Final Cut Plug-Ins

Updated (with examples below): January 11, 2008

I can’t believe I never wrote a post about these – I was positive I did! Anyway, here are two free plug-ins for Final Cut that came in quite handy for me.

Final Cut doesn’t ship with a guides or grid feature like, well, every other app in the universe. Even with these plug-ins, creating guides isn’t as easy as pulling them from the ruler like in Photoshop, but at least you got ‘em.

http://www.digital-heaven.co.uk/freeware/dh_grid.php

http://www.digital-heaven.co.uk/freeware/dh_guides.php

I can’t believe this other plug-in is free because it’s so awesome for that old movie or damaged film look. It allows you to make your footage look old and damaged in all kinds of different ways all of them can be adjusted to your tastes.

http://www.cgm-online.com/eiperle/cgm_aged_film_le_e.html

As part of a “Then and Now” series for Little Caesars, we did a few black and white videos of how things used to be and full color videos (with intros featuring the THX logo and sound) of how things are now. All “Then” videos used the Aged Film plug-in so you can see how awesome it is. I don’t even think I tweaked any of the settings.

The Remedy Process … Then still makes me laugh every time I see it. Dan Walker, who plays the customer has worked his way up from store manager to Senior Director of National Training because every moment he spends working (which is almost every moment, period) is given all his passion and dedication to standards of excellence whether it is lifting up the employees or serving the customer. Jeff Drozdowski, who does a great job of playing the awful store manager is one of the Managers of National Training and is an extraordinary teacher, also exemplifying the company’s #1 Founding Philosophy: “Little Caesars Must Be A Fun Place To Work.” The best part was an accident – Jeff throwing the returned pizza onto a pile of empty pizza boxes makes it look like it’s a pile of returned pizzas. His delivery of the line “Have a good one” is one of the best in cinema history.

Orientation … Then has another accidental gem. Our first take was interrupted by the phone ringing. These videos were shot really early in the morning so it couldn’t have been a customer but the fact that no one answered it was hysterical as we re-watched it and worked it into the final take by using a cell phone to call the store.

Finally, Workplace Safety … Then, is short but funny. That sound is actually Jeff screaming.

More Color Correction in FCE

I’m really pleased with this. Even moreso than the earlier example. I was telling my boss earlier that my skill level in Final Cut has increased a great deal over the last few weeks. I’m pretty pleased. Of course, life would be much better if I never had to deal with crappy corporate lighting everywhere I go. That can’t be good for your health. I keep thinking of Tom Hanks in Joe v the Volcano … the lights sucking out his brain and happiness.

This ugliness is “before.”

This is “after.”

I do this all the time in Photoshop. I don’t know exactly why I get so much more excited doing it in FCE. Maybe it’s just a new skill. And that’s why I don’t mind the lethal yellow lighting. It makes me stronger.

Subtitles and Drop Shadows

It took me forever to find the drop shadow effect in Final Cut (under the Viewer’s Motion tab, of all places!). Last night or the night before, I was lying in bed with Grace watching some documentary and I noticed they had a semi-transparent white rectangle behind their subtitle which helped them pop even more. Definitely something to remember.

Color Correction In Final Cut

One of the things I have to deal with, shooting in a corporate environment (and not yet having a budget for a proper lighting kit – 2008 can’t come fast enough!) is the icky yellow lighting. The offices have it and so do the stores. I can, however, get rid of that pretty satisfactorally (is that a word?) in Final Cut.

Here are before and after pictures. Pretty simple correction. I just used Effects > Video Filters > Color Correction > Color Corrector. I clicked “Visual” and just pulled the center thingy toward the cyans/blues and away from the yellows. Just like I’d basically do in Photoshop. I’m very happy with the result.

Hurray for Filters!

Tonight is class. Tonight is Final Cut in class so I opted to do my editing in the air-conditioned comfort of my office on my dual 2 GHz 5.5 GB RAM machine rather than the original iMacs at the Detroit Film Center where it’s ten billion degrees.

Natasha gave me a quick introduction to the audio filters before class began and I’m cleaning the hiss off my audio tracks in Madre Sabe El Mejor. Also, I finally found out how to apply drop shadows to text! AND how to copy that attribute to multiple clips! It’s a very good evening. My subtitles look much, much better.