Just want to start by saying thanks to everyone who continue to answer my massive amounts of questions. I finally got everything renedered from hd to sd. I used dvd arch. to output and on both plasma and lcd 50+ inch tv's it looks amazing. My wife and I took the dvd over to the theater we are using for our cast and crew screening and gave it a test run. I was less than impressed it seemed that anywhere there was a minor shadow was now very dark. Also the color in general seemed very flat. I'm just asking is there anything we can do maybe in cc to help bust the color and put the life back in our movie. My other question is when we render to hdcam tape or blueray will it look this bad. I'm very concerned because we like most film makers want our work to be seen in film festivals. I just hate putting this much effort in to something and then have to show a less than stellar version of the film. Any help is very much appreciated.

There are so many variables in the production chain that can affect the final outcome of your work. How do you know that the equipment used in the theatre was set up correctly? It is always a good idea to include colour bars at the top of a recording if at all possible. You would at least have something to compare.

Many (most?) computer monitors and TVs tend to exaggerate the saturation of the images sent to them. If you have not calibrated them properly, you may be up for a big surprise when you see your videos output on well calibrated equipment. Presumably, a theater projector would be calibrated correctly.

I am not saying that is the case here, just offering a possible cause of the problem.

So is there a way to recalibrate my monitor to get the saturation right. Or is there a video fx that I could use to get better saturation across the board. I just want to get this fixed ever problem has to have a solution. Also when it's shown in hd is it going to have the same isssues. I might as well ask this too how do I properly add the color bars at the begining?

So is there a way to recalibrate my monitor to get the saturation right.

Sure. With something like the Spyder 3 Studio, which is a hardware/software combination that will perform a thorough analysis of how your monitor displays different colors and then will configure your video card to compensate for the errors it makes.

I have absolutely NO idea of what I'm talking about, but it seems to me in addition to the other advice you've been given, some theatres seem to use inferior equipment, especially smaller ones.

One second-run theatre that I go to on occasion has the worst looking movies...it seems like their movies are dull and lifeless. I go to a new theatre and everything looks great.

As was initially pointed out, there are SO many variables, and it all starts with your camera and it's settings and ends with your final render.

Jeff, those theaters need to calibrate their own equipment then! There is no excuse for a professional theater not to be calibrated (and recalibrated on a regular basis).

adam - 2nd rate theatres are NOT going to 'waste' money on calibrating their equipment, as long as people still attend.....

meanwhile, a spyder is INDISPENSABLE if you're in the least bit serious about production - AND, if you can get a cheap ips panel monitor (i used videosonic's vp2365wb) so much the better.

it's no good doing cc'ing, etc., on a badly calibrated monitor, then wondering why things looked fubar on other screens.....

meanwhile, a spyder is INDISPENSABLE if you're in the least bit serious about production

Yes, that cannot be emphasized enough.