Seven film looks made in-house: Golden to Tape in cinemaOS

cinemaOS now ships seven film looks of its own: Golden, Night Drive, Super 8, Flash, Scope, Mono and Tape. Each one is a colour transform generated by Momentum's own film model, paired with the texture that belongs to it, such as grain, bloom or gate weave. They replace the borrowed film-stock LUTs that earlier versions shipped, so every look in the app is now owned, named for how it feels rather than after somebody else's product, and free of licence strings. Old projects that used the previous looks still open and resolve to the nearest of the seven.

The seven looks

• Golden. Late sun, warm highlights, rich colour. Travel, weddings, daylight portraits and anything that should feel like a good memory.
• Night Drive. Warm practicals, cool shadows, glow. City nights, car interiors and scenes lit by street lamps and signs.
• Super 8. Small gauge, warm fade, heavy grain. Flashbacks, home-movie moments and anything that should feel handheld and personal.
• Flash. Direct flash, bright and punchy colour. Party coverage, fashion and editorial cuts with energy.
• Scope. Theatre print, dense blacks, teal and amber. Drama, trailers and anything that should feel like a night at the cinema.
• Mono. Black and white, deep blacks, open grain. Documentary portraits, interviews and moments you want to strip down to light and shape.
• Tape. Home tape, soft contrast, saturated chroma. Music videos, retro sequences and deliberately lo-fi edits.

Why we dropped borrowed LUTs

Earlier versions of cinemaOS bundled fourteen film-stock emulation LUTs released by other people under a share-alike licence, along with names that pointed at real film products. They looked good, but they came with obligations: attribution, licence terms that travel with the files, and names that belong to someone else.

For this release we generated our own. The seven looks are baked from the same film model used across Momentum's apps, and their output is checked against that reference so a look renders the same everywhere it appears. The old LUT files and their attribution are gone from the app.

What did not go away is your work. Every old look name is kept as a hidden alias that points at the nearest of the seven, so an old project, an old preset or a habit like typing a film stock name into search still lands on a look. You simply see the new names.

How to use a look without ruining a grade

A look is a creative choice, so it belongs at the end of the chain, not the start:

1. Convert first. If the footage is log, set the camera's conversion as the Input LUT in Finisher ▸ Grade ▸ Color. A look on raw log footage will clip and shift colour. Apply a LUT to log footage explains the order in detail.
2. Balance the shot. Fix exposure and white balance so the look starts from a neutral image.
3. Add the look last, and lower its strength until it supports the picture instead of taking it over.
4. Match across the scene. Apply the same look to every shot in a sequence, then correct the odd one out, rather than choosing a different look per shot.

You can also ask for a look in words. Press ⌘J and type "apply the Golden look to these clips". When the J.A.R.E.D. director builds a film, it picks one of the seven to match the tone you asked for, or uses the one you named.

Choosing between two looks

When two looks both seem right, decide by the light in the footage rather than by the mood you want:

• Footage lit by the sun usually suits Golden or Flash.
• Footage lit by lamps, screens and signs usually suits Night Drive.
• Footage with strong contrast already suits Scope or Mono, which deepen the blacks.
• Flat or soft footage often suits Super 8 or Tape, which turn softness into character.

Then check skin. If faces turn orange, green or grey, lower the strength or rebalance before the look, not after it.

Your own LUTs still work

The seven looks are a starting set, not a limit. You can still set any camera conversion as the Input LUT, and the Lab in the Grade room shows a LUT as a 3D cube, repairs artifacts in a look and exports a clean .cube file.

FAQ

Will my old projects look different?

Projects that used the old bundled film-stock looks now resolve to the nearest of the seven, so a shot can change slightly. Check graded scenes once when you open an older project, and adjust the strength if needed.

Can I still use film stock names when I search?

Yes. Common film stock and format names work as search words and in J.A.R.E.D. requests, and lead to the nearest look. They are never shown as look names.

Do the looks add grain?

Each look carries its own texture, such as grain, bloom or weave. Super 8 has the heaviest grain, and Mono has an open, visible grain.

Try the looks on your footage

Looks are best judged on your own shots. cinemaOS has a 14-day free trial with no card required. Open a graded scene and try all seven on the same clip.