Hello, Pro

Four years ago we launched Filmbox to show that digital imaging could carry the soul of film. Since then it's been behind multiple Oscar winners, many blockbusters, and countless series and commercials, becoming a fixture in the biggest post houses and a daily tool of thousands of colorists and DPs worldwide.

Three years ago, we set out to bring still photo emulsions to Filmbox. That effort quickly snowballed into a mission to capture every kind of photosensitive material we could — including a rare trove of unexposed vintage cinema negatives, among the last of their kind.

Guided by your feedback, we developed powerful new controls and grew Filmbox far beyond what we first envisioned. We're excited to finally put all this functionality in your hands and give Filmbox a well-deserved “Pro” badge.

And because we love you, Filmbox Pro is a free upgrade for every customer.

What's New?

A Vastly Expanded Photochemical Library

We've expanded from one photochemical system and four stocks to seven full photochemical systems spanning the gamut of cinema new and old, as well as the world of still photography. Filmbox Pro now includes 98 individual stocks. Now that's a big box of film!

Vision3

• The familiar Vision3 stocks from Filmbox 2.0 with enhanced print color science.

Vintage Cinema

• Introduces 30 Kodak and Fuji stocks discontinued between 1999–2013; some look quite new, others have a beautiful patina.
• Lab module offers “Neutralize” and “Defog” parameters to de-age them to taste.

Ektachrome ECN-2

• This system emulates Ektachrome reversal that has been cross-processed in ECN-2 chemistry to produce a negative, as is often done for motion picture production. The result is a strong, expressive look (e.g., Euphoria).
• The print module is tailored for Ektachrome: Extended simulates a telecine-style transform for the negative's unique response, Full simulates a print resulting in high contrast, and Standard provides a middle between the two.

Cinema - Bleach Bypass

• Bleach bypass can be done to a negative or a print; in this case, we applied it to the negative to produce the “Minority Report” look. It's presented here in ten strengths.

Photo - Color C-41

• Introduces 33 negative stocks, including nearly every still photo stock in production and many that are discontinued, grouped into 6 categories.
• The print module is tailored for Photo negatives: Full simulates photochemical printing of the negative to chromogenic paper, Extended emulates a laboratory scan of the negative, and Standard is a midpoint between them.

Photo - Black & White

• Introduces possibly too many B&W still photo stocks, varying in grain, highlight bloom, and chromatic response.
• The print module is tailored for BW negatives: Full simulates photochemical printing of the negative, Extended emulates a laboratory scan of the negative, and Standard is a midpoint between them.

Photo - Reversal E-6

• Introduces 5 slide films, including Ektachrome processed as designed. These stocks develop into a projectable positive that we have directly profiled. We also included 2 Instax instant films.
• There is no separate “Print” step, but we include print module variables for consistency.

Aura

• Recreating negatives like CineStill involved modeling that jumbo halation that happens when you strip motion picture film of its anti-halation backing, and also sometimes occurs on black and white negatives. We included it as a tunable feature that you can add to any stock.

Acutance

• We added the ability to tune the acutance of the image, both fine detail micro-contrast as well as variable control over larger-scale image structures.

Advanced Grain Controls

• Softness
  Filmbox can now generate sharper, “tighter” grain by reducing the Softness parameter below its default value.
• Roughness
  New Roughness control allows you to enhance or suppress the mid-frequency “structure” of the grain without affecting high-frequency grain structure.
• Streaks
  New control adjusts the level of large-scale non-uniformities in exposure and color, aka “streakiness” of the negative.
• Advanced Tonal Distribution
  Introduced a 9-zone mixer for precise control over grain intensity across the tonal range. This is especially useful for fine-tuning grain presence in HDR highlights.
• Granule Brightness
  Parameters to adjust the brightness of bright and dark grain particles/granules. Useful for making grain more or less dynamic, especially when combined with roughness and streaks controls.

Expanded Lab & Print Tools

• Printer Lights
  Adjust RGB offset of the negative as it gets “printed.” Values are equivalent to real printer points (about 7 points per stop for Vision3).
• Color Density
  Increase or decrease the luminance of highly saturated colors without changing saturation.

Filmbox Print Color Science 3.0

• We further refined our print color science based on a new characterization:
  • Full - exhibits less green bias and improved skin tone rendering.
  • Standard - Inherits the improvements to “Full” with further modifications for more natural green hues; saturated greens and cyans can achieve higher luminance.
  • Extended - Reworked to produce more vibrant and accurate tones in line with modern digital cinema display transforms while retaining a filmic base.

HDR 1000 nits

• The Highlight Unroll slider can now pass additional dynamic range through the print transform, allowing highlights to reach up to 1000 nits.

ACES 2.0

• Added support for using Filmbox in an ACES 2.0 pipeline with continued support for ACES 1.3 and Resolve Color Management

Tooltips

• A small thing, but an important one: hover your mouse over every property name in the plugin to get detailed info on how things function without pulling out the user guide.

Filmbox Legacy Support

• Filmbox Pro appears as a separate plugin in your host application so you can continue to work on projects where you have used Filmbox 2.0. This gives you the flexibility to migrate an in-progress project to Filmbox Pro or load up past work without issue.
• Filmbox 2.5 was simultaneously released with Filmbox Pro and is a "Long Term Support" version. For online licenses, this version will always be available to download from the Video Village Plugins app under the Filmbox -> Settings -> Install Other Versions menu. For offline licenses, visit your Filmbox license page and click "Other Versions" next to the download button.

We've spent years on Filmbox Pro, and we're so excited to finally put it in your hands!

Go make some amazing movies.