Making Videos Look Like Film

[jcikal]

How can I make a video look like it was actually shot on film? I've seen samples where the footage was shot with a video camera (camcorder) yet the final product looks like it was shot on film (it doesn't have that video look). Any help on this will be appreciated.

[guns1inger]

Start with expensive HD progressive cameras and tons of lighting. Even if it's dark, use tons of lighting. Make sure you shoot with a longer focus to seperate the foreground and background. But you've already shot your video with your home DV camera, haven't you ?

There have been a number of posts on this, and some good replies. Do a search on Film Look and similar terms.

At the higher end, you have tools like Magic Bullet, which can do amazing things and has been used to spruce up video shot product like Jackass The Movie for release. It has a number of modules, including smart deinterlacing, movie looks (mimics optical grading effects) and optical transitions and letterboxing effects. It can produce stunning results, but even on a very fast desktop you are talking about hours of processing for a few minutes worth of footage - it is easily the slowest piece of software I have ever used.

At the cheap end, combinations of deinterlacing, levels effects, colour and contrast grading and even a little grain all help. The two biggest problems with DV footage though are the lack of depth of field, and the flat lighting that is generally used. This is what gives video that 'flat', video look. Even Collateral, which was shot on HD, suffers from this in soem of the more naturally lit scenes.

[edDV]

I once saw a Premiere filter that added gate jitter (sprocket hole vs sprocket motion), scratches, dust and a hair.

Also play with gamma.

Google "film look" returns pages of good links.

[vhelp]

How can I make a video look like it was actually shot on film?
I've seen samples where the footage was shot with a video camera (camcorder)
yet the final product looks like it was shot on film (it doesn't have that
video look). ny help on this will be appreciated.

Can you explain a little furhter, what you mean by "film look" ??

The tv show, "Beauty and the GEEK" seems to have been shot on video, w/
a cam. Well, it's all interlace. *BUT* ..and I say it very loudly..
there are some panning scenes that "strobe" in this show. This evening's
show had evidenced this "strobe" 'ing in the begining and I couldn't help
but notice it. (I didnt record it this evening - I ran out of -R disks)
I will have to double-check my previous recording of this show to make
sure that it is in fact an Interlace show. I've recorded every week so
far, with my DVR-220S recorder unit.
.
But, with this show, it all seems smooth. Show's like these are not shot
on Film. They are done w/ cam's, and are all Interlace. But, without
a reference (Film vs. Interlace source) its kind of hard to judge accurately
on weather or not this show is Interlace or Film, *or* shot on DV/CAM
and later, post-edited to look like Film or non-video'ish.

The strobing effect ...

Can be noticed when the video (interlace source) is de-interlaced and
the scene is showing some panning. Its during a panning scene that
strobing is noticed. The strobing is mainly caused by the effect of
deleteding frames. During most de-interlacing method/process, every
other frame (field) is removed, and the video is resized.
First, you brake the frames apart, through means of a field separater,
where a 480 (pixel hight) frame is now split into 2 (240 pixel hight)
frames.. known as fields. These fields are actually snap-shots in
time. In other words, they are unique pictures. Now, when we get to
the de-interlace process, every other field (snap-shot) is removed, and
then these 240 (pixel hight) fields are resized back to 480 pixles, and
the framerate remains the same, usually 29.970 fps (NTSC) and 25 fps (PAL)
.
This conversion process is what causes the strobing effect when
encoded to MPEG and played on your TV set. It is not so noticable on
a pc monitor.
.
Some people refere to this, as the "Film Look". I dont' think so.

Maybe this idea should be re-looked at, for a better phrase

What is your definition of "the film look" ??

-vhelp 3403

[Steve Stepoway]

Check out www.adamwilt.com and look at his DV FAQ.

[Soopafresh]

Here's a fairly simple (yet free) way to sorta do it.


Use low Depth of Field when recording with your camera

Bring your DV file into AviSynth

Deinterlace
Decimate to 23.976 fps
Add Grain

Encode to MPEG at 23.976 FPS, then run DGPulldown on the resulting file and choose 23.976-29.97.

Create your DVD

[haznut]

I think you´re looking for an easy and quick way to give your video the film looks....and for that means, you should try BigFX Film FX (http://www.bigfx.com/). It even has a "Saving private Ryan" preset hehehe. It´s not pro, but you´ll get that 35mm look in your home videos. (tho it has been used in "The Incredibles").

Adiú

[guns1inger]

Some of it's settings aren't too bad for video work, but some are way ott. It is certainly faster than magic bullet (but then, so is continental drift). If you wan't to mimic filmstock, cinelook is probably the best post-plugin. But if you don't get lighting, focus etc right first, it will always look like video - just nicely processed video.

[JeffM]

If you watched the MTV 2005 Movie Awards, they switched back and forth from a video-like to
a film-like effect throughout the show. I suppose it was an effect they did in real-time
on the fly. I do like the film-look effect.

[mike909]

I use magic bullet in Ppro. It does a nice job with it's presets, but I agree with previous posts...it slows rendering down to a rediculous speed. takes more than overnight to encode dv to mpeg2...only half hour of footage.

[Phil H]

you could also try Cinelook 2. Never used it but does a good job i've heard. Try the demo.

http://www.digieffects.com/products.shtml#C2