Exercise 6
Nesting and Order of Processing

In this exercise, you’re going to look at how order of processing can affect effect results. You’ll also learn how you can take advantage of this order of processing to get better results.

Media Used:
Running the Sahara

Duration:
15 minutes

GOALS

Apply more than one effect to a clip in the sequence

Learn how the order of effect processing can affect the final result

The first two cuts in the sequence are of the same clip. This clip requires both an automatic Color Correction effect and a Resize effect to eliminate the letterbox. To see how order of processing affects results, apply the effects in the following order:

First clip: Apply the automatic Color Correction effect first and the Resize effect second.

Second clip: Apply the Resize effect first and the automatic Color Correction effect second.

Why are the results different? Because in the letterboxed region, both the burn-in and the bars affected the contrast range that the automatic correction saw. Eliminating those bars makes for a more-accurate correction.

On the third clip, apply the following effects:

Flop

Resize (to zoom in tighter on the sun)

Color Effect (to create a desaturated treatment)

On the fourth clip, apply the following effects:

Timewarp (to slow the shot down to create a “dreamy” look)

Color Correction (to open up the contrast and brighten the shot)

Color Effect (to desaturate the colors)

Feel free to experiment and try different things as you work on the shots. Try also changing the order of effect application. How does changing the order affect the result? Are there any effects in this exercise that cannot be applied on top of another effect?