Special Effects Advice

Hi folks,

I am trying to help one of my graduate student groups create some special effects for a documentary project on Title IX, and I could really use some expert advice. Basically, they've shot a number of scenes of kids at a playground (riding the merry-go-round, playing on the monkey bars, etc.), and they want to take these scenes and stylize them. I've suggested that maybe they try to convert the scenes to black and white, add some grain and perhaps even a strobe effect in order to create a kind of dream like or "other" world look. Does anyone have any other suggestions? What is the best approach when converting a clip to black and white? Thanks for your help.

Cindy,

Use the desaturation filter on the clips to go black and white...Try strobe filter as well to make it flicker, and then perhaps even some slow motion...

Thats a good idea but even more fun for the kids is to play with the filters and controls. Have them drop some of them onto the clips and see the effect. Then have them play with the controls. If they dont like what they see, control click on the clip and choose "remove filter"

mike

Play with Channel adjustments for higher contrast B & W. Desaturation just takes the color out - leaving the image kind of flat. There are a ton of 3rd party filters to play with also - I don't know what you have or what you are trying to achieve.

Mike's right, though...when I was in school, I went through every single one of my After Effects filters 1000 times - combining them differently to come up with different looks. It's really endless (and so much FUN)

- Joey

I'll chime in and support what the mighty Mike and others said. To paraphrase Miyamoto Musashi's Go Rin No Sho ( The Book of 5 Rings ) "The Right Way is the only way. The Right Way is every way."

In other words - there is only one right way to do the title for any piece. That way will be different for each piece.

I do have some specifics suggestions - New folks get very carried away playing with special digital effects - as a result they end up ignoring the basics of transfer modes and the big 2: blur and the powers of a gradient wipe (the last are easily customizable). See articles on Spice Rack for ideas and free samples on gradient wipes.

Ian

Hello Cindy,
Slow mo and Strobe is like bread and butter. Yup, that's a good combo. How about adding some noise on V2 and blend with opacity and/or composite mode? For B/W, I suggest the color corrector 3-way filter. You can alter the level of saturation, blacks, midtones and whites that way. It's the all-in-one filter for B/W effects.

Duping clips on V1 and V2 and adding a comp mode or blur to the V2 layer is cool to do as well.

Check out my book, "Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro" for more info.

Kevin Monahan