Former Star Wars effects masters bring the digital
world a tool, Magic Bullet,® to remake digital video into film.
Words by A. David Cooper

November 2004

For several years now, filmmakers and software developers have been hunting for that elusive plug-in that would allow them to use the affordable and infinitely malleable media of digital video, yet still bring across a "film-like" look.

Finally, after many stutter steps, the digital video world has a true blue tool that actually fools the eye in a number of subtle ways into believing that digital video is indeed film. That tool is aptly named Magic Bullet®, and it comes from a team of creators, Jonathan Rothbart, Scott Stewart, and Stuart Maschwitz, whose pedigree boasts no less than the halls of Lucas Film itself (the effects studio behind Star Wars).

The former Lucas Film team morphed into The Orphanage, and now Red Giant distributes their Magic Bullet® tool, which is touted by many as the secret weapon of serious digital auteurs. Since forming The Orphanage, the team has created visual effects for Nike, the NFL, Volkswagen, and films, including Hellboy, Charlie's Angels 2, The Day After Tomorrow, Sea Biscuit, and Jude Law's Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

That expertise went into heaven-sent creation of Magic Bullet®. When it comes to Magic Bullet®, one cannot simply research this software to understand its impact; one must intimately use and watch it first hand as it transforms digital video into sophisticated-looking imagery that will have film developing firms quaking in their collective boots. There are two components to Magi Bullet®-Magic Bullet® For Editors and Magic Bullet® Suite. Magic Bullet® For Editors, a plug-in for Final Cut Pro®, is just plain fun! What the plug-in does is allow you to apply myriad presets to your footage in order to achieve a film look.