Critique my Colour grading/post stuff/workflow?

Brock.

Brock.

Active member
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(It was filmed with a T2i using the cinestyle picturestyle)

- So first I copied the MOV files from my card reader onto a folder on my desktop, then highlighted and dragged them onto FCP. They were filmed in 60fps so when I dropped the first clip onto the sequence I let FCP set the sequence settings for me (when the message box comes up)
- Too get the 60fps stuff down to 24, I just did Command+J and made the speed 60%...
- I did the three way corrector, Sharpening, and brightness & contrast filters. I was happy with the footage, although the filesize was almost 500 MB, and the video wasn't even 2 minutes... so I am also wondering how to get a smaller file size.

I guess my main question is how is my work flow? What are the things I can start doing that will save time or make my footage look better (because I know there are lots). THANKS!!!
 
So I don't know a ton about filming but I'm an avid photographer. IMO, but I though a bunch of your shots were very overcontrasted, and all the shots were a bit aswell.

My other question is why shoot 720p 60, and then transcode it to 720p 24. Isn't the whole point of shooting 720p on a dlsr is that your sacrificing image size for more fps. Why not just shoot in 1080p 30 or 24. Again, I don't know a lot, but that just didn't make sense to me.

overal though, I enjoyed watching it, had a good vibe.

I think these will help you as well: Couresty of NS'er AbeK

 
When importing, you can save yourself a lot of time by using the "import file" option or by clicking the top file and shift-clicking the bottom file. Much better than importing by dragging each one.

Never the speed option built in FCP for slo-mo. It's terrible. I suggest using cinema tools if you got it. Also, 60% of 60fps=40, not 20 fps.

Honestly if you didnt say you color corrected, I wouldn't have notice. Colors seemed like no color correction took place. I suggest downloading Magic Bullet Looks, very simple yet efficient color correcting on that software.

 
for slow mo, never use the slow down feature in FCP. Conform the footage to 23.98 in Cinema Tools. Make sure you make a backup copy of the original file if you're unsure whether or not you want to keep it this way, since Cinema Tools changes the original file.

As for colors, really all you need is 3-way-color corrector. Start by adjusting your blacks and whites (use the histogram to make sure you aren't clipping), then adjust the middle (gamma) to taste. At the very least I like to make my shadows slightly complementary to my mids (Monet's theory of complementaries). Other things you can do are desaturate highs (video cameras tend to turn highlights an ugly yellow color for some reason) or broadcast safe to serve as a rudimentary knee feathering.

Finally, export with a higher bitrate. The best way to export from FCP is to export as a Quicktime Movie, then open that file in Quicktime 7 Pro. From there export it with the following settings:

h.264

1280 x720 or 1920x1080 (depending on your sequence settings)

pixel aspect ratio: square

Quality: best

framerate: current

key frames: current

bitrate: anywhere from 6000 - 8000 kbps

optimized for: streaming

Audio:

AAC

320 kbps

Quality: best

bitrate: 44.100 kHz
 
I didn't feel that the colors were very bad but to me it seemed like everything was a little out of focus. Use the zoom feature on the camera to when setting up the shot to make sure the subject is completely in focus.
 
I'm gonna disagree with this to a certain point, I shoot 720p60 and use a 720p60 timeline and slow down to as slow at 55% and as little at 90%. With frame blending off and after a render, it looks great and it a easier, faster alternative to conforming to 24p (to a point)

The one thing you need to remember is out of FCP you have a 60p file, so its twice as big as 30p (little more than 24p) so uploading/compressing is more extreme. I have found that vimeo and youtube both convert from 60p (vimeo is 24 i believe, i think youtube is 30?) and so you don't get the extremely smooth look of 60p. Some video players will have the actual 60p look and its fucking terrible, so in that case you'd have to set the frame rate when you compress the video.

Overall, that has been my workflow for slowmo and it allows me to create any speed of slow mo i want, not just 40% which IMO is too slow.

Another thing I will do is edit with a 24p timeline and 60p footage, render all my normal speed 60p footage in the time line (so it turns into 24 by dropping frames). Then if i want to slow down something, i toss it into another sequence that is 60p and then adjust the speed. I then take that whole sequence and drop it into my 24p time line and render it to be 24p not 60. You can also export the video into its own file and drop it into the timeline, but leaving it as a sequence allows for you to adjust it.

The two big reasons i use this workflow is that so i can A. adjust the speed more accurately to what i want and B so that i can ramp my slow mo with fcp7s ramp feature, which doesn't ramp sound but does a decent job with the slowmo if you do it correctly. Both of these features are reasons why I choose this workflow over the conforming workflow.

my 2 cents on 60p slow mo, hope it helps someone.
 
While I can see the convenience of your method, the reason I condone Cinema Tools is because it is a dedicated program for this type of thing, meaning it is more on point in terms of motion rendering and conforming. I also find this to be a much less convoluted workflow, since shots in the timeline are never different speeds; everything is 100%. I personally see no benefit in being able to make minor tweaks to clip speed in FCP because frame rates are a very finicky thing. They have to "add up" perfectly or else there will be consequences. IMO frame rates only look good when conformed to 23.98. I don't like to pussyfoot around these awkward percentages and poor compression because the motion quality of footage is only please when conformed to these very precise specifications.
 
What do you do when i comes to uploading to vimeo? can you upload in 60p because i thought vimeo limits you to something like 30p
 
I upload my 60p file and it turns it into 24p when it converts it, it does the same with 30p videos. Youtube/ns/majority of other players do this too but some keep the 60p file and you get the unnatural 60p look and its terrible.
 
Anyway you could post an original video to see how they differ? It would be interesting, because your grading doesn't look all that different than original footage...

If you looking for a nice grade on sunny day footage, try warming the mids, cooling the darks, And upping the saturation just a touch. Gives your footage a nice look and feel IMO.

 
I know exactly what you mean, in fact I have seen it in one of your older videos a while back. Im pretty sure at the beginning its playing it at 60p (depends on your processor/internet I think because It sometimes looks normal).
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It looks a little weird because i stabilized it in post and we were going from fast to slow on the chair so it looks odd and then the next shot is like 50% speed. Trust me, vimeo doesn't show 60p motion, 90% of the edits i upload are 60p.

This edit is probably the best example of my workflow. This timeline was 60p and i did anywhere from 90-60% speed (100% speed too):

I think this edit turned out great (actually my favorite one from this year) and i did it all with my 60p time line work flow.
 
Nevermind, its 100% after. but trust me, its not the 60p that makes it look like that.
 
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