Filmizing Digital Video?

[elliot_123]

I have Adobe After Effects with the plugins Magic Bullet Looks, Color Finesse, Magic Bullet Frames. How would I go about making video appear to be shot on film? I know they do it on movies like Grizzley man and other low budget movies. I went into Magic Bullet Looks and tried the "Telecine net" filter and it seemed to make things glow a little and made the blue sky more blue. I shot video at 30P on my dcr-pc1000 and it looked very good besides the awful motion blur. It also shoots interlaced but looks like home video on interlaced and progressive 30p mode looks much better and more professional, at least the resolution of the video does.

[poisondeathray]

There are many factors that go into a "filmic" look but here are a few things you can try:

1) retime to 24p e.g. timewarp in AE or use twixtor or similar plugins, you might need to add blur depending on how you shot it, shutter speed etc...

2) add shallow depth of field to some shots, AE has a bunch of blurs you can use, or 3rd party plugins e.g. frischluft lenscare

3) if it wasn't shot properly in the first place (sliders, tripods, steady cam etc...) make sure it's stabilized in post, unless you're going for the shaky bourne identity look -> this is the usually the biggest reveal for amateur shot footage

3) add film grain (either with AE grain plugins) or use grain plates like cinegrain or rgrain . Since this is DV footage (usually noisy) , you might have to clean it up before adding film grain

4) it you want a "theatrical" look grade it accordingly - this is very subjective, but it depends on what you start with. Very few theatrical releases are color balanced or neutral like home video

Look on youtube for tutorials for achieving a "film look". There are hundreds. e.g. this might give you some ideas on grading
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx-VFalV39s

[Cornucopia]

Adding what pdr suggested:

It's not JUST the grading, it's the fact that Film (or Digital Cinema) cameras usually capture a much wider dynamic range than video does, and video is more linear+clamped with the levels than film. Kind of like a "S" (film) curve instead of a "backwards z" (video) curve. One is larger and more gently sloping than the other.

So to match that you have to adjust the gamma, etc in post. That's some of what "grading" is all about, though there is a lot of subjective alternatives there as well. Still, you can't "generate" detail or dynamic range out of nothing, so there's only so much you can do.

Many of the ways of making it more Film-like have more to do with techniques & equipment used during production (including LIGHTING) than during post.

Scott

[budwzr]

If the content is good, even crappy color grading is fine. If the color grading is outstanding, but the content is crappy, then....

Example: "Baby's First Birthday" movie will be a non-starter even with Panavision cameras.