How to make film look Cinematic ?

Hi guys

to compensate for a slightly flat film (weather wise) I want to give my film a cinematic feel. I don't know any of the correct terms but I want to add the black lines top and bottom.

Does anybody know the simplest way to to this ?

Also want the film to have a warm golden glow to brighten it up. It was shot on a dull overcast day

Thanks for any help.

Neil

It is called letterbox. You can use the Mask effect, select what you want to show, then invert th mask.

There are also a couple of free templates here in the free template section of this forum for this effect.

Film look, that is so subjectively and wide ranging. Correct contrast. First, that's 90% of the effect. Again there are some fre bites here, and paid plugins elsewhere to do this.

Or simply go to the color board, take the mods puck to start with, and add some yellowish/gold to the image. But adjust contrast first, then white balance, then go for your look.

An overcast day, o any lower light scene trick, is to lower saturation on the shadows, push it slightly on the mids and/or highlights. The eye doesn't make out color in low light areas like a camera does.

This may be too simple but have you tried any of the presets in the colour board? They're 'tweakable' and the settings can be saved if/when you get the look you want.

An overcast day can look very beautiful because the clouds act like a giant silk that diffuses the light. This softens shadows a great deal and is more flattering to skin. Harsh, directly overhead sunlight is way harder to deal with in terms of creating a great shot.

Simply adding letterbox bars that were not intended is usually not a very good idea, especially if you didn't frame for them. If you shot 16:9, you are already close to 1.85:1 aspect ratio which is what many films are shot in. I guess if you go to 2.40:1 it will certainly be a larger difference, but again, I doubt this will get you far if you didn't frame for it.

I echo the others and say that your best bet is looking at the gamma and color curves. Try something like Filmconvert, which applies different curves and grains to simulate different film stocks. The classic 'cinematic look,' if there is one, is a combination of framerate (usually 24 or 25), shutter angle (180 degress at 24fps gives the classic motion blur), lenses, gamma and color curves, lighting, and maybe aspect ratio (but not really). There are great films that tweak all of the above to differing effect and I would certainly call them 'cinematic,' but I'm just giving what that standard look entails.

Is film Convert an external plug in ?

I guess I want the soft haziness, with a warm tone, but at the same time, not to let the film look flat ?

haysoos123 wrote: An overcast day can look very beautiful because the clouds act like a giant silk that diffuses the light. This softens shadows a great deal and is more flattering to skin. Harsh, directly overhead sunlight is way harder to deal with in terms of creating a great shot.

Simply adding letterbox bars that were not intended is usually not a very good idea, especially if you didn't frame for them. If you shot 16:9, you are already close to 1.85:1 aspect ratio which is what many films are shot in. I guess if you go to 2.40:1 it will certainly be a larger difference, but again, I doubt this will get you far if you didn't frame for it.

I echo the others and say that your best bet is looking at the gamma and color curves. Try something like Filmconvert, which applies different curves and grains to simulate different film stocks. The classic 'cinematic look,' if there is one, is a combination of framerate (usually 24 or 25), shutter angle (180 degress at 24fps gives the classic motion blur), lenses, gamma and color curves, lighting, and maybe aspect ratio (but not really). There are great films that tweak all of the above to differing effect and I would certainly call them 'cinematic,' but I'm just giving what that standard look entails.

Neil P wrote: Is film Convert an external plug in ?

There is a standalone version as well as plugins for different programs (including FCPX). Just go to their site and download a trial. Go easy on the grain, though. The defaults are a bit exaggerated to me.

Here's a great free plugin from @Alex4D that adds letterbox/matte to your video:

blog.alex4d.com/2012/10/28/alex4d-letterbox-fcpx-effect/

It gives you a lot more aspect ratios than provided by the built in one.

If you want the "House of Cards" 2:1 ratio---it is in the plugin.