|Hey

||Im completely clueless as to where to search for information on color correction done in most music videos and tv commercials. |Im using some standard Vegas color curves, color correction stuff and it works pretty well to create a 16mm look for my footage. Now im completely obsessed with my quest to achieve somehow similar look the 35mm music videos with their really vivid colors, smooth skin etc. For what i understand most of it is done through:
- correct lighting
- telecine/cc

Now assumig that the subject is lit decently and make up is done, what to use to make those colors so damn VIVID. im aware of the argument of superiority of film to hd/hdv and i agree. But seeing raw 35mm footage and the same footage on TV as finished video i must say- it HAS to be possible.
Playing with color correction usually affects the whole frame even if its secondary cc, magic bullet is too gritty for this.
Look at the green (grass, trees) in those pics- its a special kind of green i would like to get. The muted but vivid reds (tried saturation but its not that).
|Anyone with knowledge of this - please guide me!

|Here is |Flickr set with screencaps for reference, please take time to check it:

http://flickr.com/photos/wojtek_nosowski/sets/72157600462394166/

Tried to view this but it said it was a private page

fixed!
im sorry, i thought i was sharing this set.

Hi Voitek,

I love your stills. I have just discovered the "magic bullet" plugins, and they are amazing, so I wonder if you have played with the settings enough? I think there is a bit of a learning curve with it. If you have a divx player then download a split-screen demo of what it can do - processed with just three settings on the left, and the source (raw) camera footage on the right. This was my very first experiment (ignore the sound!!), giving lush greens and a wonderful, 3-D feel to the whole thing. I think it's like having a "make it look gorgeous" button in your editing software! This was done without any colour correction, just using the black and white diffusion and a bit of vignetting.

There's a Divx file of my splitscreen demo at

http://www.danceofdelight.com/Gallery/harp%20music/splitscreen.divx

and if you need the divx player it's at

http://www.divx.com/divx/windows/ which is the windows version - there's probably one for mac too.

If you discover an answer or become aware of more advanced plugins I'd be interested to know too - but I'm happy with these at least for now...

Curves are your friend.

The majority of the looks you have in that Flickr gallery are achieved through tweaking of the RGB Curves.

But seeing raw 35mm footage and the same footage on TV as finished video i must say- it HAS to be possible.

Just because they end up on the same medium, it does not mean that you can take any path you like. The fact of the matter is that (H)DV do not have the color resolution and gamut of film. Only 4:4:4 HD gets close. That said, the answer is in the lighting and the color correction. It takes years to learn and is not something you can explain in a paragraph here.