FilmConvert Review: In Action to Color Correct RED Footage

Day 2: 20 Insights in 20 Days Holiday Marathon

In Part 1, we explored the various sliders and pull-downs of this plug-in – as well as downloaded the various Camera Packs that are available.

In this Insight, we’re going to:

• Put FilmConvert into action by applying it to a RED MX shot that we’ll prepare using REDLogFilm.
• We’ll analyze the RED MX / REDLogFilm curve using a gradient, which will help us reverse engineer what that curve is ‘expecting’ from our initial exposure.
• Taking what we learned, we’ll apply it to our shot and evaluate the final result.

Overall – I enjoy using this plug-in. It’s flexible, does what it says it’ll do, and once you figure out what the sliders do, is very configurable. I’ve already come up with a few ideas on how to use this plug-in in several different ways and will be sharing those ideas in future Insights.

An Interactive LUT
As you watch this, keep in mind . . . I’m using this plug-in as an ‘interactive LUT’. I’m looking for a solid starting point to build the rest of my grade. If I also wanted to use the grain, I’d do that further down the image processing pipeline. If you’d like to see that as an Insight, please feel free to use the comments below and let me know. Remember: Here on MixingLight.com, we take requests for Insights videos!

Confused by how I’m analyzing the grayscale image in this video?
This Insight assumes you’ve watched my series on LUTs. If not, you might be confused by what you see here. If so, you can watch starting with this Insight on why one LUT does not fit all exposures, then continue watching the rest of that series. Hopefully, it’ll clear things up.