not yet decided to leave his name off) led to concerns that audiences would perceive the character as being mocked, rather than shown for his humanity. In the end, though, Coates cut the scene with great restraint, and by focusing on the face of Hopkins{C}{C}{C}{C}—rather than Merrick, who is shown first hooded, and then in cuts of one or two seconds{C}{C}{C}{C}—the power of the scene comes not from the reveal, but the emotion on Hopkins's face as a single tear falls down his face. (When the film was screened for executives who demanded cuts to the opening and ending sequences, Brooks defended the film, saying he had screened it for them as a courtesy but would not take suggestions from "raging primitives.")
4. Don't be afraid to stretch your style to its limits
Coates drew laughter from the crowd when she related how she told Steven Soderbergh to "stretch her" before they began working together on Out of Sight, the adaptation of the Elmore Leonard novel starring George Clooney and J-Lo. Coates was speaking stylistically; while editing the film with Soderbergh, the two developed a cutting schema that Coates describes as somewhat "tricksy."
"There were sections we had to cut which we found a bit too tricksy; for instance, there was a scene in another prison, which never quite made sense to me," Coates said. "And Steven would say, 'I think we should reign it in here.'"
The scene below, where Clooney and Lopez meet for the first time since their initial encounter, is often praised as one of the best-written and edited love scenes in recent American film for its use of overlapping dialogue and images that echo each other as we move from the hotel bar to the room.
Coates spoke of how the conceit—apparent in a few shots, where the image seems to freeze for a split second—was originally developed in order to introduce characters, though when used in this sequence, Coates and Soderbergh found that it increased the power of the moment, particularly before they kiss on the bed.
This openness to stylistic growth, as well as a knowledge of when to reign yourself in, is integral to any creative project, though particularly to filmmaking and editing, where no matter how attractive the "tricksy" cuts might be, the ultimate purpose is to serve the story.
5. Be open to improv
While working on the cult classic What About Bob?, Coates revealed that she was shocked that the film did better on its second weekend than its first—though she realized later that this was due to word of mouth, as well as the fact that the negative environment on set the film became newsworthy. (The principles didn't want to be in the same room; apparently, Frank Oz, Bill Murray, Richard Dreyfuss, and producer Laura Ziskin formed two camps, and much of the on-screen tension between the two leads is not faked.)
Coates said three endings were filmed: one by Oz, one devised by Murray, and the third by Dreyfuss, who ended up winning because his tested the best in front of audiences. She speculated that the infighting caused Oz's ending to be less powerful than it could have been, as the director was worn out by the shoot.
Coates spoke of the difficulties associated with shooting with an actor like Murray, who, she said, very rarely does the same thing twice from take to take. When shooting improvisation, she stressed, it's useful to have multiple cameras to get the coverage necessary in order to keep the story and narrative continuous. Coates's work on the classic dinner table scene is remarkable; in its use of Murray's improvised and exaggerated noises of pleasure at the meal contrasted with Dreyfuss' growing agitation, it's easy to see how Coates draws from the history of cinema, as the scene could have existed in a Marx Brothers film.
Plan Your Visit to Video Edge Live: Discussions, Demos, Experts, Education, and Even Prizes
We're looking forward to seeing you June 15 in San Francisco for Video Edge Live (link to http://www.nexttvsummit.com/sf-expo/#), a free, day-long educational event examining the next generation of video production and distribution.
We have a series on discussions planned that we think will give you perspective on considering, creating and delivering content for today's connected consumer. To help you plan your visit, here's the schedule of sessions:
11:00 a.m. Winning the Streaming Game: Live Sports Production
12:00 p.m. Structuring a Real-Time, Real-World Streaming Workflow
1:00 p.m. The Evolution of News Reporting: Integrating New Technologies
2:00 p.m. Making Decisions About Cloud-Based Media Management
3:00 p.m. Going Live on Location: Event Streaming Expertise
The exhibit hall will be open throughout the day, and if you'd like to get an advance look at some of the products that will be on display, click here to read our Video Edge Live Technology Preview.
And at 4:30 p.m., we'll be giving away an Apple iPad Pro, so be sure to enter the drawing at the registration area.
If you haven't already, pre-register here to attend Video Edge Live.
Filmmaker Ezra Edelman talks about his seven-and-a-half-hour O.J. Simpson documentary, "O.J.: Made in America," premiering on ESPN and ABC June 11. The project involved finding, managing and piecing together a huge amount of archival footage.
"The whole film is about who we are and what we bring to these stories and how we look at them," explains Edelman. "I have a distinct way of looking at this story and then by the same token in terms of what the final product is – every person that worked on the film, especially the editors — how much something is driven by what goes on creatively inside these people’s heads."
PBS' POV documentary series will be streaming 100 free short and feature-length documentaries this summer, with a special spotlight on documentaries directed by women.
The streaming documentaries include "Love and Diane," "George Girl," "15 to Life," "After Tiller," and more.
The films are available on pov.org/video as well as the POV channel of the PBS app.
Jessica Kiang interviews Noah Baumach and Jake Paltrow about Brian DePalma, the subject of new documentary "DePalma." Oh, and DePalma was also there to weigh in on DePalma.
"The more you talk to Brian, the more valuable this stuff is," explains Paltrow, "and at a certain point, we just thought, 'It must be recorded!' Even just for us — selfishly at first. And then when we started doing it, we realized that 50% of this really is the delivery. The way it's being told. That itself is so alive, that it's its own movie, kind of besides the content of what he's giving us."
The Best of Show Awards program covering the spring NAB Show continues to grow! Now your free Best of Show Program Guide from NewBay Media is hot off the virtual presses and you can read it here.
It's a great way to learn about 280 (!) new products that were introduced at the spring convention for TV/video, radio, audio and pro AV professionals.
Anybody who follows the news has likely seen more of sext-loving former congressman Anthony Weiner than they would prefer, so it's difficult to imagine there would be anything further on the subject worth watching. But the documentary film "Weiner" from directors Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg offers a compelling take on the portion of the politician's career after his first sexting scandal—from his effective PR rehabilitation and entry into the New York mayoral race to his humiliating and mostly self-imposed second downfall. The history of politics is full of similar stories, but it's quite rare for an audience to get to see the person at the center of the controversy reacting to events as they occur.
