Color Correcting Justification

[Hayzen]

Hi all,

I shot my footage on HDV and now deciding about whether I should color correct it in a transfer house (i.e. DaVinci) or in AE/FCP.

Since the footage is compressed digital, will color correcting it in a transfer house be THAT much better than in AE/FCP? Will it be able to push the colors, contrast, brightness, a lot further than on a home pc/mac? Or will it only be able to make it slightly better than what AE/FCP can do, and therefore not worth the cost of going to a transfer house?

Cheers!

 

[SPZ]

yes, it will boost your footage a LOT- and if you get a professional (good) colorist, your movie will improve picture wise almost 100%.

The noise correction algorithms as well as color correction are simply a world appart from what we get.

Those machines don't cost tens of thousands for nothing!

EDIT-Also, you should do a rough cut yourself with your intended "look" (color correct yourself in FCP for reference, for example). Do have everything prepared so that when you get there, you know what you want and do it quickly, since they normaly charge by the hour in these places...

 

[Arson]

theres a great section on this in Stu Maschowitz's book the DV Rebel's handbook. Getting the DaVinci look with After Effects.

 

[SPZ]

theres a great section on this in Stu Maschowitz's book the DV Rebel's handbook. Getting the DaVinci look with After Effects.

Really? Strange... Then why all top production houses use the Davinci system, since it would be much cheaper to go the After Effects way...I get it, they are dumb!

Remember- you get what you pay for. This is one of the most recurrent truths I've met in this business.

Of course, recearching is always essential, but in case of production gear and post production, things cost for a reason. That or either you are a genious After Effects expert/colorist with lot of time to spare.