Before and After - "The Legacy of the Jung Cook" by Victoria Taylor-Gore

Link to "The Legacy of the Jung Cook" by Victoria Taylor-Gore: http://vimeo.com/19439126

When I was an undergraduate art major in the late 1970's, a visiting artist once told us that "if Leonardo da Vinci was alive today, he would be a filmmaker". I believe that - especially now that I have been working as an artist that creates video for the past year. There are so many aspects to tackle...design, movement, sound, storytelling, mastering your gear, learning the technical aspects, and learning to edit. Filmmaking is in the "Renaissance man" tradition of having knowledge and skill in many areas and utilizing this broad expertise in order to make one's art. And another aspect of Leonardo "being a filmmaker if he was alive today" is the way a project can take a long time to complete and can undergo many revisions (as many of Leonardo's paintings did).

In my rush to learn and produce as much as I can, I sometimes move on to another idea before one is realized to its fullest potential. "The Legacy of the Jung Cook" was one of my projects that needed improvement. I had received some excellent suggestions from professional filmmakers that I respect, and I knew that their ideas would enhance this project, but I just got tired of it and went on to the next idea.

Recently I took the time to go back and rework "The Legacy of the Jung Cook". I needed to work on some distracting audio overlays of cooking sounds that I had added over the main character's dialogue, and most importantly, improve the color correction and some design aspects of the video.

I used a great free color correction tool - Magic Bullet Colorista Free 1.0 (http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/free/) - in Premiere Pro CS5 to totally redo the color correction in the video. I've included a Flickr slideshow of before and after stills from the video to show the improvements.

Flickr Slideshow: Stills from "Legacy of the Jung Cook" - Before and After

For a larger view, see the slideshow on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com//photos/28987755@N08/sets/72157626761011987/show/

My original footage was too dark (it was an spontaneous interview and I didn't have much gear with me). I did the best I could in post to make the footage work in the first version of the video with standard tools in Premiere Pro (levels, luma curve, and three-way color corrections). In the final version of the video, I went back in and deleted all those original adjustments in Premiere and then corrected the color and values with MB Colorista Free alone. The final version is much more rich and bright, and the details in the darks are now preserved. I also made the tints in the title shots and archival footage match the new warmer color theme. Here is a screen shot of my original color correction using Premiere Pro CS5 tools only:

Link for a larger view: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28987755@N08/5798468560/

Here is a screen shot of the final color correction using Magic Bullet Colorista Free 1.0 only:

Link for a larger view: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28987755@N08/5797916923/

So, like a painting that isn't quite finished...it is worthwhile to go back into a project to bring out the very best in it. This project has been a work in progress, and the suggestions from Rick Macomber (to brighten up the shots and add some more B roll) and the suggestions from Richard Harrington (to get rid of distracting audio overlays and rework the color theme of the title sequences) helped make this a much better piece. I have learned that even when a story unfolds under less than ideal circumstances, there is still many things that can be achieved in post to make the story come through. And like a final glaze on a painting, subtle changes can bring a story to life.

Thanks to Rick Macomber (@boston_camera on Twitter) and Richard Harrington (@rhedpixel on Twitter) for their excellent suggestions and generous feedback on this video.

- Victoria Taylor-Gore