Is Magic Bullet worth getting?

[Jeff Harper]

With all the talk about film looks, I am reminded that video will pretty much look like video most of the time, unless it is shot to look like film to begin with, and then it still cannot fully reach the heights of film.

I watched a movie the other day (John Wayne and "The Three Godfathers") and it was unbelievably beautiful...one of the best looking movies I have ever seen.

It really took the shine off of anything shot in video for me, at least for a day or two.

[Graham Bernard]

Originally Posted by Brian Boyko

" . . when you actually use it in a project, you'll probably mix it with the original footage so that it's not so "artificial."

Brian please explain the "mix" part?

Originally Posted by Brian Boyko

There's a sociology paper in there ... so that it looks like the pros.

Now that IS interesting, Brian. Have you a link?

Grazie

[Ian Stark]

Grazie, at a guess I think Brian is suggesting layering a Looks-effected track above the original track and mixing the two to taste.

Well said Brian and Jeff.

Film is film. Video is video . . . with some tools that mimic some of the characteristics of film to a certain extent and allow us to easily manipulate video to suit the mood/personal taste/material/client requirement/story/whatever.

At the risk of being shot down for sarcasm, if I had spent three years of my life trying to achieve a realistic film look it would have been a lot more cost effective to go out and hire an Arriflex and a few cans of the real stuff! And the results would have been better.

[Graham Bernard]

Originally Posted by Ian Stark

Grazie, at a guess I think Brian is suggesting layering a Looks-effected track above the original track and mixing the two to taste.

I was wishing for Brian to explain what this process - the mix part - would entail? What reasoning would be behind the various parts of the application of the "mix"? What decisions Brian would make to achieve the "look" as a result OF that mix? What settings he adjusted for the compositing? Or does Brian simply mean to "mix-in" other clips? "Others", reading this, might consider, think it is the latter.

I too have employed a 2-Track mix. The Angels are in the detail.

Grazie

[Brian Boyko]

Originally Posted by Graham Bernard

I was wishing for Brian to explain what this process - the mix part - would entail? What reasoning would be behind the various parts of the application of the "mix"? What decisions Brian would make to achieve the "look" as a result OF that mix? What settings he adjusted for the compositing? Or does Brian simply mean to "mix-in" other clips? "Others", reading this, might consider, think it is the latter.

I too have employed a 2-Track mix. The Angels are in the detail.

Grazie

Nothing so complicated - after you apply a look in MBL, if you go back into Final Cut Pro, you can then adjust a slider to determine how much you want to blend the processed MBL footage with your original footage - anywhere from 0 to 100 percent. I suppose you could do the same thing with opacity and compositing, but not what I meant at all.

[Ian Stark]

That's a nice feature. Forgot you were a FCP user, not Vegas.

[Graham Bernard]

Brian, thank you.

Grazie