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newBlueFX is located in La Jolla, Calif., and has been in operation since 2001. The company produces an exhaustive array of audio and video effects, transitions, and filters that operate as plug-ins for many popular editing systems on Windows and Macintosh. I've recently had the opportunity to test a set of filters called Video Essentials 1.0. This product runs on both Macintosh and Windows platforms and sells for $79.95 direct from the company's website (www.newbluefx.com).
WHAT VIDEO ESSENTIALS IS... AND WHAT IT'S NOT
Video Essentials claims to be a Swiss Army knife of postproduction designed to enhance, optimize, and accelerate your productivity. It includes 10 tools that serve a variety of effects needs. Sometimes you need to fix a problem, and sometimes you want to enhance an image. Video Essentials includes tools designed to do both.
Video Essentials is not a substitute for good camerawork or a cure-all for bad shooting. Any time you can do something to make the video better while you're shooting, it's always advisable to do so rather than try to "fix it in the mix," to borrow an old expression from the audio-recording world. That said, some of the tools included in Video Essentials are indeed "essential," no matter how good a shooter you are.
HOW WE TESTED
Video Essentials was installed on an Intel Quad Core workstation running Windows XP Pro Service Pack 2. During the installation you are asked to choose the editing system host with which you want to use Video Essentials (Figure 1). A cool feature of this installer is that if you have multiple NLEs on your workstation, you can reinstall Video Essentials once for each NLE you use without having to purchase additional licenses.
You can install a trial version of the software to try it before buying. Doing so will place the NewBlueFX logo bug on any footage you apply a Video Essentials effect to, but it still gives you a great way to test-drive the package before you buy it. Once installed, Video Essentials shows up as 10 different effects in your NLE. Figure 2 shows the Video Track Effects plug-in chooser in Vegas.