My first shoot with the XL2

[Colin Jones]

Originally Posted by Wesley Young

I created a clip that shows the differences between the three color effects I used.

http://www.theshadowasset.com/compare.wmv

The first segment, the car footage. I used the stock color corrector in Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5. You can really see how screwed up the white balance was on the camera. I didn’t have time to do a pass through the tunnel just to white balance. I figured I would fix it in post. Premier really saved that footage.

Next the close-up on my actress face. First is the un-altered footage. The second pass I brought the footage into After Effects and used a modified Magic Bullet preset. I used the preset called Berlin then changed a few parameters to give a little different effect. Magic Bullet really performs well with dimly lit footage.

The next segment, the pool footage. I used Adobe's Proc-Amp effect to really blow out the contrast and brightness.

Thanks for posting the clips Wes. It is good to see the before and after shots and have you explain what you did. That will help a lot of people achieve the look they want I am sure. As for the WM problem. I am using Firefox so that is probably why I get the distorted clip.

Good luck with the movie,

Colin

[Ralph Roberts]

"It involves guns..."

NICE LINE!

--Ralph

[Chris Owen]

A little late seeing this, but the final footage is quite nice. Thank you very much for sharing the before and after post shots. I am FAR less worried about getting an XL2 now.

Can you give us a link to where you bought your airsoft guns or perhaps the brand and models you have? What features do they have that compare to the real deal (cycling, weight, etc).

I have a nice collection of real firearms (XD40 4" and 3", Beretta 92F, Glock 23, 2 Rock River ARs - 1 16" and one 20", IMI 16" Rebuild, several shotguns, heavily modified SL-8 - looks like a G-36 now, and a DSA 19" Predator), but I would NEVER want to use them in a shoot ... just seems like an absolute No-No. Too much "legal stuff" to get in the way and the thought of one of my actors "making an oops" with one my weaps ....

It would be nice to have a handful of "knock off" props on the cheap that have cycling slides, removable mags, weight and feel, and working actions / chargers. I have looked at several nice looking airsoft pistols and rifles on the net, but without being able to see them first hand it's a very difficult choice.

[Adam Bray]

You should make the trailers downloadable. I could not view the Windows version and the Quicktime version kept freezing around the bikini scene. No a bad place for a freeze frame, but I could not watch the whole thing.

[Chris Owen]

If you are on a windows machine, get FireFox and install the plugin called VideoDownloader. As soon as the page with the video loads (the movie doesn't even have to load) click the icon in the lower right corner of the browser and it'll pop up a direct link to the video object (.mov, .wmv, etc). Right click the link and "Save Link As" to bypass progressively streaming the movie and download to your hard drive (close the tab or window as soon as your download starts so you are not downloading the movie AND streaming it at the same time).

When its done downloading, you have it to watch running from your HDD.