Using FCP 5.1.4 to make drama look like CSI

Strange request perhaps...I need some FCP genius suggestions on how to use this editing system to make a drama look like the US TV show CSI...wide open question..anything goes.

Strange request...I need some genius types on how to do this ...

I believe there is a filter in the Nattress Film Effects package that is modeled after the CSI "look..."

Try that first...

Actually, I was wrong; the CSI filter is in the Magic Bullet suite. It's called Crime Scene...

That sucks, since the price for Magic Bullet is way higher than Nattress...

> I need some FCP genius suggestions on how to use this editing system to make a drama look
> like the US TV show CSI

In my view, if you couldn't answer this question before the shoot, you're at a major disadvantage. As far as I can tell, those hyperstylized "Bruckheimer" looks have more to do with blasting a huge amount of light on set than post-production effects. You won't get those super-bright, ultra-commercial highlights just by mucking with filters. Just my two cents.


www.derekmok.com

yeah, sorry, the magic look to CSI is mostly in the lighting and camera work. sure you could do some color correcting (drop the blacks, gass the highs, bump the saturation) to get closer, but if you didn't shoot it in "CSI-STYLE", nobody's going to make the connection.

still have a look at Nattress.

also check this out:
the "Grading Sweet"
[www.thegradingsweet.com]
[www.thegradingsweet.com]
pretty basic stuff, i think, with not much control, by the looks of things,
but might be of interest


cheers,
nick

And you have to shoot a format that will allow for lots of filters and image manipulation. DV, HDV ain't gonna cut it. DVCPRO HD might. That show is shot on 35mm film

GET A PROFESSIONAL COLORIST. Or someone who knows his stuff. Not only is that show shot on 35mm, but it is colored on a DaVinci color corrector by an emmy award winning colorist (oh, and emmy award winning DP as well) You can look at the new COLOR app with FCP Studio 2.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

by no means would i hope to call this a clone of the CSI look but sort of "a poor-mans, rough approximation" of it (from a vague memory) using color correction, and composite modes.

top being the original shot, middle being a general "look" and bottom being their recreation vignette or "flashback" style

(drop the blacks, gass the highs, bump the saturation)

Hi, Wayne:
I am not well versed in some of the FCP features. What do you mean by 'gass the highs' and bump the saturation? And how did you actually drop the blacks to create the third picture we see above? You did a great job, by the way.

the images were all created primarily using just the 3way color corrector. the third one specifically has one layer color corrected, then that layer is copied, put on a track directly above the original, saturation is dropped (again, using the 3way color corrector), opacity dropped to 88% and applied an overlay composite mode to it

- BAM! poor mans CSI

here is a link to screenshots of the 3way color corrector settings:
[understandinc.com]

"cc1_blackoverlay88" is the one you place over, change to overlay and drop to 88%
"cc2_blackunderlay" is the one that sits UNDER overlay88
and "cc3_standard" is kinda where it all began (and the settings for the middle image above)

oh and by "drop the blacks" i mean lower their numeric value in the 3 way color corrector - thus making them stronger "gas the highs" meaning RAISE their numeric value - thus making them stronger and "bump the saturation" just means adjust the saturation up slightly to make all colors more vivid. all just conversational terms.

I had nothing to do with the shoot...the thing is edited and they want an FCP editor to jazz it us with finer cutting and anything in FCP that can achieve this so I thought of you folks for tips .... sorry its all a bit vague...thanks y'all

> the thing is edited and they want an FCP editor to jazz it us with finer cutting and anything
> in FCP that can achieve this

That's the cue for Koz to jump in with another one of his "client" witticisms...

Yeah, they always want to make it "hipper", "more energetic", "slicker" in post. Should've thought of them when they were shooting!

Basically, increased contrast makes duller footage look more commercial. Harder lines, huge splashes of light. Robert Richardson is probably the epitome of this style.


www.derekmok.com

Which CSI?
My research awhile back showed that the original CSI Las Vegas was filmed very Hi-con.
In other words if you watched the original negative it was unacceptable.
Only after final CC was applied did the show take on the look.
So....
In camera, create hard edges.
Add extreme blues and CTO.
Extreme stop differences.
AFA as CSI Miami....
same applies but add grads in camera, tobacco being the favorite.
push chroma.

My 02

David Mullen - ASC says...
CSI occasionally uses different lens diffusion tricks to create halation around bright lights, with heavy backlighting, etc. Sometimes nets, Classic Soft filters -- truth is that the degree of the halation effect is a combination of the strength of the diffusion and the degree of the overexposure.

So if you want the same halation but with a less heavy diffusion, you need to increase the overexposure.

I'd try testing something like a Classic Soft or ProMist and find the right balance between the filter strength and brightness of what's halating. Trouble with nets behind the lens is that it's hard to find them in increments of strength.

"lens diffusion tricks to create halation around bright lights"

"then that layer is copied, put on a track directly above the original, saturation is dropped (again, using the 3way color corrector), opacity dropped to 88% and applied an overlay composite mode to it"

these two kind of go together:
to get a diffusion effect,
you do the Double up as Wayne has described, but you also add BLUR to the top track.

the good news is that there are various Diffusion plug ins out there that do it all in one filter.
the free "Diffusion" from Too Much Too Soon for instance
[www.mattias.nu]
where you can opt to diffuse either the highs, (the most common for this effect, i think) the blacks, or everything.

also worth looking at are Joe's Filters:
his Diffusion is really nice
[www.joesfilters.com]

both of these have pulldown for working in the various Composite Modes.
i use the Too Much Too Soon one just to get the various Comp Mode effects without using two tracks, i just pull the softness down to zero if i don't want any
they wont give you the control of saturation that Wayne is suggesting,
but are well worth checking out.

"they want an FCP editor to jazz it us with finer cutting and anything in FCP that can achieve this"

but don't go trying to edit with these FX / plugins,
blurs & Comp mode adjustments will really slow you down.
experiment till you get a "Proof of concept" that will make them relax, then cut away,
add fx etc on fine cut


nick

That was brilliant guys...Nick, your last post is inspiring and Wayne..cheers man.