Sapphire plug ins

Hi,
is someone working with Sapphire plugins? I'm planning to purchase them , but they are very expensive. Are these plug ins the lot of money worth? Or is there a cheaper alternative?
Thank you,

Miguel Barreda Delgado
Realizador de Cine y Video
Arequipa, Perú
miguelbarreda@gmail.com

Good question. Very good plugins. But yes, expensive. I love Genarts but they do have to re-visit their prices in my very humble opinion. You will get various opinions.

Michael Horton
-------------------

ive been using them for years.

of their 200 or so effects, there are about 10 that are hard to live without. 50 that can be handy and the rest are mainly fluff, or something you'll use like maybe once a year.

the thing is that the 10 must haves and 50 that are handy pretty nearly justify the price of the full package...

i do agree with michael that their ridiculously-high pricing needs to be revisted. as it keeps their product out of a TON of peoples budget. if they cut their price in half, they would very likely sell double or more the number of units... but thats just my opinion.

Overpriced - overrated.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

They are spendy, but VERY well done. Still, TOO spendy. I have worked on productions that RENT them....believe it or not.

There are so many FCP plugins out there, that you can no doubt replicate most of the ones you might use. FX Factory, Idustrial Revolution, Sugar FX, Lyric Plugins, CHV...just gotta look around and see what you want.

Yeah, there are must-haves...but I have lived without the must-haves for over 3 years now. My programs haven't suffered. A fancy transition doesn't make people watch a show...content does. In fact, I have turned off many a TV show that was like nothing BUT fancy transitions. Hurt my head.


www.shanerosseditor.com

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

Useful if you do online and the Offline comes with footage effected with Sapphire.

Very high-quality plugins but a pain in the wallet.



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

> Yeah, there are must-haves...but I have lived without the must-haves for over 3 years now. My
> programs haven't suffered. A fancy transition doesn't make people watch a show...content does.
> In fact, I have turned off many a TV show that was like nothing BUT fancy transitions. Hurt my
> head.

I heartily agree with that.
If you want to see how effects can ruin a show, try a "feature" film called The Life. An unholy mess.


www.derekmok.com

Or Watch TMZ...gah, those camera push ins are too TOO much. Then transitions galore.

And ANYTHING on MTV or VH1. Ugh.


www.shanerosseditor.com

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

Hi, thanks a lot to all for your comments. I'll try them and other bundles before I make a decision.
I'm now testing the Lyric Plug Ins, they do very well...

Miguel Barreda Delgado
Realizador de Cine y Video
Arequipa, Perú
miguelbarreda@gmail.com

Lyric are excellent plugins. You will like them

Michael Horton
-------------------

I myself have moved away from those cheesy identifyable "canned" transitions. Nothing worse than people watching your piece and pointing out what software was used for the FX. My goal is "organic"...to make FX look as they happened naturally as much as possible. It's more work but the "WOW factor" is much greater.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

hi Joey

"organic" sounds very interesting

are you talking about edits that end up working/looking like transitions?

thanks

Paul

Organic:
of or pertaining to the shapes or forms in a work of art that are of irregular contour and seem to resemble or suggest forms found in nature (natural).

I am talking about transitions that look like natural accidents that could happen in camera or in nature that don't look "man-made".

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

> I am talking about transitions that look like natural accidents that could happen in camera or in
> nature that don't look "man-made".

I myself prefer to think of "organic" as "organic to the material at hand". In other words, specific choices inspired by the original material (eg. screenplay, dailies, actors, original score) rather than "found" and then grafted onto whatever you have at hand. If the choice fits the theme, tone and aesthetics of the overall piece, it'll feel "organic".

An example in music comes to mind: Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah" was used in both The West Wing ("Posse Comitatus" and House, M.D. ("Acceptance". But it felt utterly emotional and fitting in The West Wing because of the tragedy and weight of the ending, while in House it felt forced and pretentious, because the thematic weight of the story didn't support the grandiosity and spirituality of the music. One is organic and feels like it spawned from the gut; the other made me think of the music supervisor behind the scenes.


www.derekmok.com

Totally off-topic point of trivia: I often find myself expressing exactly the same idea, Derek, except the jargon I use for it is "motivated." I got stuck a couple days ago and found myself saying "motivated" over and over. Motivated edits, motivated music, motivated prelaps, motivated b-roll choices ? I think I even referred to taking a motivated lunch break at one point. My brain was having an off-day that day.

"Hallejuah" is the nuclear option of montage music. If you put it under anything other than a character sobbing uncontrollably in silence in the wake of an entirely earned tragedy, you're doing it wrong.

> "Hallelujah" is the nuclear option of montage music. If you put it under anything other than a
> character sobbing uncontrollably in silence in the wake of an entirely earned tragedy, you're
> doing it wrong.

Ha ha. Exactly. It's one of those songs you can't use anymore, at least the Jeff Buckley version.

Even with a crying scene, if the tone of the piece isn't larger than life (eg. The West Wing, murdered Secret Service agent played by Mark Harmon), it ain't gonna fit.

> Totally off-topic point of trivia: I often find myself expressing exactly the same idea, Derek,
> except the jargon I use for it is "motivated."

I use "decorum". Same thing. On just an emotional level, another piece of music that fits very well over many scenes is Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Peter Gabriel's "Taboo" (from Natural Born Killers). But the qawwali vocals are so ethnic that unless the piece has a Middle Eastern element, it doesn't quite fit.


www.derekmok.com