New to FCP, what colour correction should one use?

[David Odell]

Hey I'm a Avid Xpress editor, and I will make a colour correction on a last minute project by the end of the week.

So what I wonder, since I'm used to AVID:s "curves" colour correcting, is there any similar (curves) on FCP?

If not, what colour correction should I use? Since there will only be an eves work on a short film 13min.

Thank you very much,
David

[Will Clegg]

If you want to use curves, you'll need to use Color - it's one of the programs bundled with Final Cut Studio 2. Otherwise you are stuck with FCP's 3-way Color Corrector, which just gives you standard HSL controls in your blacks, gamma, and highlights.

Color has kind of a funky workflow compared to other FCS programs though - might try lynda.com for a quick tutorial. Call Box has an excellent DVD that covers all the basics, but I doubt you would be able to get it, watch it, and do the CC all this week.

[NoahK]

Thanks for the recommendation on the Call Box Color DVD.

http://www.callboxlive.com/store/digital-color-correction-final-studio-workflow-with-apples-color-p-30.html

We can get it to you overnight if it's super critical. Just drop me a line at store at callboxlive dot com and we'll get it together.

-Noah

[adkimery]

Like Will said, Color has a 'funky' workflow and that's being kind. An unkind person might say Color has more holes in it's round trip workflow w/FCP than a warehouse full of swiss cheese. Just off the top of my head of things not to have in your FCP sequence before you send it color:
No freeze frames
No still images or gfx
No footage that has been speed effected inside FCP
No nests
No multi-cam clips
No mixed frame rates
No mixed frame sizes (i.e. no 1280x1080 DVCPro HD along side 1920x1080 ProRes)

If you have any of the above (and that's not a complete list of 'no-no's') you'll want to 'bake in' the effect by export the offending clip as a QT movie and then cut that back into your sequence.

Be careful w/interlaced material because Color *will* deinterlace it w/o your consent if it has been scaled or repositioned inside FCP. If you have interlaced material you'll also want to stay away from the Geometry room and Color FX room in Color as well. There are work arounds but they can get cumbersome. If you are dealing w/interlaced footage let me know and I'll dig up the links to some work arounds.

Besides Noah's DVD, which I also give a thumbs up to, I'd suggest hitting up the Color forums at the CreativeCOW (http://forums.creativecow.net/forum/applecolor) and Apple's official forums (http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1138) if you run into problems and need help.


-A

[NoahK]

Yeah Color is sort of a hail mary pass. It's like getting into a free DaVinci session but to get there you have to jump through a ton of hoops. That said, if you practice you can make it every time.

Noah

[adkimery]

I used Color on 4 episodes of a TV show last year and I'll use it on all 32 this year so it's definitely do-able, but you have to be much more careful and precise w/your workflow. Once you get the workflow down it's not too bad, but the fact that Apple makes it sound like it's simple to round-trip between the two apps is laughable. Hopefully the next revision of Color will smooth out some of these short comings.

[David Odell]

Hi and thanks for the response.

Returned the edit today and they were very happy so it's al good.
But I must say that editing a 1080p DVCPRO HD on a Powerbook and CC on a big screen is not recommended, to little horsepower. Secondly I would do everything I could to find better CC program than the existing ones in the standard version.

Anyhow, Color maybe will be the option next time.

Thanks!

[Batutta]

You can try these free plugins. Colour engine has a useful curves control. Nothing near Color but more flexible than the built in Color corrector. I like Magic Bullet's Colorista but you have to pay for that--

http://www.pureandapplied.com.au/plugins.html