The subtle VFX work in Black Swan

The filmmakers of Black Swan have been discussed for the choice to shoot much of the film on 16mm stock, as well as some coverage being shot on the Canon 5D and 7D DSLRs (see IMDB tech specs). But I’ve seen very little coverage of the visual effects in the film, which you may be surprised to learn are rather extensive, including full-head replacements for a number of Natalie Portman dancing shots. They are also very subtly and tactfully executed. Here’s a behind the scenes video that shows clean plates, followed by composite and VFX plates…

Which ProRes quality level is Good Enough when editing DSLR footage?

So I wanted to share some personal findings after working heavily with DSLRs for about a year and a half now. I’ve been converting most of my DSLR footage to ProRes LT for post-production, and have found it to be a good size-to-quality happy medium. In most cases, my projects will end up on DVD, web, or some kind of Standard Definition delivery, so LT allows me to strike a quality compromise that tends to be invisible after output. Even for HD applications, I think you’d be hard-pressed to find visible quality issues when editing with ProRes LT, assuming that you aren’t pushing the image too much in color-correction and grading. And let’s be honest, you probably shouldn’t be heavily grading DSLR footage anyway…for as much as I love DSLRs, the footage doesn’t like to be pushed hard. Read on…

Extra Extra, Free Light Leak Clips!

Jesse Rosten is a studmuffin filmmaker, and he’s giving away some light leaks that he created. These are excellent transitional elements, similar to the clips you’ll find in Artbeats Film Clutter collections. You can also make your own light leaks by removing the lens from your camera and playing light across the sensor with a flashlight.

But if you are lazy like most of us editors, snag these pre-made clips while you can. And if you aren’t sure how you’d use them, watch the “Growing is Forever” video embedded below for a taste of Jesse’s light leak goodness.

Daily Inspiration - The most realistic CG you’ve ever seen

This commercial spot was done entirely with CG, and it’s simply beautiful. I would never have guessed this was done without live action high-speed filming.

Rarevision 5DtoRGB vs MPEG Streamclip for transcoding

There’s a new transcoding tool making the rounds on that newfangled Twitter thingy the kids are using these days, it’s called Rarevision 5DtoRGB. It’s a free app for Mac users that they claim offers a much higher quality conversion from H.264 DSLR raw footage to an editing codec (ProRes is a common choice, in one of several flavors and bitrates). Two blogs have done some comparison testing between this new tool and MPEG Streamclip (another popular free option), and I wanted to point them out here for your pixel-peeping enjoyment…

Cineform Neo 3D Tutorial

For a few years now, Cineform has been quietly developing some incredible tools for 3D post-production. We caught up with them last year at NAB 2009 and talked for a solid half hour about their tools and 3D production in general, you can watch those videos here. So I was excited to see that David Newman has also recently posted a video tutorial on how to use Neo 3D to sync and mux multiple 3D footage sources. Watch below.

Release the Hidden Graphics Processing Power in your Macbook Pro

Since sometime in late 2008, Apple’s 17” and select 15” Macbook Pro models have included not one but two graphics processors, the nVidia 9400M and 9600M GT. It is my understanding that by default the laptop uses the integrated lower-wattage 9400M, which includes 256MB RAM and helps extend battery life. It will run the main laptop display and push an external display as well. The additional nVidia 9600M GT graphics option is actually a discrete internal PCI-E card featuring 512MB of RAM and offers significantly faster Motion GPU rendering performance. You can see both of these cards listed separately in your System Profiler. So how do you tell which card you are using, and how do you switch between the two cards? I’m glad you asked, grasshopper. Read on and I’ll tell you how…

11 Excellent FCP Tips & Tricks

Editor/Colorist Oliver Peters has posted a really nice collection of Final Cut Pro tips that are bound to save you time and effort. His suggestions are not “how to use”, but more about Preferences, Settings, and project setup options that can help you avoid the gotchas of editing with FCP. There are great tips here for novices and seasoned editors alike. Check it out.

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