Standard Profile vs. Picture Profile Recipes vs. Magic Bullet vs. DI

[Torv Carlsen]

Here's a question I'd like to pose to those visual alchemists amongst us: is it advisable to use Sony's admittedly bland Standard and neutral Picture Profile or one of the many terrific profile recipes created by some of the more experienced EX1 wizards (i.e., Philip Bloom, Bill Ravens, to name two) to achieve a film look, or utilize software like Magic Bullet or rely upon a Digital Intermediate during the final phases of post to achieve the film look one desires? That is assuming that money is not an issue of course.

[Jim Montgomery]

I use the TrueColor presets, render as an uncompressed avi and bring into After Effects. In AE I apply Stu's DVRebel color corrector to color correct and then apply Magic Bullet for a color grade. Export as a Tiff sequence ans you are ready to bring it back into your nle for rendering to different codecs.

[Rob Collins]

I use both a picture profile and MB Looks, the latter usually just to add some contrast and punch. PP came from Phil's blog, with some corrections. Very warm rich look. Here's a sample with the EX1 clean: http://vimeo.com/989735 (no grading) and with Letus: http://vimeo.com/1171581 (a bit of MB Looks to boost contrast).

Matrix ...............on
Select................hisat
Level..................0
Phase.................-5
R-G...................75
R-B...................0
G-R...................-18
G-B...................-32
B-R...................-27
B-G...................13

Color Correction..............off
White.............................off
Detail.............................off
Detail Level.....................0
Detail Freq......................0
Skintone.........................off

Knee..............................on
Auto knee......................on
Point.............................90
Slope............................0
Knee SAT level...............50


Gamma Level..............-8
Gamma Select.............CINE1
Black..........................-3
Black Gamma..............0

[Robert Young]

different strokes for different folks.
I've heard from some film makers who prefer the flat image with all the detail captured- kind of like a RAW image in still photography. They feel that they can take it in any direction they want to in post. They avoid being precommited to any particular "look".
Many others (including myself) like to create as much of the target look in camera as possible, leaving only minor enhancements for post.
It seems to me that if it is your project, and you know what you want, why not start getting it in camera. If it's a big commercial project where there is the danger of THEM deciding late in the game (when the film is in the can) that they want a bright warm look, not the dark, blue look they originally told you to shoot, you'll be real happy to have the flat, RAW images to work with.