Today I'm gonna show you
how to make your videos look more filmic.
And I don't mean raising your black levels
or holding weird objects up to your lens,
I mean actually emulating film.
Let's get Undone.
[offbeat music]
♪ Gerald Undone ♪
♪ He's crazy ♪
What's happening, everybody? I'm Gerald Undone,
and I am serious, and don't call me Shirley.
So, when I made that LUT roundup video last month,
many of you were interested in FilmConvert.
And more specifically, their new Nitrate upgrade,
So, I reached out to them and they were willing
to sponsor this video,
and also provide a beta for the new plugin.
Now, this beta is only for Premiere Pro,
So, I'm not gonna be able to do this demonstration in Resolve.
But when the final version is released, it should work
pretty much the same, just add it in OpenFX.
Now, the biggest part of this update
is the integration of Cineon, which, for those
that don't know, is an entire system
based around a digital film workflow.
But for our practical uses, this brings us a big advantage
in FilmConvert Nitrate in that now we can keep
the log format of our videos.
So, we're not gonna lose our log gamma encoding anymore
as soon as we apply FilmConvert,
and this will make for a much smoother
and much more powerful grading process.
[pleasant piano music]
♪
And I also have good news,
since I know many of you like shooting in HLG.
Well, HLG is counted as log in Nitrate as well,
So, you aren't restricted to shooting
in S-Log2 or V-Log L, you can use the Hybrid Gammas.
And in fact, every clip you just watched
was shot in HLG3 on the Sony a7 III.
I shot them on the a7 III because I was away
at Sony Kando this last week
and so, obviously I was using Sony gear,
but I think it turned out to be a good test
given the limited codec and bit depth on the Sony cameras.
And I have to say, I was quite pleased with the results,
but remember if you plan on shooting HLG on the Sony
for this purpose that you use the Rec.709
and not the BT.2020 colour mode
to get the best results with FilmConvert.
So, let's take a closer look at some of these clips,
and I'll give you some tips on how I graded them as well as
talk about the improvements of FilmConvert Nitrate.
OK, so, first step, applying the plugin is really easy.
You can just go up here and type in "FilmConvert,"
and we have FilmConvert Nitrate--
I also have FilmConvert Pro, which is the previous version--
and we can just drag it down and drop it on the clip,
and then we'll see it over here.
If this was Resolve, you'd have to use OpenFX,
but it's all pretty much the same.
The interface is the same throughout.
So, now we have FilmConvert Nitrate here.
Now, one of the things that I like to do and that
I recommend to do is that you make a custom page for this.
So, you can see up here I have my FilmConvert page.
Because this is going to be for a grading process,
I'd like to have the-- you know, picture a little bit big,
I like to have my scopes on the side.
And this is more of a colour grading page,
but not using Lumetri,
instead we're using the FilmConvert tab.
And it can be done just
by having your effects on the side panel.
The first one you're gonna want to do
is choose your camera, this is the same way as before.
You're gonna have to download free camera packs for
the camera that you're using, I just go in here and choose.
So, this one was "Sony" and then "a7 mk3,"
and then I shot in HLG3.
And you can see they have a lot of
the picture profiles for the Sony here.
You just have to respect the colour modes that they advise.
Like I said, they're not listed here for HLG,
but you're gonna want to use Rec.709.
Then just click "apply," and then we've already got
sort of the film emulation has begun.
Then just below that, we have the updated exposure,
temperature, and tint controls,
which are much better than before,
both in actually using them, as well as you can be more
creative with them because they provide a smoother response,
but we'll get into that in just a minute.
Now just below that is the film settings,
and the first one is the film stocks,
where you choose the film that you actually want to emulate.
And I think there's about 19 or 20 in the list here,
and a lot of the fun is actually
choosing the film stocks and, you know, experimenting
and setting up your own settings
that you like to get a unique look,
but I'll share with you a few of my favourites
from the list and how I work with them.
So, if we go back to the finished look for this--
So, I'm gonna delete that plugin
and re-enable the one that I had before.
I'll go over some of the choices
that I made for this particular grade.
So, for the film stock here, I chose "FJ Prov 100."
And usually what happens is the first one is the company,
which is Fujifilm, and then "Prov" here is for "Provia,"
that's the brand name of the film,
and then "100" would be the exposure.
In this case this is the speed of the film, ISO 100.
Now, Provia is a daylight-balanced film,
and it's a little bit less saturated than the others,
but I've always been a fan of the way
that it looks in harsher light.
Now, the next two controls, the colour and curve,
you can skip if you're using log because they're intended
for standard footage and not log footage,
but you can actually tweak them if you want--
I can show you the colour one here--
if you're trying to create a unique albeit unfaithful look.
Now, the developer has told me that these two controls
are likely to be replaced in future updates when it detects
that you're using log footage with something
that's more like a Cineon to sRGB slider,
So, you can have a little bit more understanding
of what you're actually controlling when you do it.
And I think the colour and curve will still remain
when you're using standard footage instead,
but will be replaced when it detects log.
Next up we have one of the new controls,
which is the "film print emulation,"
and pulling this back will reveal that flat log image
you're used to seeing underneath
the fully developed emulation, and this can be an effective way
to reduce the contrast or tone down the intensity.
Now next up-- and just like in the previous releases--
we have our film size. Now, choosing a smaller film
will give us less sharpness but a larger grain.
So, if we click on "8mm," for instance,
we can see that our size of the grain
went all the way up and the softness
went up quite a bit as well,
and we can see the image is much softer.
And if we play it back a little bit here,
we can see that the grain is pretty pronounced
and we lose a little bit of that sharpness.
It just kind of gives it more of a,
you know, fuzzier 8mm look.
And if we go all the way up to 35mm,
then "size" goes all the way down to four
and the softness goes down to zero.
You can customize these controls and it's laid out
in a much better way than the previous plugins were,
and you can kind of see it take effect a little bit better.
And we also have this new "grain response curve" here,
which has corresponding points
that relate to the exposure values
that allow you to increase a given amount of grain
depending on where in the exposure range
that you wanted to, so, say, for instance,
if we increase this all the way up here,
well, now we're gonna get a lot more grain
more in the highlighted area, So, if we look at this now,
we can see that we have quite a bit of grain
around these areas around the tree,
but not anymore on her skin.
But if instead we increased this one
all the way up, and now we watch that back again,
now look at her skin.
We can see that now we have a lot more grain
in the shadow areas.
So, it really gives you a lot of customization
over how you want the grain to look.
Now, when you choose a film stock up here,
it's gonna set all these by default.
So, if I chose this one, for instance,
you can see the grain response went up.
And if I chose this one, we have sort of
a different pattern for the grain response.
But I tweaked mine on the Provia
by just bringing down the midtone grain a little bit
and then lowering the strength from 100 down to 50.
This still creates a nice grain
that I think sells the fact that it's film,
but it's not as intense, which I think is better
when I'm putting this on YouTube,
because for the most part you're probably not used to
seeing any kind of film grain on YouTube,
So, if I had it all the way jacked up
and then you watched my video, it might be a bit too intense.
But as you saw earlier when you watched these clips,
you can definitely see the film grain,
and on some of the clips it's more pronounced,
but it's not overpowering when compared to the other,
more digital looks that you would see on this platform.
Now below that we have the new colour wheels,
which are much better than in a previous version.
The ones before I always found
a bit too finicky and impossible to control--
I'll show you side-by-side in a second--
and these ones are much smoother.
If we wanted to increase the shadows like this--
which I did on this image a little bit
in order to bring back some of her skin because
it's obviously quite dark compared to the environment--
and then I pulled the highlights down quite a bit,
which were usually up here, to make her pop
a little bit more from that sort of glowy background.
But if I compare this to--
So, I'm gonna go back to "assembly and effects"
and compare this to the previous FilmConvert
So, you can see how much of an improvement it was.
I'm gonna take the FilmConvert Pro down here
and I'm gonna drop that on.
We can stack FilmConverts,
but obviously I wouldn't recommend doing that.
So, I'm gonna hide FilmConvert Nitrate
and I'm gonna expand FilmConvert Pro,
and I'm gonna go in here
and I'm going to choose the same camera--
I'm not gonna bother going through all the steps,
just gonna show you the sliders on the colour wheels--
So, there, sure, and for the film setting
I was choosing the Provia 100.
Now if we jump down to "color correction,"
we can see the old colour wheels, which--
I don't really like the way that they look aesthetically,
but also, the controls themselves--
look what happens if I try to increase
the shadows a little bit.
I don't know, it jumps on me too much,
and it gives a lot of that faded kind of look.
I don't really feel like I'm masking for the shadows
that much and then if I try to bring the highlights up,
they just, like, blow out immediately,
and then down, they get too flat immediately.
The mid-tones...
They just don't really have the same sort of finesse
with the controls, and this could be obviously
a combination of the new log processing,
but also, I think the response itself
is just smoother in the new plugin.
So, I'll hide this one just in case
we need to compare it again,
and I will reactivate the Nitrate.
And now if we do the exact same thing,
if I reset the shadows and I increase the shadows up,
you can see that it's much smoother
and we don't get that weird, faded black look,
we actually get sort of a natural boost of the shadows.
But if curves are more your game,
they also now have a custom curve control
below the colour wheels, which is new to Nitrate
and wasn't in the Pro version, which I personally appreciate
because I often tend to use curves
more than I use the colour wheels.
And then below that we have levels, just like before.
But what makes Nitrate great, though, is how quickly
and easily you can get a great-looking image.
As we look over the controls here,
you can see that I didn't actually do a lot to the image,
and I walked you through most of them already.
Bump the shadows a little bit, lower the highlights,
tweak the grain to reduce a little bit.
And then I changed the exposure a tiny bit,
which you'll have to do depending on
which film stock you choose,
because you might have a look in your mind and then
a certain film stock might blow out your highlights
a little bit more or be a little bit more subdued,
So, you might want to play with the exposure control for that.
And I found that the exposure control is much better
than it was previously and much smoother,
which you can see here, as we move through,
you get sort of a more natural darkening and brightening
that you would expect to see.
And then I also added a bit of magenta
on the tint control here-- which I don't even think
was available in the previous one,
I think it was only temperature--
to combat some of the green reflections
that happen from the talent standing in the bushes.
And that's it! And with just those few
little controls there, you get a peaceful
and pretty grade, in my opinion.
And we can turn it off and on so, you can see
the before and the after, and this was part
of an overall look that I was trying to apply to give it
this kind of, you know, rosy sunset-y kind of vibe,
even though this particular one was shot during midday.
But those temperature and tint controls
can be used in much more creative ways as well,
as you can see here.
Because they provide a smoother response,
we can actually use them to colour our image in a way
that we wouldn't have been able to before.
So, now we can increase the temperature.
On this image I have it up to 164
and the tint up to 71.
If I give you a before-and-after
by turning it off, you can see that it was kind of
a duller blue and green image, and now when we turn it on,
it's this bright-- you know, rosy pinks in the skies,
and we have this much warmer light
coming on the grass there,
really selling the fact that it's a sunset.
Again, before... and after.
And this is just done just by the temperature control.
If I move through, you can see that
we get a really smooth response on the temperature control
all the way down to blue, which is now, like,
really pushing up those blues, and then all the way across
to the warmest, which seems like, you know,
the pinnacle of a sunset.
And we don't get any of the weird effects
that happen sometimes when you adjust the temperature
or tint on an image that doesn't really
want to take it that well, we don't get any of that.
And I think that's because of the way
that they're processing the log image here,
but either way, these sliders are much improved
and give you a lot of creative control over the image
to create a look that might not have otherwise been achieved
without going deep into your colour wheels.
For this one, by the way, we're using the Fuji 8563,
which is actually a motion colour negative stock,
where the previous ones were
photographic colour transparency.
This one might also be known
as Eterna 250D, which, just like before,
"250" is for the exposure index
and "D" is for "daylight," daylight-balanced.
And "Eterna" is obviously one
of Fuji's brand names that they use
for their motion picture film stocks.
I also have this shot here,
which has a lot of colours and saturation--
let me disable the FilmConvert Nitrate--
and was shot at night time, So, the lighting's
a little bit weird and it's dark in the background,
just to see how it handled all of that.
And this first one here I did with the Provia again,
you know, brought the saturation down.
But I don't really love the light here,
I find it to be a little bit... eh, boring on the faces,
I find, so, I use this as an opportunity to convert it
to black and white and see how it assigned colours
for black and white and what I thought of that.
But a quick little comment on this--
I thought that it did really well with the night environment
to not do anything too funky to the skin, which I like.
You can see when the light comes up here and hits this,
and you see the blue here.
And if we turn this off and on,
you can see it gives a really smooth, nice result,
even though the Provia is kind of
pushing down the saturation,
which you might not want in these night scenes.
Let's jump over to this one, which was black and white,
and for this one we used the Kodak Tri-X 400.
And Tri-X is, like,
a really old black-and-white photographic film,
but the ISO 400 version is actually--
you know, newer than the original,
but it's been around for a really long time,
and I'm sure you've seen tons of images
shot with this film stock 'cause it was used for, like,
photojournalism in everything for really, really long time.
But anyway, what I like about it is, one,
like I said, how the colours were assigned--
if we turn it off and turn it back on,
you can see where the blues were allotted--
but also, how it separated the skin tones,
I think it did a really, really nice job.
And if we zoom in here a little bit,
something that I really like about these skin tones--
that might be a bit too much--
--is how it took an otherwise boring shot,
like I was talking about--
well, at least boring lighting on the face--
and made it seem a lot more intense
and a lot more important and dramatic.
So, there's the before, and there's the after.
And it just gives a sense of, like...
I don't know, importance and emotion to the faces
that wasn't there before.
This is an example of something where if a shot--
maybe you didn't like the light or it wasn't, you know,
quite nice in colour, that turning to black and white
might actually sell the emotion better
than it would have in colour.
And I think that this is an example
that worked out really well for that,
and so, I really like the black and white emulations as well.
Now we could go on like this, but I think you get the idea.
The stocks are great, and the new interface
makes them really fun to use.
I thought the previous FilmConvert was quite good,
but Nitrate is truly on a whole 'nother level
and takes away any issues
that I had with the earlier versions.
I highly recommend this plugin
if you're looking for a fast and enjoyable way
to grade your footage, or to give your log images
a unique look quickly without losing
what makes log special.
And so, for that, I give FilmConvert Nitrate
five Fujifilm Provia 100s out of five.
[grunts] But that's gonna be it for me.
I hope you found this video helpful,
or at least entertaining.
And if you did, make sure you leave it the old thumbs-up
and consider subscribing if you haven't already.
But if you did not find this video helpful or entertaining,
feel free to hit the "dislike" button twice.
Alright... I'm done.
♪