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Cinelook costs nearly $700.

Trying to make video look like film is essentially impossible.  You can try every effect out there, Aurorix, Magic Bullet, Cinelook, Cinemotion, or your own combination of various effects and it will still, in the end, be decidedly video.  I won't go into detail, as droo has in older threads (if the archives survived the transfer, check them) but basically, video is video, film is film.  a 3 CCD camera will look much nicer, but it will still be video.  You could pawn up the $3500 for Panasonic's new 24p camera, but all you're getting there is the frame rate difference which you could achieve with a 3:2 pulldown.  Again, still video.

You can, however, make video look more professional.  This can be done simply through direction and lighting.  Your control essentially stops there.  A few tweaks here and there with the saturation, contrast, color tints, etc, will make it look better as well.

Of course, you are using iMovie.  You're pretty much stuck with what comes out of the camera.

Just check the box in iMovie "Make Movie look professional". Its almost as good as the "Make computer go faster" check box in the system prefs.


Couldn't resist. Also beyond the CCD, setting the white balance, light source etc on the video camera is important as well. Many digital Cameras have autowhite balance without any control which often leads untruthful colors.

it's far easier to come close to replicating a "generic" film type than it is a more artsy type.  When the director chooses to take advantage of what film can do, it gets rough.

Think of Minority Report for instance
or Saving Private Ryan (my current dilemma)
or The Matrix (less than more)

those are just a few that popped into my head, mostly because i have the DVDs stacked right next to my computer, but you get the picture.  There are things that film can do that you simply cannot do with video.  watch one of those films and pay close attention to the colors.