Here I am at the DR Group outputting my show…actually, TJ Ryan, the post specialist here, is doing all the work, I am sitting back and watching…when TJ says, “Hey, wanna see your show on the BIG SCREEN?” By big screen he means the new theatre they are building. Barco 2K projector. Who am I to say no? But there will be no audio, as they are still building it and haven’t routed audio from the machine room yet. Still…I wanted to see it on the big screen.

HOLY COW!

It looks STUNNING! Nice…really nice. DVCPRO HD blown up big really holds up. A couple grain issues on a few dark scenes shot with the HVX, but just looks like film grain, so I am well used to it. Very sharp. VERY film like. Made me really like what I did with the color correction. Wow wow wow.

I remembered that ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO, the third in the MARIACHI trilogy by Robert Rodriguez, was shot with the Varicam, and it saw major theatrical release. And I doubt that they audience (minus a few in the know) had any clue that this film was not only HD, but one of the more compressed formats of HD.

I know I just bought a Panasonic 42″ plasma monitor…but now I really want a Barco projector in my living room. That’s not too much to ask, is it?

I color corrected the entire show with COLORISTA and LOVE what that plugin can do. It treats color right. When you add blue to your blacks, it makes the blacks blacker, and bluish…whereas the 3-way CC will make the darks bright blue. And The ability to layer color correction and use one layer to isolate an area and brighten or adjust in other ways (keep a face out of the shadows)…VERY useful. One of my favorite and most used plugins. Can’t recommend it enough.

Now that I have FCS 2 I’ll have to try Color…but I know for quick and dirty color correction I’ll be using Colorista.

EDIT: ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO was shot with a Sony CineAlta. My faulty memory had him shooting that film with a Varicam, when all he did was TEST that camera as an option. It was, in fact, shot with a CineAlta. Doesn’t change the fact that my show still looked DARN GOOD on the semi-big screen…but it was a mistake that I needed to correct. Thanks Vincent.