Anderson and Tarantino look

[Detlev Eller]

Do you think Final Cut Pro is a strong enough program to help achieve any look you like?

simple answer: no.

not any look one may like ... it needs a compositing system to achieve complex looks ...

P.S: personally, i love FCP for editing, from the beginning, but i always preferred After Effects to do color, masks, comps ....
it takes a time toll (render + tweaking time) but allows for any look one may like ...
(given the skills, tricks, feeling ... ;-)

edit:
regarding FCPX, i did not yet dig deep enough into the release, especially into color ...
but my feeling is, AE still gives me much more control over the precise look i am after, on a pixel level, if i need to ... vs ...
FCP X allows for exciting, cool, quick looks .... and its basically real time ... which is huge for creative workflow!

... so the answer really depends on what "any" means to each one of us.

 

[David Battistella]

Big exclamation point.

Looks are created by lighting and production design. No point in a detain look if the actor is wearing the wrong color.

Lots goes into a frame before it hits the grading room.

Software should enhance not rescue.

David

 

[Rob Ruffo]

I've been watching such films as There Will be Blood, Inglorious Basterds, Shutter Island, etc. and have been comparing it to footage and movies shot on Red. For all but perhaps a couple cases, the Red footage falls short in achieving the feel in such films.

Has anyone out there achieved the look in the former films listed with Red?

It's all about cinematography, lighting and grading. A Red MX let alone Epic will not be your limitation, the rest will. Unfortunately Red is more often adopted by a lower budget crowd, for a bunch of B.S. reasons. Pitates 4 looks really spiffy, as does Lincoln Lawyer. Rabit Hole and the Girlfriend Experience look so dingy I could barely stand it (in fact I didn't manage to sit through them). But that's not Red's fault.