“We found ourselves generating lots of positive buzz for bringing a unique sexy vibe to wedding cinema.”

Indeed, Fiore Films offer a standout approach to wedding cinematography, and NewBlueFX is a key ingredient to the overall package. A few short years ago Calafiore left a lucrative position at a leading e-commerce company to stay home and raise her newborn son. She had been creating photomontages of family gatherings for years. After watching the montage of her son’s first birthday, her mother-in-law encouraged her to start a commercial venture, and Just Because Slideshows was born.

Soon, birthday and anniversary montages turned into freelance opportunities to work with professional videographers, photographers, and DJ’s. Just Because Slideshows became Just Because Videos and began to incorporate home videos with photos. Calafiore was approached by one of her professional clients to edit some wedding footage. She had found a new passion, and in 2008, Fiore Films was launched (www.fiorefilms.net) with the philosophy

“be inspired and stay true to yourself.”

With this philosophy and the Fiore Films boutique approach to filmmaking, Calafiore’s passion is brought to fruition– by visually expressing the passion that two people feel for one another.

Says Calafiore,

“Post production is something personal, it’s something that comes from the heart. Because I have such wonderful relationships with every one of my brides and grooms, I know their stories and how they should be told.”

Calafiore goes on to express,

“A crucial part of producing a wedding film, a part that brings out many emotions, is the amount of care one approaches the visual spectrum with. This is where NewBlueFX comes in. The Video Essentials packages are something I literally cannot live without, especially with HD video because the low light nature of a wedding ceremony and reception creates grainy footage which is quite unappealing. Here is where Noise Reducer is an absolute life saver!”

Most recently, a bride and groom requested some “eye candy” for their first dance on their wedding day. The dance floor had four large flat screen monitors hanging from the ceiling and they asked Fiore Films to create a concept film to play while they danced.

Calafiore talked about the production process:

“The fireplace scene came out much grainier than anticipated. Noise Reducer is a godsend! The great texture of her skin is all due to the ‘edges’ option in Noise Reducer. That’s where you really need to be careful. Too high on Noise Reducer will smooth the footage too much and almost give the appearance of a cartoonish look. Playing with edges can really do some magic.”

Fire Scene 1

Fire Scene 2

“After viewing the clip, the bride-to-be mentioned that she couldn’t believe how amazing the fireplace scene looked and she loved how her skin looked!”

Explains Calafiore,

“Another life saver is Color Fixer Plus. One of the simplest yet significant tools I have come across. We used one Canon 7D and one Sony Z7U. In order to get the footage to match, the gamma had to be raised a few points higher on the Z7U footage and adjustments had to be made here and there with saturation. I used Color Fixer Plus on each and every one of these clips. Voila!”

Calafiore notes,

“Recently, after upgrading to Sony Vegas 9, I needed to re-install all of my plugins. Somehow I misplaced my serial number for Video Essentials and could not activate it. I was in such a panic since I had to get a project out immediately. One phone call and 10 minutes later there was an email with my serial number sent to me.”

“In addition to their great products, NewBlueFX offers something more: exceptional customer care, incredible!”

It’s true. Fiore Films and NewBlueFX make wedding magic.

Want to see more?

- To view other recent flicks by Fiore Films, check out http://www.fiorefilmsblog.com.
- Discover Color Fixer Plus as part of the NewBlue FX Video Essentials package and Noise Reducer in NewBlue FX Video Essentials II.

Answer: With NewBlue Art Effects, 10 artistic filters change the video into a painting or hand drawn image. For a line drawing, use the Line Drawing effect where you can specify the paper color, pencil color, and many other details related to the final appearance of the sketch. Other effects in the collection are Hand Drawing and Pastel Sketch.

Original Image

Line Drawing

Enhance your work with artistic effects from NewBlue with our new Art Blends and Art Effects bundle. You’ll find 20 plugins and over 200 presets that create eye popping works of art by altering color and light to build dramatic effects and psychedelic scenes. Art Blends features transitions that melt and alter colors, spread lights and create metallic looks to shift between scenes, while Art Effects provides filters to colorize, create line drawings and provide air brushed looks. Together, these collections let you create images that pop off the screen - with just a few clicks.

Explore Art Effects and Art Blends today!

If you have purchased NewBlueFX, downloading and installing these files will automatically update your plugins to the latest version. We hope you will enjoy these new features and functions.

Topic: NewBlue VideoFX Release 4.0

For Product: All NewBlue VideoFX plugins

Update: Enhancements in Release 4.0 include:

• 64 bit support for Adobe CS5: After Effects and Premiere
• New Windows Installer
  • Install multiple platforms simultaneously
  • Improved 64 bit support
• “Check for Updates” feature:
  • “Check for Updates” button in Info dialog provides information about the latest bug fixes, features, and download link.
• EDIUS Improvements
  • New EDIUS-centric UI
  • Better integration
  • Faster processing time
  • Consolidated fixes
• Tool Tips
  • All NewBlue UI controls have tool tips that appear when your cursor is over the control
• Double-click reset for NewBlue UI controls
• Stabilizer
  • New Rolling shutter support
  • Consolidated fixes and improvements
• Significant CPU optimization for all Windows products

You can download all of these Release 4 enhancements at: http://www.newbluefx.com/downloads.html.

After downloading, please install the new versions on your system. You should not have to reactivate previously installed products. If you do need to check your serial number, please log in to your account at the bottom of http://www.newbluefx.com/ using your user id. Once logged in, click on “edit profile” which will display all NewBlue products for which you are licensed. For the latest product updates, please visit
http://www.newbluefx.com/check-for-software-updates.html

Answer: To make your footage shake like an earthquake, simply add the Earthquake effect from NewBlue Motion Effects to your video clip. There you can adjust the settings giving you anything from a minor tremor to a massive earthquake. You can also use the Motion Effects Active Camera effect to simulate recording from a handheld camera. With the many presets available, you can quickly and easily add just the right amount of movement to your footage.

With NewBlue Motion Effects, you can easily add anything from gentle movements (to make it look like hand-held footage) to full earthquake shaking. The 10 specialized video filters add movement to your images through a variety of proven motion techniques, such as spin, roll and shake. Using them, you can blur the images, ripple the frame, or warp the image to increase the energy level or create action effects.

Dan Douglas

Since those formative years of editing, Douglas has used every type of video editing platform; from Video Toaster and Speed Razor to the more industry standards of Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere, and Sony Vegas Pro. With his skill and love for movie making, he has forged a solid place in the wedding video production world where he exercises his creativity and his artistic skill. He has won numerous awards, including multiple WEVA Creative Excellence Awards, a first place Aegis Video and Film Competition, a first place Digital Video DV awards, and an Independent Film Productions Aurora Gold Award.

Recently, Plug Video Productions was given the opportunity to shoot a wedding in Roatan, Honduras, a breathtaking destination. Douglas jumped at the “once-in-a-lifetime chance” to capture footage that would provide a memorable end result.

“I knew that capturing the best shots was key to producing an excellent video, but even more important was the post production [process]. For me, post production means two things: speed and quality.”

Douglas is extremely particular about the effects packages he uses.

“I have used numerous effects packages including Boris FX, Magic Bullet, and NewBlueFX. I am very selective at which effects I use and having such a powerful arsenal of tools means selecting the right one for the job.”

To maximize efficiency and produce quality images he says,

“NewBlueFX is the perfect combination.”

After capturing visually rich and vibrant images in Honduras, Douglas wanted to ensure that the video effects he selected would produce the best possible end product. His assessment resulted in selecting several NewBlueFX plug-ins including; Color Fixer Plus, Rack Focus, Stabilizer, Shadows and Highlights, Soft Focus and Audio Scrubbers. Douglas graciously provided an explanation of how he used these effects and created a couple “before and after” video examples.

Douglas stressed the importance of making the images as vivid as possible. He goes on to explain,

“Using Color Fixer Plus, I found exactly what I wanted. The pre-set ‘vibrant’ made such a powerful impact on my clips that I applied it to my entire video. Color Fixer Plus allows me to gently bump saturation while applying film gamma — making my footage look more like film; shadows become more intense, and mid-color tones suddenly take on new life.”

He further explains

“Shadows and Highlights was the perfect enhancement to Color Fixer Plus. Adding shadows and deepening highlights are subtle enhancements that I used to create more dramatic, intense visuals by deepening the shadows on all of my footage.”

Shooting a wedding presents many challenges. Imagine shooting a wedding on a tiny island and having less than 30 minutes to capture all necessary footage, including the ceremony. Douglas admits,

“I had the peace of mind knowing that I’d be able to add enhancements like Rack Focus once I returned to the States.”

He adds that

“Rack Focus is one of my favorite effects. It allows you to add an extra dimension to your production by setting parts of your clips out of focus. This is a very difficult effect to do correctly and Rack Focus takes it a step further providing the ability to setup key frames, resulting in focus shifts, directing your attention from one part of an image to another.”

Rack Focus Example 1

Rack Focus Example 2

Just to make life interesting, the video was recorded on a moving boat.

“Shooting on a speed boat at full throttle along turbulent waters between islands is a challenge. Stabilizer, one of the most powerful effects I am happy to own, was the only friend I had. At first, I was concerned with how long it would take to use a plug-in that claims to stabilize your footage. In the older days of editing, you would have to setup several locking points that would take hours to correct motion called match moving. With Stabilizer, it’s as simple as dragging the effect onto any clip. The interface of Stabilizer is sexy and smartly designed. After clicking analyze, Stabilizer suddenly came to life and took care of all those time consuming actions associated with removing motion. I hit play and was blown away with how it improved my footage.”

Of course, in any wedding the center of the action is the bride. To give this bride the attention she deserved, Douglas used the Soft Focus plug-in, which he finds especially useful for wedding video production.

“A Bride generally doesn’t want to see HD close-up shots of herself in full blown clarity. Soft Focus includes an array of pre-sets that allow you to fine tune exactly how much softening you want, and selectively allows you to spread the focus to different parts of your imagine, which worked perfectly for framing the bride.”

Lastly, recording video on a small island in the middle of the ocean presents one more challenge: wind.

“Twenty mile-an-hour winds aren’t exactly the best friend to a videographer trying to record the audio to match these special moments. Luckily, I had another friend waiting for me at home called Audio Scrubbers. Audio Scrubbers is smartly designed and provides a plethora of options to help fix problems that simply cannot be avoided out in the field.”

Dan Douglas concludes with,

“I love all of NewBlue’s effects because of the ability to fine tune any effect and make it your own. NewBlue plug-ins have helped me to speed up my editing process and given me the functionality I demand, from concept to the final cut. I don’t have patience to wait for long render times and NewBlue allows me the ability to adjust the settings in real-time and instantly apply what I need on the fly.”

“Having the right tools for the job is what separates amateurs and professionals. Tools that increase your speed, efficiency and productivity are key to being successful. NewBlueFX has given me the edge I need to take my productions from ordinary to extraordinary.”

To learn more about NewBlueFX, visit us at http://www.newbluefx.com/.

For more information about Color Fixer Plus and Soft Focus, see NewBlue Video Essentials. To see Rack Focus and Shadows and Highlights in action, discover NewBlue Video Essentials II. In addition, be sure to check out NewBlue Stabilizer and Audio Scrubbers, all mentioned in this article.

Explore Motion Effects and Motion Blends today!

1) Open your NLE and add an effect to a clip,

2) Go to the control panel for the clip. If the product is not yet activated, there will be either an “Activate” or “Trial– Click here to Activate” button,

3) Click the button to open the Activation Manager.

Activate button

Trial - Click Here to Activate button

Alternatively, you can also go to the info dialog and click the “Manage Activation” from there.

Info Screen