Video Review: Color Grading Central cineLook Final Cut Pro Plug-in
Here's a look at two workflows for applying film grain to your footage in FCP X using cineLook (with and without Gorilla Grain), first with 4k footage shot with the Blackmagic Production Camera, and then with Cinestyle-flattened DSLR footage.
Fine-tuning the Gorilla Grain Effect
You can also fine-tune the Gorilla Grain effect using the Intensity and Sharpness controls shown in Figure 13 (below). These allow you to adjust the intensity and the sharpness of the grain itself. You can really make it stand out by turning the Sharpness up (right) or make it much more subtle by turning the Sharpness down (left).
Figure 13. Gorilla Grain fine-tuning controls.
Applying S Curve to Flat DSLR Footage
Now we'll look at the workflow for applying cineLook to DSLR footage shot flat with the Cinestyle preset. The Cinestyle preset is a camera profile from Technicolor that you can download for Canon DSLRs. It allows you to shoot much flatter than you would with any in-camera settings, The concept is, if you shoot flatter, you'll get more dynamic range than you would ordinarily with DSLR footage.
The DSLR event we're working with in this example is a collection of shots from a wrestling meet that my studio, Cord3Films, shot entirely on DSLR with the Cinestyle flat preset (Figure 14, below).
Figure 14. Our low-contrast Cinestyle DSLR wrestling footage.
When you add cineLook, the workflow is to apply S Curve first to correct the flatness in the footage by adding more contrast. The S Curve plug-in included with cineLook is specifically designed for people shooting with the Cinestyle flat preset.
To begin, drag the S Curve effect onto the clip in the timeline. S Curve has two settings (Figure 15, below). The Amount slider lets you dial in the strength of the S Curve. When making this adjustment, look in the shadow areas to make sure you don't crush the blacks in the image and lose all the detail, which defeats the purpose of shooting flat in the first place. You want to gain some detail.
Figure 15. S Curve adjustments.
If you leave the Amount slider all the way left, that will leave it flat; find a midpoint where you have your contrast back while retaining as much shadow detail as possible--especially, in this example, in especially dark areas like the ref's pants (Figure 16, below).
Figure 16. Amount adjustment applied. Click the image to see it at full size.
The Exposure slider isn't especially useful with shots like the one shown in Figure 16 because the exposure is already pretty good, but in blown-out shots (including shots that get blown out by the S Curve itself) it will help bring some of your highlights back into the image. As with other effects, click the box to the left of the S Curve effect to toggle it on and off.
Adding cineLook with Gorilla Grain
Now we're ready to apply cineLook with Gorilla Grain. As you can see in Figure 17 (below), it immediately gives you the 2.35:1 Widescreen crop and applies Color Treatment and other cineLook components.
Figure 17. cineLook default effects applied. Click the image to see it at full size.
The first parameter we'll adjust is the offset to correct the composition following the 2.35:1 crop. Next we can quickly adjust our Color Treatment and Vignette to our liking, and we're ready to apply Gorilla Grain.
First, choose a grain (for this clip, I'll choose Medium: Clean). As you can see in Figure 18 (below), the image has definitely taken on a more filmic look with the application of Gorilla Grain (compare to Figure 17).
Figure 18. Gorilla Grain applied. Click the image to see it at full size.
So that's a good overview of cineLook with and without Gorilla Grain. It's an excellent plug-in; it does exactly what it says it does, and applies an appealing film look to footage when that's what you're going for. It includes a number of practical slider-based adjustments tp give you a great deal of control over the image and what happens when the plug-in is applied to it.
Recently I've been experimenting with applying various film grains to my work, and especially with Gorilla Grain, my footage really does take on a different aesthetic. If you have any interest in adding film grain to your footage, I highly recommend spending the extra money to get cineLook with Gorilla Grain over the standard cineLook version.
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