Are there any techniques I can apply to make my 35mm feature even more beautiful

I can't believe the improvements I made in my 100 + minute movie after working with FCP5 filters. The movie was shot in 35mm and edited on a Cinemonta flatbed. Then I telecined the movie to DVCAM and imported it into FCP5. I messed up my files the first time I tried editing in FCP5, so I had to start over again. Now I've learned so much that I'm glad I lost all the original versions of the movie. The movie is 100% better now and it's still not over; I'm processing the images all over again. I'm not trying to get the video look or anything :-) but if you can tell me of some cool effects that will make my movie more artsy, I'd really appreciate it. I'm aiming the movie at festivals. I want it to be totally creative.

"More beautiful"?

That's like asking "Is there an editing method that makes all films look better?"

Are you looking for higher contrast, lower contrast, exaggerated blacks, desaturation, colour tint, what? Is it a comedy or a drama, a thriller or a horror film?

You're asking the impossible. We don't know anything about your film, and "cool effects to make my film more artsy" is a term that communicates nothing. You can certainly buy the Nattress Film Effects package and go through all the presets, but whether any of the effects make the film better is strictly a subjective matter.

Try some plugins with glows maybe Boris and or Sapphire effects, I think they have some demos you can try out.

And the Nattress Film Effects is a great start.
Not that these will make your movie more "Beautiful"
But it may give you a different feel or style that can be a beautiful effect.


[www.genarts.com]
try the glows And color glows

[www.borisfx.com]
try the glows And color glows

[www.nattress.com]
try everything his stuff is fun.

hope that gives you some ideas.



SL8UP

the most dramatic changes you can make will be with simple grading.

buy a DVD tutorial on Colour Correction.

the ripple training one is supposed to be good, and you can (and should!) get it right here at Lafcpug:
[www.lafcpug.org]

then you should clean it up, if you TK'd the WP
(that's film jargon for Telecined the Work Print!)
it's probably got dust and scratches all over it,
and could do with some dust-busting.
FCP's not the tool for that job

i beleive shake has a good dust-busting plugin,
but that's serious $$

nick

shake, rattle and roll -- I got to buy it, Nick :-) I like the glowing suggestions, Luie -- thanks! Hey, Derek, my movie is an art film -- it's a drama about a street walker who's befriended by a wealthy widow, but the girl's boyfriend has a scheme to defraud the widow of her money (marry her and leave her). The girl doesn't go along with it and tells the widow. It ends tragically for her boyfriend, but it's a great ending. The film was shot very simply; it's production value is in its locations for the most part. It's a no-budget movie, a 35mm movie shot with short ends, out of pocket money and a lot of imagination (delusions of grandeur). I'm amazed at the results, though, especially after I scored the whole movie myself using Soundtrack Pro. I'm genuinely excited about this movie after 35 years of making movies between $5,000 and $5,000,000. The bigger budget movies I only worked on. The biggest budget movie I made myself was $650,000. But this movie -- thanks to digital editing -- is the one that came closest to what I envisioned -- so far. I'm looking forward to writing and shooting a totally creative project next time. By totally creative I mean going beyond my own self-imposed limitations of subject and logistics; FCP allows me so much more creative freedom. Thanks for everyone's help for making my transition to NLE editing a great experience.

> Hey, Derek, my movie is an art film -- it's a drama about a street walker
> who's befriended by a wealthy widow, but the girl's boyfriend has a scheme
> to defraud the widow of her money (marry her and leave her). The girl
> doesn't go along with it and tells the widow.

Even knowing the plot, there's still not standard for what the look should be. It's a director question. Is he (you, in this case) looking for the '70s gritty urban look? Going against the grain, a Jeunet-style "romantic haze"? Zhang Yimou's super-saturated grandeur? German expressionistic black and white? Muted, almost pastel colours like Seijun Suzuki?

Didn't you have a conversation with your DP before you shot it? The best place to do the majority of the cinematography design is before the shoot, especially if you're working in 35mm.

I agree with Nick. At this stage, colour correction is the key, not add-on effects. What you achieve with Nattress and other effects filters (since you don't need film-flicker simulation) is basically colour and contrast manipulation, with extra tools not available with the Color Corrector filters.

In my opinion, you missed the bet when you telecined to DVCAM. You would have given yourself many more options if you had telecined to an HD format and then downconverted to DVCAM for FCP. Because then you could have created a DI and kept open the option of going back to film, which makes sense since you originated on 35. At the DI stage, you could have availed yourself of far better color grading options on the professional level than FCP can give you.

Now that you're in the DV realm, all the advice that follows is excellent, as long as your only destination is video.

"...but if you can tell me of some cool effects that will make my movie more artsy, I'd really appreciate it. I'm aiming the movie at festivals. I want it to be totally creative."

WOW...why not just use the "Make My 35MM Film More Beautiful" plug-in?

"more artsy"??? Can't get more vague than that. Artsy...meaning "Brazil"? Artsy meaning "A Clockwork Orange"? Artsy meaning "Blue Velvet"? This image is in your head, man...gotta get it out of there and on paper.

Film is a creative medium...the whole thing is "totally creative". The look you want to achieve can only be decided by one person: the visionary (you) or with collaboration with your braintrust. You keep mentioning doing a "totally creative project". I wonder what you mean by that.

I'm with derek on this...aren't you doing this a$$ backwards? Shouldn't you have had this conversation with your Art Director, Production Designer & DP in Pre-Pro? It sounds like you are trying to cut a lot of corners and what you should really be doing is collaborating with someone that does what you want for a living = a Post Production Specialist / Designer / Colorist-type person.

...my 2¢

- Joey



Post Edited (05-25-06 11:01)

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

The points are well taken. Maybe I'm a dreamer, but I figure that's okay when you're a filmmaker, no? :-)

Anyway, I appreciate the ribbing; I take it is as constructive criticism.

I shot this film myself -- solo. I kind of enjoyed the experience. The last time I did this was when I was a film student. LOL

I'm generally happy with the film. This film might not make it in the pantheon of avante garde films (sp ?) but it's still a fantastic film as far as I'm concerned.

I'm not really looking for plugins -- I don't want to spend more money on it. I want to learn all the tricks in FCP5. I figure there are plenty there, since I just learned to us FCP a few months ago. I'm still learning, because I didn't take any courses in it -- only a few hours of listening to trainers at Apple Stores, a little bit of reading and a lot of LAFCPUG -- the best place to learn FCP, I think.

So go ahead and throw anything you have at me; I don't mind as long as I can get a word here and a name there. Maybe I'll even invest in a plugin or two later down the line. I'm only going for DVD release. I might cut the negative if some distributor gets involved or if I make some money to justify it.

Right now I'm having some problems with razor cutting scenes and color correcting them, because there are these half frames (the interlaced frames). When I delete them, the picture track contracts and I'm going out of synch. So I'm putting them back, but the interlaced frames between color corrected scenes are sticking out like sore thumbs. How do you deal with this problem? Interlace? How do you interlace? I've been trying to find a way, but can't find it. Thanks for the help and the comments.

hey, filmman,

could you start a new thread when asking new questions, please?
in fact would you mind reposting your closing Q here in a new thread.
it'll help you get better answers, i know,
and also help with future truth seekers using lafcpugs "Search" function.

if you want to "explore" and go crazy with FX, etc, (or any aspect of FCP)
the best way to do that is to just sit down and, well, explore.
access the FCP filters via the browser's "Effects" tab, not the Effects Menu.
it;s more conducive to a playfull approach.
And rather than ask too-vague-to-be-answered Questions,
keep passing your eyes over sites like LAfcpug.
interesting questions come up all the time, along with informative answers

all the best,
nick

<<<Anyway, I appreciate the ribbing; I take it is as constructive criticism.>>>

Good thing. You can leave here black (7.5IRE) and blue (CCIR Colorspace) if you don't do that.


Nobody brought up sound yet.

There is sound, right?

Have you ever seen one of those training sessions where they project an award-winning insanely-great movie without the sound special effects and music? With just the dialog?

Instant high school project. Doesn't matter how good the pictures are, it appears that somebody went out and shot it with the Sears and Roebuck camera they got in the mail.

Sound kills more shows than the video.

That's what kills a lot of the video blogs. The video is terrific, but the sound is like they shot it in their bedroom--because they did.

Is there a piece of this thing on line somewhere?


We keep after Nattress to write the "Professional Video" and "Professional Audio" filters for Final Cut, but so far, nothing.

Koz

The "Search" function is helpful.

We know how much you love your film (you mentioned it more than a couple of times), but you do have a hard time sticking to one subject per thread.... and since this forum doesn't cycle a thread to the top when a question is answered, threads get lost very quickly (I wish that would change - Mike says no).

Koz is right...sound can kill a great piece...or breathe life into a P.O.S.

- Joey



When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

What really brought this project back to life was Soundtrack Pro. I created amazing music; I never knew I had it in me. I was always musical but this is ridiculous. My first composition sounded like Quincy Jones. I'm telling you I was so blown away by it that it took me a while to believe it myself. THIS EXPERIENCE WITH SOUNDTRACK PRO HAS CHANGED MY LIFE! LOL. I'm a composer! Anyway, Koz, the sound is good, and that has helped a great deal. I'd like to screen this movie to an audience. I wish there was a way I could put it up for the forum to see it. It would be the first LAFCPUG world premiere :-) Or has someone already done this?

As for posting new topics, I always feel a little guilty when I post too many questions. I mean, there is such a thing as bandwidth hogging.

With respect to this topic, I already got a few tips from people on jazzing up my movie with filters, and I appreciate all that. I was hoping for some ideas on how to process images to make them more stylized, less traditional as photography. I think the challenge in this new century is to find the potential of using digital media. I'm very excited about FCP5. I think this is a revolutionary post production tool. We are pioneers.

This is an incredible forum. With computer knowledge in general I found that people were keeping too many secrets -- even in universities professors weren't teaching anymore; they wanted the students to find out everything on their own (there's a limit to how valuable that is, I think). But this forum is so extremely generous; I'm amazed.

> was hoping for some ideas on how to process images to make them more
> stylized, less traditional as photography

You're still talking in abstract terms, though!

"I love what you're doing, Gordon, but can you make it more better?"

"I want more jump cuts or it doesn't look like a reality TV show."

George Lucas to the cast of Star Wars: "Faster and more intense, Carrie."

It's perfectly okay to tackle a project with your mind set on crafting an unusual look. But you can't communicate with creative personnel by saying you want "artier", "better", "funnier", "more stylish". You can say "warmer", "more contrast", "dreamier", "harder", "grittier" in cinematography; "tighter", "fewer cuts", "use fewer close-ups", "keep your distance" in editing. "Artier" isn't something a creative personnel can do.

Ah, yes. Changing the look.

Every production and every agency in all the time zones is always searching for that.

You understand, as good as it is, Final Cut may not be the best place to find effects technologies. After Effects, for example, made a lot of money filling in the holes that the other programs had.

When you see something that grabs your eye in a commercial, chances are still really good that it was produced in a Flame, an Inferno, or the smaller cousins, Toxic, Smoke, Flint, etc. There's nothing like manipulating eight uncompressed layers with moves, distortion, and palette manipulation all in real time.

.....in HiDef.


Do you have a web site?

Can you post a representative segment of the work--something with effects and sound that makes you happy? Do you have such a segment if you had a web site--say 1-1/2 to 2 min?

I think there's some room left on kozco.com

Koz

not so sure about that, derek
you can do it,
but NOT OVER THE INTERNET!

see, film man it's so vague we don't know where to start
well i do: i told you to experiment.
anything more than that is either a list of the available filters,
or so much work on our part, just guessing what you want, that it;s not worth our time doing it.

if i was working with you in your cutting room, and tweaking things, after a minute or two, you'd say, "no i was thinking more like.."
or "i love it but even crazier..."
or "how about..."
but i'm not

hang around, read the posts, learn.
you'll see that every now and then someone asks:
"give me all your great tips on..."
like it or not, they dont really get answered.

anyway here's a practical tip:
along with the Colour Correction DVD,
buy a copy of Kevin Monohan's great book on effects in FCP
"Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro
by Kevin Monahan - $31.49"

and there IS a filter category called Stylize"


nick

"...I created amazing music; I never knew I had it in me. I was always musical but this is ridiculous. My first composition sounded like Quincy Jones. I'm telling you I was so blown away by it that it took me a while to believe it myself. I'm a composer!"

Sounds like you can blow the hell out of your own horn, too

"...As for posting new topics, I always feel a little guilty when I post too many questions. I mean, there is such a thing as bandwidth hogging."

Tooting your own horn is bandwidth hogging. Posting clearly thought out questions that spark creative problem-solving helps everyone in the forum.

"...jazzing up my movie"
"...I was hoping for some ideas on how to process images to make them more stylized"
"...I think the challenge in this new century is to find the potential of using digital media. I'm very excited about FCP5. I think this is a revolutionary post production tool. We are pioneers."

What in the hell are you talking about, man? You are sounding like one of those college grad Account Executives at the Ad Agency I used to work at. I couldn't take the abstract pseudo-creative nomenclature - took a big pay cut to go to a less hack-filled environment. I got tired of trying to read people's minds. They never knew what they wanted...they only knew what they DIDN'T want (and didn't know THAT until they saw it).

Be specific, PLEASE. Always explain your ideas, wants and expectations clearly. None of your responses have clarified ANYTHING regarding the original post or the title of this thread.

What do you want?

- Joey



Post Edited (05-26-06 22:12)

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

<<<What do you want?>>>

It's obvious to me. He wants to filter the work to look cool, different, super, glam, eye catching, and cutting edge.

That's what all the producers always want.

Where's Nattress? I got a couple of new filters for him.

Koz

Wow,... @$#%

Lets see, well I totally agree, it is very obvious to me also that he wants what producers ask for when they say make it more beautiful.


I also understand you don't want to buy any plugins right now, and they can get expensive.
Heres a few things you can do.

IM sorry I cant remember who but there are a couple of FCP plugin designers that give away a couple filters. There are some free ones out there, you just have to search for them.


Here are a few things you can do with what comes standard on FCP it will give you a different look and style.

1. Select Color corrector 3-way apply that to a clip or a couple clips,
go to your filters on the clip select visual so you can see the 3 color wheels, go to your white wheel on the right at the bottom there is a slider take the middle of that slider and move it a little bit to the right,
take your mid wheel slider and drag it a little to the right, now take your black wheel slider and more it left a touch.
This should give you a contrast look. Go back and fourth till you see what you like,
play around with that and play with the center dots in the wheels move them around.

I strongly recommend you doing some color correcting tutorials you can find. There is a great one on secondary color correction somewhere on This site. Check it out its very useful sometimes.

Even better my favorite color correcting tutorial is by Ripple Training. Well, worth the money I promise. You think you had fun with STP learn how to Color correct and you'll feel great about that also.

Play with all the filters in Color Correction just play with them.
In Quicklime there is a filter called General Convolution i have no idea what its for but i have used it before and it gives a dreamy look sometimes. that's pretty cool

Lastly I know they cost money but for $100 bucks you can buy Nattress Film Effects and that's like the best $100 i have ever spent on filters. Try his demo you'll end up buying it.

I think DH sells plugins individual for something like around $10 but don't quote me on that please might be more.

Good luck hope that helps
and don't worry i Understand what your question meant.



SL8UP

Stay enthusiastic filmman, enthusiasm is good. But ask a bunch of editors and post production visionaries a blurry question and ya gotta expect to hear rallying cries for precision! Editors/PPV's tend to have detail oriented, precision-demanding minds, and are among the most meticulous, anal-retentive, picky perfectionists you'll ever come accross... otherwise they could not or would not do this obsessive minutiae-heavy work!

One of the producers I have been working with recently confessed to me that he wants to learn to edit, so he can do his own lower-budget jobs, and I smiled and nodded but inside it was a belly-laugh: the dude can't stay off the phone or sit still for 2 seconds in a row in the editing room. Zero in the patience department. He may be smart enough, but his temperament alone will keep the likes of us employed...

Personally, I caught your drift, but it did seem to appear as if you were asking for concrete answers to a fully subjective query. Like haveing a conversation in 2 different languages, only the talkers are not all fluent in both...

Glad you can take a ribbing and that you see the forum as the generous interaction that it is.

Good luck,

Marla

<<< It's obvious to me. He wants to filter the work to look cool, different, super, glam, eye catching, and cutting edge. >>>

...like I said earlier...he wants the "Make My 35MM Film More Beautiful" plug-in. Nattress will clean up if he can come up with this one...one that "jazzes up"/ "Stylizes"/ "makes more artsy" & translates all that vague verbage into a cohesive effect that makes the client say "that's EXACTLY what I was talking about!" with a couple of keyframes & a render.

...and then he can create another plug-in for the "Make My 35MM Film More Beautiful - REVISIONS".



- Joey



When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Thanks Luie, Marla, for the encouragement. Koz, I will post something as soon as I finish the last sequence -- sometime tomorrow I hope.

Okay, to ask concrete questions:

I have a scene -- a man takes a picture of a couple of kids. It's a Polaroid. The kids look at it. I made a freeze frame of the shot of the two kids as they appeared to the man with the camera.

25 years later ... the title appears over the shot of the girl who is now all grown up, etc. She's looking at the same picture. I turned the freeze frame shot at an angle using Motion (first time using motion :-) then I inserted the scene next to her looking at some pictures.

How can I change the perspective of the picture as though she's holding it in her hand and looking at it -- in proper perspective and not just flat on the screen? I can do this in photoshop, but I don't know how to do the perspective in Motion. Or is it done in FCP?

As for effects filters I'm looking for, here's a question:

What's the easiest way to give the whole movie a three dimensional look?

As for sharing some tricks I learned using FCP, here's one that most of you probably know, but it blew me away and I want to share it with someone who hasn't used it yet:

When color correcting a scene, you can go up to Modify and scroll down to Copy Filter and click on one of four unfolding choices:

1. Apply filter to previous scene.
2. Apply filter to 2nd previous scene.
3. Apply filter to 1st scene following.
4. Apply filter to 2nd scene following.

I don't remember the exact wording but you'll find it easily.

Anyway, what was cool about this was that most of the time a scene is shot in, let's say, over the shoulder shots. So if the two scenes need to be matched, once you have corrected each angle, you can simply copy the filter and apply it to the second scene following the first angle scene. And you can correct a whole sequence in a few minutes by going between the two filter settings. I wish I could've explained it better, but let me know if you want me to write down the exact procedure from my computer -- I'll be editing tomorrow and doing some color correction.

By the way, Nick, those were good suggestions. I appreciate all the comments. I always learn something from reading every thread on LAFCPUG.

-- Vic (filmman)

Quote: Oh, Charlie, Charlie, you were my brother, you shoulda looked out for me. I coulda been somebody, I coulda been a contenda...

> What's the easiest way to give the whole movie a three dimensional look?

Oh boy...that's another one of those "can't translate into real techniques" requests. What are you trying to get? More saturation? More contrast? A colour scheme a la Dario Argento's "primary colours" in Suspiria?

> How can I change the perspective of the picture as though she's holding it in
> her hand and looking at it -- in proper perspective and not just flat on the
> screen.

You shoot it. That's the best way. Just get the camera, mimic the lighting, get any girl's hand that matches the actress', and shoot it. I once had a series of three shots in the same scene which all took place in different locations at different times, and nobody ever noticed. It was a guy at a prison counter, and we cross-cut between his medium profile during principal photography at the real prison; a reshoot insert of him looking at a jacket at our equipment room counter; and another reshoot insert, close-up on the jacket, done at the director's apartment. I shot it -- we didn't even need the DP or the actual actor; the director's hands substituted for the actor's.

The problem with the approach you're outlining is that when you freeze a frame, people can tell it's not a real shot because of the complete absence of motion. That's why you can't use freeze-frames for establishing shots 95 per cent of the time. It'd be better to loop the shot, or to slow-mo it to make it last long enough.

In your case, I'd suggest an optical illusion: When the guy looks at the picture, cut to an insert of the picture, but it's actually in the girl's hands. Have no clue in the frame that it's the girl holding the picture. Then you can zoom out/dolly out/tilt up to reveal that it's now the girl holding the picture, so the location/time change just snuck up on the audience.

I like Derek's last suggestion a lot, it's always lovely to make a transition implicit/invisible and then to have a reveal... I like his idea better than the following, but in case this is what you were after:


>How can I change the perspective of the picture as though she's holding it in >her hand and looking at it -- in proper perspective and not just flat on the >screen? I can do this in photoshop, but I don't know how to do the >perspective in Motion. Or is it done in FCP?

Do you mean just tilting the photo-in-her-hand portion of the image, or are you talking about the perspective of the whole shot? If just the photo, depending of course on how she's holding it and on lots of other visual details of the image, you might be able to create a matte for the photo, in FCP, then use motion/distort to skew the angles of the matte's perimiter lines, soften the edges of the matte, etc.

A little hard to explain without seeing what you are dealing with, & the matte tool in FCP is on the rough side, but I have stuck images into blank tv screens, or windows, that weren't in the original shot, using this method...

A tip too, is that when creating mattes that are going to be small in the final composition, blow up your viewer/canvas window a lot (little pull-down tab at the top of each window) so that you can really see the edges of what you are getting. Always remember that lots of people will be looking at your DVD on much larger screens than you are working with in the editing room...

Sorry not to be more detailed with the instructions, it's early in the morning for me, from a lack-of-sleep perspective...

Marla

<<< "Okay, to ask concrete questions: What's the easiest way to give the whole movie a three dimensional look?">>>

LOL--- holy crap

<<< "I have a scene -- a man takes a picture of a couple of kids. It's a Polaroid. The kids look at it. I made a freeze frame of the shot of the two kids as they appeared to the man with the camera.

25 years later ... the title appears over the shot of the girl who is now all grown up, etc. She's looking at the same picture." >>>

Who's "the girl"? One of the kids? Is it just me or does this make no sense? The hardest thing to do is get on the same page as a Director when you have never seen a frame of his film. Once again...none of this is clearly explained.

...but maybe it's just me.

- Joey



When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Derek, you're right, shooting it would be more realistic and maybe in the end easier. But I appreciate the technique that Marls mentions. I'm going to try and create a matte and then see if I can manipulate it properly. I'm going to do this tomorrow. Thanks, Marla.

Joey, I'm glad you're enjoying my questions. Maybe I'm not presenting what I'm after properly. Still I appreciate your comments. Marla came up with the answer to my question. All I wanted was to know which filter handles the change of perspective. Like I explained in my previous post, I know how to do this in photoshop; I figured there must be a way to do it in FCP. It's just called something else. In photoshop I can choose distort and I can change the perspective of an image. In FCP one must begin with Matte...

By the way, I found a good way to simulate 3D in FCP. There's a filter under video (in the browser); it's called Emboss. It works very well in combination with other filters to create a composite 3D image which is pretty much what I was looking for.

Again, thank you for all your comments. Have a nice memorial weekend.

Vic,

I am not trying to bust chops here and my 2 cents isn't helping you so I'll bow out with this...

I am not "enjoying" your questions at all, my friend. As a matter of fact, I wish you were more clear so I could offer up more concise help and it's frustrating. I am a Visual FX / Motion Graphics Designer / Editor by trade. I believe in storyboards & mockups to flesh out ideas before a single frame is altered. Most recently, I just did 3 FX shots for a film being shopped at the Cannes Film Festival as we speak:

[www.imdb.com]

(scroll down & click "more" to get the Crew List. I am Joe Morelli under "Visual Effects by"

During my "day job", in a Broadcast TV / Advertising environment, I deal with multiple Producers everyday that hand me scripts and Grafix Requests...and they don't know what the hell they want (Grafix Request says "use creative license - it's up to you"...it should say "go straight to revision 3 - we will start liking it by then". They think there's a ":30 Second Spot" plug-in that creates all grafix, editing, music & sound design mixes exactly the way they have it in their head. I learned over the years to ask a million questions before putting a single element into a project.

Unless you are really proficient with FCStudio, After Effects & Photoshop, I believe you will "cheapen" your film with a bunch of homemade rigged FX. If this is a learning experience for you and you are attempting to dive deep into FC Studio, cool...go for it. But if you are trying to "beautify" your film for some kind of public release and you are trying to build reputation, you should seriously consider taking on a "partner" that is an EXPERT in creating these desired FX correctly - making them invisible to the viewer. There is nothing worse than watching your film among many strangers and hearing someone in the crowd say "yikes...that looks like a Photoshop Emboss effect!" or "Oh, man...Lens Flare Plug-in", etc. The FX should be so undetectable, that they are invisible. That should be the goal of anyone using plug-ins - make it look like no plug-ins were used at all.

My last 2 cents - Peace Have a pleasant Memorial Day

- Joey



Post Edited (05-29-06 19:46)

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Thank you, Joey, I have no hard feelings, believe me. I'm not very clear because FCP is really new to me. I mean I've only been doing this for a few months, and that's not enough time to learn this program. I've been told it's going to be more like one year and I believe that. Can you put up with me for another 7 months? LOL

Perhaps you'd be kind enough to explain to me what After Effects and Photoshop can do for me when it comes to brightening my movie clips. By the way I read a good thread about this -- brightening is perhaps what I was looking for. Although I'd still like to do a 3D simulation. Now mind you, I'm not talking about 3D like the Disney 3D movies with green and red glasses. I mean a cinematic depth of field type of look. Some soft highlights and a bit of perceived depth of field. Maybe compositing will do it. I agree though that making the effect subtle or undetectable will be great.

Well, thanks again everyone for the help.