Batutta
Major Contributor
Screened my completed film for the first time for my cast and crew (ok, basically me), last weekend. I made my own 2K DCP using the free DCP-O-MATIC software. It played without a hitch and looked amazing! I was honestly stunned that the image quality held up as well as it did. I had been watching it on my own 10 foot home theater screen and was fairly pleased, but was still unsure how it would look blown up to that size. The film had never looked better, even at a measly 2K resolution. I was really worried the color correction I did would not be accurate, but it looked identical to what I saw at home (this is where learning to read and use scopes paid off). I CC'd in FCP X, as I shot CineV and CineD internally and knew it would not hold up to a drastic color correction. Using the LEEMING LUT v 2.01 as a base, I fixed black levels, made flesh tones accurate and shifted things warmer or cooler based on mood. FCP X also added color correction curves in the last big update, so I didn't feel the need to use Resolve. Using the luma vs sat curve to desaturate the blacks and whites really made a difference to the final image. Also added a subtle grain texture that cleaned up some of the minor compression artifacts. I never loved Film Convert, so I used the built in grain filter in FCP X, applied it to a white solid, exported a long movie and then layered it on top of my footage with a Multiply blend at 50 percent. This applies the grain at a different intensity in the whites vs the blacks, and also softens and suppresses the whites in a pleasing way. I shot the film at ISO200 whenever I could, but even shots I did at ISO 2000 held up great. I didn't even use Neat Video on those shots as I felt it robbed the image of something. There were a couple shots I had to push to 3200, and those I used NEAT very mildly. Everyone I talked to commented how great the film looked. A couple of my friends, who have been industry professionals for decades, could not believe I shot it on a DSLR. A few also mentioned how good it sounded, and then I told them I recorded most of it on a 30 dollar microphone (Takstar SGC-598) straight into the camera. We all obsess about getting the latest and greatest, but years ago we passed the threshold of having consumer grade tools that can compete with the big guns. As Eric Clapton said...It's in the way that you use it!
PS. Everyone seemed to really like the film as well (and not in a fake polite way unless I'm really bad at reading people). Hopefully you'll all get to see it soon.
PS. Everyone seemed to really like the film as well (and not in a fake polite way unless I'm really bad at reading people). Hopefully you'll all get to see it soon.
