iMovie questions

[Terence Murphy]

You need to use Stuffit Expander to de-compress the .sit file. If Expander is currently installed on your computer, it should launch by double-clicking the .sit file. If it doesn't, try a search for "Stuffit".

If you don't have it installed, you can download the free Expander application at:

http://www.stuffit.com/mac/expander/index.html

After that, you'll have a disk image file. Double-click on the file, and a virtual disk drive will mount, and will probably automatically open a window. There will probably be a file with instructions on how to install the plugin.

-Terence

[Jason Chang]

Terrence:

Thank you so much. I got the plugin to work.


Jason

[Daniel Cuevas]

Hi Jason, I emailed you a request for a referral for someone to do my friends wedding video in September. I can be emailed from my profile.

Daniel Cuevas
Temecula, CA

[Brian Andrews]

MacWorld stated that it took 52 seconds for a 2.16Ghz Core 2 Duo iMac to render the Aged Film effect on a 1 minute clip.

I am getting closer to 2 minutes.

Can someone run this simple test on any Intel Mac or even an iMac G5 and let me know what you get?

just apply the Aged Film effect to a 1 minute clip and see how long it takes to render. Thanks.

[Aram Rian]

hi guys. what would be the best way to achieve quite a decent film (cine-) look in iMovie? cheers.

[Stick Tully]

Ive not used imovie for a long time but as a guess i would imagine your going to find it very difficult to get decent film like results from it

FCP or after effects are going to be your best bet - check out the magic bullet plug ins for a.e, they may work with final cut aswell

just try playing around, i usually layer the same footage ontop, make it 40% or so transparent and add some blur and mess about with the curves/levels

good luck

[Jonathan Jones]

Hi Aram.
This is going to be a challenge in iMovie is you're going to try to re-create a film look for a discerning eye, but there are some options for you if your really need to stay within iMovie and just need to get by with at least some type of film-like simulation.

Within the context of iMovie, I think you can only really focus on three primary approaches towards a film look: Color depth, motion blur, and film grain. Higher end apps have a wealth of other options for certain 'looks', but for iMovie, I would recommend you head over to www.geethree.com and take a look at their plug-in packages for effects.

You will likely have to spend a little money to get what you want, but you should be able to find something that that offers a little more control over color gamma, and a very likely a plug-in that offers some type of film-grain option.

There might be more, but I haven't played with iMovie for a while and haven't kept up on its advancements or growing set of options. I spent a year using iMovie to push it beyond its limits and I know that there are lot of things you can do with it if you are willing to spend some time tweaking whatever plug-ins you can find. If you look around you will be able to find a number of handy resources that will help you enhance its feature set but I think the GeeThree option is a good place to start.

One last note regarding purchased plug-ins. Before you go too overboard on a plug-in spending spree, guage your expenses to see if you will eventually be better served spending the extra money to move up to Final Cut Pro or at least Final Cut Express. You would then have alot more control over track transparencies and motion blur effects that the previous post mentioned.


-Jon

[Boyd Ostroff]

You might take a look at DVfilm Maker and see if you like what it can do. You can download a free fully functional trial version (it puts a logo on the converted video). It is not a plug-in, but a standalone program. You would export your iMovie project as a Quicktime file and then feed that file to DVfilm to process. See: http://www.dvfilm.com/maker/

[Meryem Ersoz]

instead of creating it in iMovie, you might want to experiment with putting some filters on your camera...

tiffen soft fx-1
schneider black frost 1/2
tiffen black pro mist

these are nice options for a more signature, less standard video-ish look.

another option would be to invest in a progressive DV camera....these are getting much cheaper! and there is a lot of lightly-used gear out there...

[Aram Rian]

thanks, guys, for the detailed replies.
i've already got Final Cut Express, Adobe Premiere and Geethree packs installed in my iMovie, and i am considering going for a progressive dv camcorder.

i simply enjoy exploring the capacities and limits of such what-you-see-is-what-you-get applications as iMovie.

a couple of questions, though.

i've known of grain and colour correction effects for film-look simulation. but could you tell me more about motion blur, please? how do i apply it?

also, to extend the topic a bit, what would be the best ways of achieving cine-look in FCE and Adobe Premiere?

[Aram Rian]

hi. any reason why iMovie vertically squeezes the picture of a footage when exporting a project as a QT movie? it's been happening in all the versions i've used (apart from v6).

[Jonathan Jones]

Could it be a conflict with settings for 16:9 in either iMovie or your QT export settings?
-Jon

[Aram Rian]

well, it's not THAT squashed, just slightly.

[Lee Wilson]

In the UK we use 720x576 pixels for a standard TV signal.

This is correctly dislayed as 768x576.

[Jonathan Jones]

Originally Posted by Aram Rian

i've known of grain and colour correction effects for film-look simulation. but could you tell me more about motion blur, please? how do i apply it?
?

Hi Aram,
Sorry, I've been away a lot and haven't kept up on this thread. Regarding your question on motion blur, I'll take a stab at it, although my answer won't be very comprehensive.

The motion blur factor of the film look is due in partial to the fps factor of film, typically in the 24 fps range, a lower fps than standard dv video which is most often noted to be 60i - although this is different in the UK. (I'm not going to go into any detail here regarding 60i or 30p or any of that stuff)

In a sense, the visual effect of higher fps in dv creates that "too realistic" effect that you get when watching home movies, as opposed to that "softer smoother feel you get when watching a theatrical movie. I know, I am simplifying it considerably but I'm just touching on the basics here.

Anyway, the lower frame rate of film helps lend it to a more fluid smoothness that many viewers seem to appreciate without being able to indentify it. (Reel life just feels smoother than real life.)

Basically, film frames shoot lower fps than dv, and are exposed slightly longer in general, thusly exposing a longer shot of action into each frame, causing the blur you can see when ojects move, although it is most noticable when viewing in single frame mode.

As far as adding motion blur in post, I am sure there are plug-ins or settings that will allow for this, but to do it well, I would suspect you may be looking beyond the iMovie factor and moving into areas like After Effects, or higher end plug-ins that might be accessible through your FCE, but more likely moving into FCP, Shake or Boris territory.

Perhaps others can sound in on such avenues of pursuit.

Another thing to consider would be looking towards the purchase of a camera that would allow shooting in 30p, or even 24p, or at least giving you a decent amount of manual control of the exposure and shutter speeds. This will help you achieve somewhat of the 'film look' effect while shooting by trying to simulate the traditional 'film frame rate standards'.

Good luck.
-Jon