Nattress Film Effects 2.5

A Rich Set of Filters For Final Cut Pro

David Leathers

February 1, 2007    Source: Studio Monthly

Film Effects 2.5 from Nattress Productions is a rich set of filters for Apple Final Cut Pro designed to make material that originated in video formats appear as though it were actually shot in film. It’s inherently a complicated, not-so-easy to understand process. You have to be concerned with a minimum of three variables to get results: the way the video was initially shot, the temporal (frame rate) conversion and image manipulation within the individual frames.

Nattress Film Effects comes with an excellent 50-page manual that explains, not only all the parameters of the program, but also the larger picture of the video-to-film-look production process. It explains frame rates and temporal effects and gives pointers on what to do and not do when shooting for this process. The manual is so clear in its technical description of exactly what needs to be accomplished and how to practically accomplish it that it’s an education in itself. It really opens up the strengths of the program, making for a very effective toolset for the frame rate conversion and image manipulation parts of the process.

Once installed, Nattress Film Effects appears in the Effects>Video Filters pull-down menu in FCP as a series of presets. G Film is the main plug-in within the package and performs the frame rate conversion from video shot in NTSC or PAL to 24p (for NTSC) or 25p (for PAL). From there, other Nattress filters can be "stacked" to manipulate the image within frames. There are numerous sets of filters for de-interlacing, chroma, gamma and image effects (blur, diffusion, film damage, etc.). There are over 20 presets that involve multiple filters configured to create some classic and/or common effects (e.g., day for night, sepia, old film and somewhat complicated warm and cool chroma effects). The presets are generally excellent and can be used "as is" or as starting points from which to tweak the finer details until you achieve your desired results.

There are several film effects-type programs available that work either as plug-ins for FCP or other editors, or as stand-alone applications. The quality of the effects and the interfaces vary dramatically. That being said, Nattress Film Effects is the most intuitive and useful of these products I’ve encountered so far. That speaks to the knowledge and experience of its creator, Graeme Nattress.