DVFilm
Maker
www.dvfilm.com
$145.00
Review by Steve
Douglas
DVFilm Maker is a unique product designed to provide the Film
Look that so many are seeking when shooting with their DV cams.
This provides a valuable tool for your productions at an inexpensive
price. With versions for both PC and Mac, it is fully compatible
with most NLE's using a QuickTime based system, which, in itself,
is a benefit to most. It is nice that even owners of older model
iMacs, G3s and G4s with at least 128 MB of memory may use DVFilm
Maker, however, for those requiring HDV conversions, a G5 and
1 GB memory is required.
So, what exactly can DVFilm Maker
do? Lots! To begin with, in order to up convert your Standard
Definition footage to make it compatible with the latest HDV
product on the market, you must change your interlaced footage
to progressive and DVFilm Maker does just that. While the deinterlace
filter in Final Cut Pro does a good job reducing vertical resolution
by 50%, doing it with DVFilm Maker takes it a step further and
better by analyzing motion in each individual frame and affecting
the pixels only where there is movement. The results are a significantly
sharper image throughout the entire clip. In still scenes this
is especially noticeable.
There is almost no learning curve
with DVFilm Maker as a guide manual comes up with each step that
you take.
Installation is easy, just download
and place it in your applications folder. Using any Final Cut
Pro self contained or QuickTime clip, you need to just drag the
clip into the DVFilm Maker window, which acts like any filter
well you might have used, and the process guide will come up
asking you to set whichever parameters you may want for the film.
It is, however, suggested that you only use clips of up to 10
minutes in length at a time.
You simply drag your
self-contained clip into the window and the process easily begins.
The Quick start Guide comes up immediately
upon bringing upDVFilm Maker instructing you to either navigate
to your desired clip or to drag it over to the window itself.
I dragged, and, from there, everything was a piece of cake. A
Process window then comes up and here is where your choices abound.
The Quickstart Guide
comes on automatically.
It will also warn you if an audio track does not accompany the
clip.
The Process window provides you with the alternative settings
and options for your final output.
You can keep your 4:3 clip as is or ask
DVFilm Maker to convert it to a 16x9 letterbox. The ability to
convert 16:9 anamorphic to letterbox is also there. You may deinterlace
as desired, as well as other features such as adding grain or
using the Red Boost to create a warmer looking appearance. Then,
of course, there lays the crème de la crème of
DVFilm Maker, you also now have the ability to easily convert
your interlaced footage, whether it be HD, HDV, or NTSC video
to true 24p working either with NTSC or PAL. Maker does not really
do PAL/NTSC, although you could slow down the 24P from Maker
to 25P. For PAL/NTSC conversion DVFilm Maker has DVFilm Atlantis
(dvfilm.com/atlantis) which will do the job.
Having clicked on
the 24p options,
you have even more control over the type of conversion and output.
Using the Advanced Settings function
enables you to exert even greater control over your final output
with more exacting manipulation of the Motion Sensitivity, Grain
and Red boosts and more.
The entire process of dragging your clips
over to the initial DVFilm Maker window, adjusting settings and
starting the process goes very quickly, establishing a nice workflow.
The folk at DV Film suggest that movies be broken up into 10
minute clips before using DVFilm Maker. This is not a limitation
of the software as it can certainly handle longer clips. It is
simply to encourage new users to gain familiarity with the processing
before placing in an entire full length film. DV Film does recommend
processing in 24p before editing rather than after. While it
is their assertion that it takes about 10 minutes to process
1 minute of video, in several tests I found that it only took
two minutes to process a 20 second clip and the results were
excellent. The images were warmer and deeper in color with no
loss of detail at all. There was a definite improvement to the
entire clip.
The processing shows
a countdown of frames.
While this is occurring you may work within other applications
at the same time without any problems.
The two clips below show a frame from the original QuickTime
export shot in Kenya with a Sony DCR-VX2000. The frame below
displays the results of DVFilm Maker after it had Red Boost,
conversion to 24p and 16:9 letterboxing.
The original 4:3
clip
The added warmth
and film look is very noticeable. A heck of an improvement!
While there are no tutorials to be found on the DV Film website
there is an excellent online manual that is fairly easy to understand.
The bottom line with DVFilm Maker is that this is one very easy
and effective application to use. The results of the output are
every bit the quality you were hoping for and I am glad that
I have it in my arsenal. That's about as good a recommendation
as one could hope for.