How do I make the video look professional?

[aleksander_sk]

Me and a friend are editing some footage that we need to look professional. The footage is fine in terms of cameramovement and such, but we need the picture quality to look good.

I'm not sure what program to use but I've heard that "Magic bullet" is pretty good. It doesn't matter what program as long as we can use it with Premiere.

[BJ_M]

Magic bullet will not make bad footage look good, it just has presets for certain "looks" - it is also slow as hell .. but the results look good -- it is better to use it with AE ..

what exactly do you mean to "look professional" ? what kind of look are you going for?

[vhelp]

>> what exactly do you mean to "look professional" ? what kind of
>> look are you going for?

dido. Same question here.

What part of the video do you want that "professional" look (or is it feel) ??
More details please. You gotta fill in some gaps here.

* Did you shoot the footage, (or obtaine source only from a friend) ??
.
. if you/friend shot footage with a cam, then..
.
* Is you cam 1-CCD (less $1000 ) or, 3-CCD, or borrowed ??
* Is your cam interlace or progressive or semi both ??
* Did you use a tripod ??
* Did you hand hold the cams in all scenes or some ??
* What types of scenes are you trying to aim "professionalism" with ??
* Full screening, or widescreen ??
* What scenes did you shoot, low light; dark; sunlight; indoor; etc.
* etc etc

IMO though, Premier is not the best. I've seen a few so called Premier
great footage depress me. Its just full of bells and whistles, but the
encoding part (blanketed by the bells/whistels) leave much room for desire.
What you want, is Procoder, if the source is all interlace.

-vhelp 3159

[lordsmurf]

IMO though, Premier is not the best. I've seen a few so called Premier
great footage depress me. Its just full of bells and whistles, but the
encoding part (blanketed by the bells/whistels) leave much room for desire.
What you want, is Procoder, if the source is all interlace.
-vhelp 3159

Huh?
Premiere is an NLE. Procoder is an encoder.

[vhelp]

I"ve read posts where users will say they used Premier to
encode.., and those
samples I did view (D/L) were based on that belief too.
And, I don't understand then, why poeple want to frameserve to
Premier (plug-in requests) to do what then ?
Anyways.

-vhelp 3163

[lumis]

maybe i'm wrong, but he's probably trying to make video look like film.

[shteeve]

I"ve read posts where users will say they used Premier to
encode.., and those
samples I did view (D/L) were based on that belief too.
And, I don't understand then, why poeple want to frameserve to
Premier (plug-in requests) to do what then ?
Anyways.

-vhelp 3163

i don't think you frameserve *to* premiere... you frameserve *from* premiere to whatever encoder you choose... and chances are if you're viewing downloaded materials, they were compressed to benefit small size and not quality. as to the original poster, there are plug ins out there, but sometimes i find it fun just to mess around with the contrast and gamma and channel mixers, it can sometimes give some pretty nice effects.

[gshelley61]

Hardware and/or sofware filtering and image correction can help with making video look more dynamic and film-like... but there are limitations. Professional looking results start with using professional level cameras and lenses (which have large, high resolution CCD's, superior electronics and fantastic optics) and effective lighting equipment and techniques, which is a learned art all by itself.

[BJ_M]

just don't use "open water" as an example