Exploring the Passion for Continuum: Insights from Bradinn French, Film and TV Editor and Producer
Bradinn French, a Los Angeles-based freelance television and film editor and producer, has made a name for himself in the industry. With a decade-long history of using Continuum, French has worked on various high-profile projects, including American Horror Story (FX), The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Reunion (HBO Max), and the TriBeCa award-winning feature documentary Ferguson Rises. His favorite project, however, remains A Black Lady Sketch Show, due to its challenging nature and the need to make each sketch feel genuine and funny while nailing every aspect.
For artists new to Continuum, French offers some pro tips. He suggests watching tutorials and experimenting with the effects and filters. The top three reasons why French recommends using Continuum are its streamlined workflow, thanks to Mocha's integration for award-winning tracking and masking/effects isolation tools, its versatility in handling complex visual effects and compositing corrections, and its ability to create cinematic effects quickly and creatively.
French frequently uses Pixel Chooser with Mocha, BCC_Composite, and BCC_Make Alpha for mixing two or more shots together. He also relies on the Chroma Key Studio for all of his green screen work. In addition, he appreciates the one-click frame fixes and effects isolation, rotoscoping and matchmoving tasks aided by integrated tools like SynthEyes, green screen cleanup and spill removal, face blurring for privacy protection using machine learning features, and color matching between clips to maintain visual consistency.
As for the future, French has begun exploring the new Cinematographer Toolkit (BCC+ effects) in Continuum, finding the lens effects impressive and the color effects wowing when applied well. He also has feature requests for the Boris FX product designers, including the ability to do much of the VFX finishing right within the program for fine-tuning on original footage rather than on video comps.
In conclusion, Continuum is a valuable plugin for editors, offering AI-powered tools and easy-to-apply effects to streamline and enhance daily post-production tasks such as advanced visual effects, compositing fixes, precise roto and matchmoving, green screen spill removal, color matching, and privacy protection by face blurring. These functions help editors handle complex visual effects, compositing corrections, color grading, and privacy compliance with greater speed and accuracy within popular editing platforms like Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, DaVinci Resolve, and VEGAS Pro.
- Bradinn French, in his exploration of the new Cinematographer Toolkit within Continuum, appreciates the impressive lens effects and the enjoyable color effects when applied skillfully.
- To streamline and enhance daily post-production tasks, French often utilizes Continuum's collection of advanced visual effects, green screen spill removal, color matching, and privacy protection features like face blurring, all of which help manage complex visual effects and compliance issues more efficiently within popular editing platforms.