azzy - yeah I def do color correction. I could get crazier with it, but i'm on a weird artistic path at the moment - call it my cubism - where I find saturated stuff lookin whack - basically here's the flow -
in final cut I apply the 3-color-corrector to every clip, use the video scopes & the waveform monitor to see & adjust my levels (read up on 3-color corrector & waveform).
Get every clip standardized within the safe levels looking good (brighten up dark clips, bring down bright clips, etc). Once every clip is individually leveled, I bring that whole sequence into a new sequence and apply the 3-color corrector once again to the whole sequence (my clips all look the same, so i can apply one broad effect and assume it will carry through the rest with pretty good consistency).
In this 2nd stage, for the latest edit, for example, I brought the entire saturation down about 30%, brought my mids into the blue-ish range, and brought my blacks into the blue/cyan range. With this I brightened up the highs, darkened the lows a bit to get that added bit of contrast, and then applied one more layer which was a transparent PNG I made for the vignette (dark edges of the video).
Magic Bullet Looks will do the same kind of thing - I find it's easier to use the 3-color corrector and individual effects for the real time updating (looks you can only see one frame at a time.)
There you have it!
