Making raw footage look like film

[Keithchr]

Hi.
I am trying to make my video clips look more like a film. What I mean by this is: When you see raw footage of a Hollywood film being made (rushes) etc, the footage looks very clear, stark and harsh. By the time you get to see the finished movie at the cinema it looks softer, more mellow, er.. like a film! Obviously some kind of filter is applied during post production & I would like a similar effect on my DV recorded home movies. Does anyone have any suggestions how this can be done in VideoStudio8?
Thanks

[guns1inger]

You were in with a chance until you mentioned videostudio8. Actually, no filters are applied in post to make film look like film - it just does. There are a number of chemical processes used to alter exactly what it does look like, many of which can be done digitally. There are also other factors that play a part in making film look different to video, including grain, lenses, the fact that it is progressive, lighting and how lighting is captured on film.

I have read a few tutorials and have a few techniques of my own for reproducing things like bleach by-pass and other tricks, and there are many plugins that can do it as well, but most of them require either VirtualDub (freeware) or Vegas, Premiere or After Effects (none of which are free).

[Keithchr]

Hi. Thanks for your time... I have virtualdub, I'll try that. Any particular filters you would recommend?

[guns1inger]

I'd start with this one

http://compression.ru/video/old_cinema/index_en.html

[trickyman]

Does anyone know what filters you can use in Premiere to achieve the 'film' effect?

[daamon]

Does anyone know what filters you can use in Premiere to achieve the 'film' effect?

Have a hunt around in the forums at www.wrigleyvideo.com - that might have something...

[guns1inger]

These are for After Effects, but I believe there is a version for premiere (or you can use these in Premiere Pro ?)

http://www.digieffects.com/products.shtml#CINELOOK

Look at cinelook and cinemotion

[BJ_M]

also "magic bullet" is very good and works with many apps ..

[dphirschler]

One thing that gives it that film look is simply deinterlacing it. You might also try decimating 6 frames per second to get it to 24 fps.

Part of what makes video look so crisp is it is taking more samples per second (60). So with deinterlacing, you essentially cut that in half by blending fields every two fields.

Come to think of it, try this instead. Bob deinterlace so that you have 60 fps, then decimate 12 frames out of the 60, then blend every two frames. That will get it down to 24 fps progressive and have a nice soft film look.


Darryl

[dphirschler]

This is what I was talking about in the above post. Here are some test functions I worked on recently.

v= AVIsource("test.avi") # source is 30 fps interlaced at 720x480

#return filmlook1(v)
#return filmlook2(v)
return filmlook3(v)

# removes every third frame
function filmlook1(v)
{
   vw= width(v)
   vh= height(v)

   v= assumeTFF(v)
   v= bob(v)
   v= selectevery(v,4, 0,1,2)
   v= assumefieldbased(v)
   v= weave(v)
   v= v.bicubicresize(vw,vh)

   return v.assumefps(23.976)
}

# blends third and fourth frames
function filmlook2(v)
{
   vw= width(v)
   vh= height(v)

   v= assumeTFF(v)
   v= bob(v)
   v0= selectevery(v,4, 0)
   v1= selectevery(v,4, 1)
   v2= selectevery(v,4, 2)
   v3= selectevery(v,4, 3)

   v23= overlay(v2,v3, mode="blend", opacity=0.5)
   v= interleave(v0,v1,v23)
   v= assumefieldbased(v)
   v= weave(v)
   v= v.bicubicresize(vw,vh)

   return v.assumefps(23.976)
}

# blends groups of four frames with different weights.
function filmlook3(v)
{
   vw= width(v)
   vh= height(v)

   v= assumeTFF(v)
   v= bob(v)
   v0= selectevery(v,4, 0)
   v1= selectevery(v,4, 1)
   v2= selectevery(v,4, 2)
   v3= selectevery(v,4, 3)

   v01= overlay(v0,v1, mode="blend", opacity=0.25)
   v12= overlay(v1,v2, mode="blend", opacity=0.50)
   v23= overlay(v2,v3, mode="blend", opacity=0.75)
   v= interleave(v01,v12,v23)
   v= assumefieldbased(v)
   v= weave(v)
   v= v.bicubicresize(vw,vh)

   return v.assumefps(23.976)
}

I like the third one best. The big drawback in my opinion is the scene transition. It oftentimes is not a hard cut as it was in the video. To get a better film look, I would tweak the frame cuts.


Darryl