LearnFilmbox3.4.2

Final Cut Pro Quick Start

Install and activate Filmbox Pro

  1. Sign in to your Video Village Account 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.
  4. In the Video Village Plugins app, select Final Cut, then select Install. (Final Cut Pro must not be running during installation.)

Color management

If you will be working in SDR, leave the Final Cut library set to Standard Gamut SDR.

Final Cut library color processing set to Standard Gamut SDR

Disable Color Conform on all media by selecting all clips and disabling Color Conform in the Media Properties pane. This prevents Final Cut from applying a look to your footage.

Final Cut Pro Media Properties with Color Conform enabled

If you are working with clips from different cameras, you may want to convert them to one common working space using the Video Village Camera Conversion LUTs that come with Filmbox.

Add Filmbox to an adjustment clip

Dragging Filmbox from Final Cut Pro's Effects browser onto an adjustment clip

Apply Filmbox to an Adjustment Clip by choosing Edit > Add Adjustment Clip, then apply Filmbox to that clip. Using an Adjustment Clip allows FCP to render Filmbox at the timeline resolution instead of the clip resolution for optimal performance and textural quality, though you can also apply Filmbox directly to a clip if you need to.

Filmbox Source setting in Final Cut Pro set to Sony S-Log3 - S-Gamut3.Cine

Select the color space of your footage in the Filmbox Source setting, or select LogC4 if you are using the Video Village Conversion LUTs.

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

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

Film System: 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: Isolate parts of the Filmbox pipeline for advanced workflows. Photo Mode is available only in Resolve.

Source: Choose the color space of your footage or working space.

Camera: Adjust the camera’s exposure and color balance before exposing the negative.

Negative: Select the film negative stock and fine-tune characteristics including halation, grain, gate weave, flicker, and aura.

Lab: Creatively modify the negative before printing, with controls ranging from push/pull processing to acutance.

Print: Modify the print characteristics, from a full contact print to a telecine scan.

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

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!

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