Magic Bullet "V" FCP Color

Trolling for opinions. Okay, I'll bite

Magic Bullet Looks = waste of my time and energy

Color = superior product requiring some intellect and energy of the user as well as modest investment in hardware to actually do it right, as in, no firewire no iMac but a real input/output video interface with real monitoring. I think Color is fantastic and I wish Apple would have left it as a separate application for purchase.

which is better?

COLOR

It is a complete tool for CC on many aspects and flexible enough to feed your creative flair.

Heard that color is pretty hard to use??

As hard as using a paintbrush. Either you know what to do with it or you don't, in the latter case you can always learn.

Dave,

Rather than teach you how to do things on a forum, I'd suggest cracking the Color Manual and Set up Guide as well as the Release Notes. These publications are chock full of very useful information.

There is also Lynda.com and an okay Color curriculum for learning.

Why no firewire monitoring? Limited bandwidth and I honestly hope Apple doesn't include that option. You'll find laptop usage rather limiting due to the completely inflexible User Interface of Color.

why cany you use Color with firewire?

That is not an issue. The two don't neccessarily have anything to do with each other.

Zeb was bemoaning the fact that some folks asking questions here are of the opinion that they should be able to run a highly demanding application such as Color on low powered hardware. After all, video editing software is pretty cheap these days and anyone can do it, right?

Your MacBook Pro will run Color just fine. But to perform any color correction properly, there needs to be a calibrated broadcast quality monitor connected to the system. Otherwise it's a waste of time.

You can find a decent solution for your MBP by hooking up a Matrox MXO box between your computer and a quality monitor. Not perfect, but it's getting there.

Magic Bullet Looks is a great tool in the right hands - but it has very little to do with Color. I use Looks for visual effects to heighten a mood or add a statement. Purists often criticize Magic Bullet even though, behind closed doors many pro's are using it.
You did not mention wether you are color grading or color correcting? before you move on to using color, you should look at FCP's 3-way color corrector and understand this thoroughly, especially the histograms. It is essential that you neutralize any color casts or clipped highlights etc. You need to have a grasp of basic color knowledge for broadcast first before you learn the Color app.
Here is my work method after final picture lock:
1. FCP Use 3-way color corrector - check histograms (whites/blacks), RGB parade (neutrals) and vectorscope (skin tones, etc)
2. Add any effects like Looks, if I think they add or accentuate the the story.
3. Re-check with the 3-way all the clips where Magic Bullet Looks or other effects may have been used - as these plug-ins can often really go outside broadcast safe colors.
4. Export to color for a final grading depending on what the delivery method is for the movie.

Regarding Magic Bullet Looks, Zebulun considers it a waste of his time and I think it would probably be a waste of yours.

All it does is provide you with a hundred different colour effects (which can be customised).

However, most of them could be quite easily done using FCP's colour controls and blur filters etc.

The biggest problem (unless I have missed something) is the lack of being able to use keyframes.

There is a tutorial which at first glance looks impressive until you realise that it is crying out to be keyframed ........ but you can't!

Nah, I'm just grumpy today, Ian, and I should probably stay off the forums.

Looks does some decent stuff for one offs, the problem is the wretched user interface and the abject lack of external monitoring. There are a ton of other problems I have with it including one you mentioned, the lack of keyframes. For someone who doesn't know anything about working with color though, it's kind of a waste of money in my humble point of view.

The tutorial covers adding localised effects to the face of a young woman ....... but as she is unlikely to remain in the same spot for more than a second, how do you make the soft focus etc. look follow her so that her face retains the effect and not a bit of blank wall that she has left behind?

The effect is fine for a still photo but seems to fall down with a moving video, which is what MBL is supposedly designed for.

Here is my thought.

Are you a colorist? Then don't use COLOR. Color is a highly professional color correction application. It isn't as simple as the 3-way, it requires a pretty strict workflow and set of codecs. It has a lot of settings internally that you need to do right. CAN you pick it up? Yes...I have, because I had to. I have two tutorial DVDs and I had a week to play and figure things out. I even had people I could call and have them help me figure out the more trickier aspects. And I STILL only use the PRIMARY room.

Are you just an editor that wants to produce great looking color corrected footage? Look at Magic Bullet COLORISTA. It has a very familiar looking interface (looks like the 3-way), allows you better control over the colors and allows you to push them to the extremes more that the 3-way allows. And you can color correct in FCP. You can monitor your timeline the way you normally would if DV via firewire. But if you are working with HD then yes, you need an HD monitor and HD capture card to see how you are REALLY affecting the colors.

MB Looks? That is GRADING software to give your footage a certain look. It does not allow you to view this footage on an external monitor (from what I have heard) so you cannot really tell what it looks like. Plus you can only see one frame, not the whole clip, so if the shadows and highlights change throughout the shot, then you can't see that to adjust. But you can use that to get a basic look, then tweak with the 3-way or Colorista.

Bottom line...if you are not wanting to be a colorist, I say avoid COLOR. Use Colorista or the 3-way.

(NOTE...Colorista still clamps anything over 100IRE down to 100IRE, so you need to adjust it down with the ProcAmp or 3-wa before you add Colorista).

My Humble Opinion. Color isn't simple to use, and isn't for everyone.

Shane