Hi everyone,

I was wondering, before you guys start rendering your final videos, do you guys use any special filters or do something to make the video look livelier or sharper before outputting on to DVD or as a final product? This is what I normally do, I would ingest the video into my computer as an AVI file, and then toss it onto the sony vegas tracks, and render the video to sony architect for DVD output. My two cameras: FX1 and VX2100 but it seem like the video is missing something, its not vivid or lively enough like videos I see on this forum and other places or maybe its my imagination... well, any comments or suggestions would be appreciated :)

-joe
1 FX1
1 VX2100
Vegas 6

There are lots of things you can do to pump up the color in your vids using Vegas. Start with levels (in the FX tab). Drop the levels FX onto your clip, look at where the peaks and bottoms are on the wave guide. Work with the slider bars to get the highest peak at the top to just touch 100 (may have to lower or raise it). Then get the bottom range to just touch 0. That puts your luminance (I think) into legal range and should boost your colors. If you need to, go into the color corrector and set your guides to help. There are tutorials on color correction on the VASST site here: http://vasst.com/search.aspx?type=2. Also, there are many plug-ins that have different film looks which can really enhance your video giving it that 24p softer film look. I use the VASST Reel Paks that are add ons to Ultimate S. They are very cool and render faster than others. You can find them here: http://vasst.com/search.aspx?for=1&entity=16&sort=date. There are many other wedding packs out there from lots of vendors that can enhance your wedding vids. Lots of training resources too. Have fun and hope this helps a little.
Randy

this question is like asking for a recipe for soup...
what kind of soup... ??

well thats the million dollar question..

I colour grade all my work, if it needs corection, (rare) ive got the tools to do it.

Mostly i use a clean colour curve configuration to crush blacks and blow out whites even further..

With the DVX100, most of the "looks" i like are configured within the camera, being that i prfer neutral skin tones, crushed blacks and blown out whites.

In Post, i grade the footage to suit the mood of the songs im using, warmer for intimacy, and cooler, sharper bleached tones for faster paced

With the Z1, i need to do alot more colouring work as the camera itself doesnt have the DR of the DVX, so i need to compensate. Blacks are pretty washed out and "warm" tones have that Red Sony flavour which i despise, but there are ways around any of these cameras and the best option is to work with a varety of ingredients for your soup recipe and see what u feel works for you.

THanks for responding back to my questions.

Randy: I glanced at the links you gave me, and when I have the time, I will try installing the plugins. Are there any video samples on the forum where I can I can get a better idea of what the filter does?

Peter: I tried using my FX1 on one of the weddings I did, and stupid me, I didn't white balanced my video, so it looks kinda pinkish or light brow color. I tried using the color corrections in vegas but I think you could do so much with it once the video has been captured. Thus, I am trying to correct my mistake by outputting it like 24p effect..maybe the client won't notice it. :)
On top of that, my assistance using my vx2100, had the ND filters on while capturing the ceremony and the reception. So, the video came out grainy and dark, only thing good came out of it was the audio. What a wasted of time....

Joe, whats your NLE??

If your using vegas, try the Auto levels plugin which is a free plugin, but select a preset you like, then turn OFF correction (so it doies fluctuate as much) then bolt on Mike crashes dynamic noise reduction and jack it to 10 or so to get rid of that grain.

Joe,
Here's the link to Ultimate S2 which has reel paks included and a sample on the splash page link: http://vasst.com/product.aspx?id=c8cec3c4-7ec3-43db-8d32-f703f5050400. Explore the US2 page. Go down to the reel paks home link and check out the different looks. When you click on one, it shows you the original clip then how it looks after applying various film look selections. You can download US2 and try it out before you buy. Very cool plug-in with a whole lot of tools.
Randy