This page covers filters: processing laid over a picture. A colour correction, a crop, a chroma key, a sharpen. They exist at three levels, and choosing the right level is most of the skill.
The three levels
| Level | Where you set it | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| On a source | In the scene builder, on that source | That one source, in that one scene |
| On a scene | Scene builder → Scene filters… | Everything in that scene |
| On a playout | Right-click the monitor panel → Scene filters… | Everything that playout sends out, whatever cue is on air |
The third is the one worth knowing about, because it is easy to miss and it is often what people actually want: a correction that must apply to the whole output, not to one item in the rundown.
Choosing the level
Ask what the filter is compensating for:
- A property of the file — a clip that is too dark, a logo that needs its green removed → on the source.
- A property of the composition — everything in this scene needs the same treatment → on the scene.
- A property of the chain — the projector is washed out, the mixer expects a different level → on the playout.
Putting a chain correction on a source means repeating it on every source, and forgetting it on the one that was added last week.
What filters cost
Every filter is work per frame, on every frame. One correction over a playout is cheap; four stacked filters over a playout that is also encoding a stream is not.
If the status bar starts reporting missed frames after you added filters, that is the connection — and the answer is usually to fix the material rather than to process it live.
Practical notes
Look at the output, not the preview, when judging a filter. What you are correcting for usually lives further down the chain than the screen in front of you.
Write down what you changed. A colour correction on a playout is invisible in the rundown and survives restarts; a year later, nobody remembers it is there. The one on the panel is the filter that will puzzle your successor.
A filter is not an overlay. For graphics that must sit over the picture, use a scene or an overlay output.