Source: [Adobe Quick Start](https://videovillage.com/learn/filmbox/getting-started/adobe)

# Adobe Quick Start

## Install and activate Filmbox Pro

1. Sign in to your [Video Village Account](https://license.videovillage.com) and find your Filmbox Pro license page.
2. Download the **Video Village Plugins** app.
3. On the license page, select `Activate on this device` to launch the Video Village Plugins app and install your license automatically.

### If you can't open the activation link

Select `Get activation code` on the license page and copy the code. Open the Video Village Plugins app, select `Activate a product`, then paste the code when prompted.

4. In the Video Village Plugins app, select `Adobe`, then select `Install`. (Premiere Pro and After Effects must not be running during installation.)

### Filmbox Pro missing from Premiere Pro?

If Filmbox Pro is installed and activated for `Adobe` but missing from Premiere Pro’s `Effects` panel, try these steps. They may also help with `Video Filter missing: Filmbox Pro` errors in existing projects.

1. Quit Premiere Pro. Hold `Option` (macOS) or `Alt` (Windows) while reopening it. Keep holding the key until `Reset options` appears.
2. Check `Reset plugin loading cache`. Uncheck every other option, then click `Continue`.
3. Open a project. Choose `Window → Effects`, then right-click the `Effects` tab and choose `Manage Video Effects...`.
4. Check `Filmbox Pro` in `Video Effects Manager`, then click `Save`. Quit and reopen Premiere Pro.

If Filmbox Pro is still missing, open the Video Village Plugins app and choose `Help → Export Diagnostics Logs`. [Contact support](https://videovillage.com/support/) and attach the exported zip.

Include your Premiere Pro version, operating system version, and the plugin version shown under `Adobe` in the Video Village Plugins app. Tell us if you’re using Premiere Pro Beta.

Adobe’s documentation: [startup reset options](https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere/desktop/troubleshooting/preferences-and-settings-issues/reset-preferences-at-launch.html) and [managing effects and plugins](https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere/desktop/add-video-effects/apply-video-effects/manage-effects-and-plug-ins.html).

## Color management

In Premiere, it is typically necessary to enable `Display Color Management` under `Premiere Pro › Settings › Color`. We also recommend changing `Viewer Gamma` to `2.2 (Web)` under `File › Project Settings › Color` to mitigate viewer inaccuracies.

Premiere Pro › Settings › Color
![Display Color Management enabled in Premiere Pro preferences](https://videovillage.com/images/learn/filmbox/getting-started/premiere-display-color-management-1ca08f4e.png)

File › Project Settings › Color
![Premiere Pro project color settings with Viewer Gamma set to 2.2 Web](https://videovillage.com/images/learn/filmbox/getting-started/premiere-viewer-gamma-1ec8817a.png)

On Windows 11, enable `Automatically manage color for apps` under `Settings › System › Display › Color Management`.

![Windows 11 Color Management with Automatically manage color for apps enabled](https://videovillage.com/images/learn/filmbox/getting-started/windows-auto-color-management-380feac3.png)

In After Effects, set `Working Color Space` to `sRGB IEC61966-2.1` under `File › Project Settings › Color`.

![After Effects project color settings with sRGB as the working color space](https://videovillage.com/images/learn/filmbox/getting-started/after-effects-working-space-3e3c099c.png)

## Add Filmbox to an adjustment layer

**Premiere Pro**

We recommend applying Filmbox Pro to an adjustment layer above your clips. Choose `File → New → Adjustment Layer`, click `OK`, then drag the new layer from the Project panel onto a video track above your footage. Extend it to cover the clips you want to affect.

1. Choose `Window → Effects` to open the Effects panel.
2. Type `Filmbox Pro` in the search field, or browse `Video Effects → Video Village`.
3. Drag **Filmbox Pro** onto the adjustment layer in the timeline.
4. Select the adjustment layer, then choose `Window → Effect Controls` to access the plugin controls.

Filmbox Pro can also be applied directly to a clip. Premiere will then render it at the clip’s native resolution instead of the timeline resolution, which may reduce performance and texture quality.

**After Effects**

Open a composition. To affect several layers at once, choose `Layer → New → Adjustment Layer` and place it above the layers you want to affect. You can also apply Filmbox Pro directly to a footage layer.

1. Choose `Window → Effects & Presets` and type `Filmbox Pro` in the search field.
2. Drag **Filmbox Pro** from the search results onto the footage layer or adjustment layer in the Timeline panel.
3. With that layer selected, use the `Effect Controls` panel to adjust the plugin. Press `F3` if the panel is hidden.

![A Filmbox adjustment layer above a clip in Premiere Pro](https://videovillage.com/images/learn/filmbox/getting-started/adobe-adjustment-layer-f740e2d2.png)

## Select your camera

![Filmbox Source control set to Arri LogC4 and Arri Wide Gamut 4](https://videovillage.com/images/learn/filmbox/full-guide/source-selector-36fd434a.png)

Set `Source` in Filmbox to match the color space your footage was recorded in or the working space you have transformed it into.

- **For graphics** or clips that were not recorded in a log color space, you can set `Source` in Filmbox to `(Inaccurate) Rec.709 Gamma 2.4`. This will be less accurate than working with scene-referred footage, but it may still produce a useful result.

## Interface Tour

Filmbox is a scene-to-screen simulation of photochemical imaging. Light enters the camera, exposes the negative, gets developed in the lab, printed to print stock, and projected onto your display.

![Diagram showing the photochemical flow from camera exposure through negative development, print development, projection, and display](https://videovillage.com/images/learn/filmbox/full-guide/filmflow-1b6c6016.jpeg)

The Filmbox interface is organized from top to bottom in the order that light flows through this system, with global plugin settings at the top.

![Filmbox Pro interface showing Film System, Mode, Source, Photo Mode, Camera, Negative, Lab, Print, and Display](https://videovillage.com/images/learn/filmbox/getting-started/filmbox-pro-interface-70ed73c2.png)

**[Film System](https://videovillage.com/learn/filmbox/full-guide/film-systems)**: Choose from different motion-picture and still-photo systems. Each contains a set of negatives, lab parameters, and print processes that were historically designed to work together.

**[Mode](https://videovillage.com/learn/filmbox/full-guide/plugin-modes)**: Isolate parts of the Filmbox pipeline for advanced workflows. Photo Mode is available only in Resolve.

**[Source](https://videovillage.com/learn/filmbox/full-guide/source-camera)**: Choose the color space of your footage or working space.

**[Camera](https://videovillage.com/learn/filmbox/full-guide/source-camera#camera)**: Adjust the camera’s exposure and color balance before exposing the negative.

**[Negative](https://videovillage.com/learn/filmbox/full-guide/negative/overview)**: Select the film negative stock and fine-tune characteristics including halation, grain, gate weave, flicker, and aura.

**[Lab](https://videovillage.com/learn/filmbox/full-guide/lab-module)**: Creatively modify the negative before printing, with controls ranging from push/pull processing to acutance.

**[Print](https://videovillage.com/learn/filmbox/full-guide/print-module)**: Modify the print characteristics, from a full contact print to a telecine scan.

**[Display](https://videovillage.com/learn/filmbox/full-guide/display)**: Select the destination display color space, integrate with color-managed pipelines, and control HDR.

## Looks Library

![Switch to Filmbox Looks button at the bottom of the Filmbox Pro interface](https://videovillage.com/images/learn/filmbox/getting-started/looks-button-95a0ab82.jpeg)

Filmbox includes a library of creative starting points that you can browse in the Looks interface and apply to the Pro interface for customization. We recommend playing around with them to get a feel for how the various elements of Filmbox interact with one another to achieve a huge range of creative goals.

For the selection of a stock is naught but the opening gesture in the grand alchemy of look development now unfolding before you. Onward into radiance!

## More topics