Last time we talked about getting started with HLG and how to set yourself up for color grading. This time we are going to talk about a really cool plugin for Davinci called Filmconvert Nitrate. I have known of Filmconvert for a while but did not buy it until last summer when it was on one of its sales.
The idea of Filmconvert is to use an algorithm to transform your footage into a supported film stock look. The most common way otherwise to make your digital footage to look filmic is to use a LUT. This is a poor way to doing it because it cannot adapt to different lighting scenarios or recording color spaces/gammas.
It also adds a film grain to the footage. But better than an overlay, which just applies the grain to the whole image. Filmconvert actually applies the grain based on the film stock selected, the input color space and gamma, and exposure. That means that it will intelligently have more grain in the shadows and less in the highlights. For me that was a huge deciding factor for me. I love the way grain adds to the texture of an image but not when it is just applied over the whole image like an overlay does.
Getting started, once you add Filmconvert to a node in your tree you will need to set it correctly to understand your footage. Above you can see what those settings look like. You will also need to download your camera's "camera pack." These are available for free on the Filmcovert website.
Once you have the pack installed you will need to press the button toward the top of the panel named "Choose Camera Profile." Then this window will come up.
It will ask for three things, the camera manufacturer, the camera model, and the recording codec. For Fujifilm they support the X-T2, X-T3, and X-T4 with a variety of codecs. Including a couple film simulations like Classic Chrome.
Now, Let's say you are shooting with a X-H1, what camera do you choose. Well, since the X-H1 and X-T2 share a sensor you should choose the X-T2. I asked the guys at Filmconvert about that when I owned that camera and they said that it is based on the sensor.
When those are set correctly the image will look much better than with the default settings. You can either use the Filmconvert settings to color grade or use nodes before Filmconvert with the Davinci controls. I generally use the Filmconvert settings because they seem to take better advantage of the algorithm. There is also a OFX overlay that you should turn on that gives you wheels.
They work similarly to the wheels in Davinci but you will see that how the color is manipulated is definitely different. As you can see in the screenshot above there are also tabs for "Grain Curve" and "Film Response." I have not used either very much. The grain curve manipulates how much grain is in the image across the light values. Film response is really just an exposure curve. I have found that using the wheels and exposure slider in the OFX tab work great for exposure control.
Another use I have for Filmconvert is to add grain to a non-Filmconvert image. What I mean by that is by taking down the "Film Color" and "Cineon to Film Print" sliders all of the way the only effect left is the grain. It will change the color very subtly. This helps me a lot because I do not own the studio version of Davinci yet, which of course includes a grain effect.
What I do is create a node at the beginning of the tree with this modified OFX, I do set the camera profile when I do this. That way it applies the grain effect accurately.
If you are looking to get into it I highly recommend checking out their trial version and then trying to catch it while it is on sale.
I hope that this has helped you. Thank you for reading.
William.
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