Magic Bullet - Useful Tool or Stylistic Crutch?

Magic Bullet - Useful Tool or Stylistic Crutch?

  • Useful Tool

    Votes: 8 72.7%

  • Stylistic Crutch

    Votes: 3 27.3%
  • Total voters
    11
One could argue that Bleach Bypass, or even a digital intermediate in general is a crutch.


I say: sure why not. Having access to a great crew is a crutch. Having a camera with 3 CCDs is a crutch. A good microphone is a crutch. Non-Linear editors are a crutch.

All of filmmaking is a crutch. If your film turns out great, your film turns out great. I'm sure you lied cheated and stole to accomplish it, it doesn't make your film worse. One of the greatest mistakes beginning (read students) fall into is an unwillingness to do anything that has been done before. That attitude usually results in such obtuse, incomprehensible films, I find myself wishing I had watched a used car commercial instead with my time.

If it works, do it, crutch or no.
 
im.thatoneguy said:
One could argue that Bleach Bypass, or even a digital intermediate in general is a crutch.


I say: sure why not. Having access to a great crew is a crutch. Having a camera with 3 CCDs is a crutch. A good microphone is a crutch. Non-Linear editors are a crutch.

All of filmmaking is a crutch. If your film turns out great, your film turns out great. I'm sure you lied cheated and stole to accomplish it, it doesn't make your film worse. One of the greatest mistakes beginning (read students) fall into is an unwillingness to do anything that has been done before. That attitude usually results in such obtuse, incomprehensible films, I find myself wishing I had watched a used car commercial instead with my time.

If it works, do it, crutch or no.
Click to expand...

That post made absolutely no sense.
 
I think that MB can be very useful, but there really is no subtitute for having your footage corrected by a professional. I'm not saying that there aren't professional CCers in here, but those cats can really massage the image in ways that MB plays at. In certain cases, it's great, if you just need a little nudge, and you've done your job in the camera right, there's no reason to spend 300 bucks an hour for some character to sit there and go, "Wow, that was good" and then charge you for it. But if you need some help, go to the people whose job it is to help you. If you can. Nuff' said.
 
Does 24p digital footage look like film? Not to me. But that's another argument. I think there are two things going on here. There is the Look Suite for color correction, then there's the Misfire stuff that was mentioned at the start of this post.

I think the misfire stuff is mostly junky. Fake looking scratches and dirt. And yeah when people layer that on without even tweaking it, it looks like they are just trying to be clever for clevers sake.

But I agree with most of the above posts. The CC tools are great, and you can either have a really quick look, or for people more interested in CC, you can pop the hood and really do some fun stuff to contribute to the look.

In the end, you are the one who has to evaluate the work and ask if it "works" for you. So don't blame the tool, blame the person operating the tool. :)
 
well magic bullet hasnt worked on my computer for months, some error. i dont miss it.

if you guys want a tip, that can amke some interesting CCing, layer the same clip of on top of each ohter, cc each one independantly, then reduce the opacity on the top layers. The colors and effects on the other ayers come through without really overdoing it. and it makes for nice subtle interestign looks.



The only thing i miss is "black diffusion". Is there a way to get that in vegas5?
 
x2mag68 said:
well magic bullet hasnt worked on my computer for months, some error. i dont miss it.

if you guys want a tip, that can amke some interesting CCing, layer the same clip of on top of each ohter, cc each one independantly, then reduce the opacity on the top layers. The colors and effects on the other ayers come through without really overdoing it. and it makes for nice subtle interestign looks.



The only thing i miss is "black diffusion". Is there a way to get that in vegas5?
Click to expand...

Just put a schneider classic black or tiffen black pro-mist on your camera. it's better than the digital bs.
 
It's a good point. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to simulate a filmic process, like bleach-bypass, in the camera alone. But your point is well-taken.
 
Magic Bullet is just a tool like any other in digital cinematography. We shoot the best footage we can along with the best story and try to make it look as good as possible.

MB can not salvage a poorly shot piece of crap.

Whether someone uses Magic Bullet, Cinelook or custom color correction, should be irrelevant. I aggree with Luis above.. this is a useless poll...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top