How to get the film-look

Freddie · Post by **Freddie** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 7:39 pm

I always wondered when im making my films, how to get the film-look?
Im sure you know what i mean =)
A good movie filter. If anyone knows of any free programs or something, please tell me here, or msg me at msn: Frezko@systrickz.com

Thank you!

-Frez

ipon70 · Post by **ipon70** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 8:13 pm

Might check out this article.

http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php ... 2119710774

Freddie · Post by **Freddie** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 10:25 pm

well.. I kinda wanted a tutorial about a filter adding or something, not how to film with the camera..
but thanks for the thought though

asapfilms · Post by **asapfilms** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 10:51 pm

I know exactly what you're talking about and I was looking for it too... There actually is an Adobe plugin called Cinama or something like that. Im not sure its the best but I know its not free, thats a start. As for a free one, idk if theres gonna be a good one out there. Basically what you (and me) are looking for is a filter that will take a 30 fps minidv (home camera) video and convert it to 24 fps, or professional quality. I kindof gave up on the filter hunt and am now saving up for a camera that shoots 24 fps. There are two consumer cams on the market that shoot that quality at the moment... good luck with the filter though, if you find it tell me!

tallman_house_pictures · Thu Feb 17, 2005 2:01 am

Well, the best way of course is to film with film but that is where most of our lines are drawn. I know exactly what you mean by that. My advice is to look around, and experiment with video filters, tints ect.

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 3:35 am

If you adjust the contrast/brightness and also the gamma you can get some visuals that look more like film than video. I usually increase the contrast and lower the brightness and also adjust the gamma so that the image is a bit darker. Like Tallman said just experiment with filters until you get the look you want.

OutcastJiob · Post by **OutcastJiob** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 5:33 am

Freddie, while filters in post are useful, you do need to take active steps while you're shooting in order to achieve a film look. Lighting is crucial, as is the camera's focus, for example.

That said, I'll agree with the general consensus here, you'll need to tweak brightness/contrast and gamma. Also--I don't know if anyone else does this--I generally apply a very minor blur to the footage. I just like how it softens the image, it looks more film-like to me.

To get anything that looks reasonably to film with DV source footage requires a lot of work, and you can't do all of it in post.

Here's some tutorial links, I hope you find them helpful:

http://www.videouniversity.com/filmtovi.htm

http://www.creativecow.net/show.php?for ... index.html

http://www.urbanfox.tv/production/filmlookindex.htm

http://www.b-independent.com/production/filmlook.htm

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/film_look.html

http://www.rondexter.com/filmschool/mak ... e_film.htm

Raptor · Post by **Raptor** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 5:41 am

It takes more than 24 P - video is video, it will never give you the saturation, color responnse and depth of field that film, or even a pro camera will give you. When teh lens on even a higher grade TV ENG or EFP camera costs three to four times what an XL2 camera costs, there is just no way to get the effect through a plugin, you can play with the gama curves and get something close, but in teh end, it just never has the depth of film. 24p is highly overrated unless you are in fact doing a film transfer. Then it is only useful because the frame count matches. Learn to use lighting to help add to the limited depth of field - step away from the auto settings, learn to use focus, zoom and iris creatively to get the best depth of field possible. A scene with good light setup will do more than just about anything else to bring the film look to life. If you have scene files like Panny DVX, or custom presets like SONY VX and PD cams then cut back the sharpness, bump up the saturation, and play with the gama and color curves a bit till you get the feel you are looking for. As far as converting to 24P use After effects, and the posterize time effect with field interpolation turned off.

Nomaden · Post by **Nomaden** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 2:36 pm

If you want what the pros use, get magic bullet suite or magic bullet editors, works for most video editing apps, and it includes tons of video filters etc.. but, quality costs...

U.S.Amateurfilmaker · Wed Feb 23, 2005 10:30 pm

It's better to start out w/ 24 p than to put regular video through a bunch of filters (slowly degrading teh quality as you go). The best thing to do is to get a DVX100A or and XL2. But as far as the film look, the DVX100A has a better cine-gamma mode, so the footage from that cam looks the most like film of any prosumer DV cam.

And no matter what anyone tries to tell you about lighting, dollying, angles, etc (which are all important), the true look of "DV" film lies in the framerate, because if you take away the 24p, it looks like video, so 6 fps does make a difference.

ipon70 · Post by **ipon70** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 11:50 pm

Magic Bullet works just like it sounds.... I love it.

reflexive_cinematics · Tue Mar 01, 2005 1:57 am

U.S.Amateurfilmaker wrote:no matter what anyone tries to tell you about lighting, dollying, angles, etc (which are all important), the true look of "DV" film lies in the framerate, because if you take away the 24p, it looks like video, so 6 fps does make a difference.

I slightly dissagree with that. Although I do think it plays a small part, I think , like someone said above, that depth of field is the biggest change. You cant get that really shallow depth of field from a DV cam like a 32mm flim camera can.
I have a VX2100 and I find that you can shoot in 60i ,lower the shutter speed to 30 which gives things in motion a slight motion blur, open up your apeture, and then back up and zoom in to frame your shot, THEN in post maybe use a few plugins some color correction.... then you can get a REALLY nice look.

of course lighting on set is important as well as GOOD AUDIO. Sound is 75% of a movie.

All these things play a part. Hey, filmmaking is hard! When you do it right. You dont just pick of a camera set it on full auto point and shoot. Then your gonna get what you put in. As they say , garbage in Garbage out.

It's not like the camera is the real talent; just making EVERYONE who uses a cam with 24p mode a great filmmaker. I've seen some stuff come from people with a DVX and some of it looks no better than any other 3CCD cam. You have to frame your shots right, have good lighting, interesting angles, really try for that shallow DOF, do some post work like i said before.

jcdenton · Post by **jcdenton** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 12:10 am

I have a PAL DV cam that is 25 Frames and I don't think it makes it look more like real film but you may use one of the software converters that are converting 30 to 24 frames and back. IMHO the Movie-look comes from the high quality resolution of the 35mm analog material, compared to the rather rough resolution of any digital camera, even high definition. It's also a result of the number of professional people on the set for light and everything else. I think the use of a low focal distance also seperates family videoclips from real moviemakers (for near shots). Using a low focal distance is almost impossible when you have a cheap DV cam that has no manual focal distance. There's a trick, if you zoom up, the focal distance becomes lower. So an optical 6*zoom with an external mic may give you that effect, although you will need to use a tripod.

EDIT: well to be honest, I am not an expert, that's for sure.

Knighted · Post by **Knighted** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 8:53 pm

Well people I have a Sony Digital 8 handycam (the DCR - TRV245E, which Sony has now officially forgotten about because it's over 1 and a half years old) and for the moment it doesn't look like anything better is coming along (unless I win the lottery, even though I'm not old enough to play)!!!

jcdenton · Post by **jcdenton** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 8:44 pm

Well Sony usually keeps supporting their products for a very long time. I still got a mavica digi camera that saves images to a floppy disk, and even mpeg movies

Right now I think about to make some money and buy a Panasonc NV GS400. It's a 3 Chip DVCam that has a lot of nice features, including 16:9 recording, and one thing (that's why I mention it here) that is names Pro Cinema Mode, they say it features a special Film-like grainy Texture - whatever that means, it sounds pretty good. The camera is real cheap, comapred to Sony 3CCD Cameras. IMHO.

BrownCowStudios · Post by **BrownCowStudios** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 6:00 am

jcdenton wrote:and one thing (that's why I mention it here) that is names Pro Cinema Mode, they say it features a special Film-like grainy Texture - whatever that means, it sounds pretty good.

The "Pro Cinema" feature simply applies a gamma curve to allow highlights and shadows to expose easier. Same concept as in the DVX100 and DVC30, only you cannot adjust it on the GS400. The "Pro Cinema" feature also records the video in "frame mode" -- a pseudo progressive scan mode that electronically interpolates odd and even fields.

jcdenton · Post by **jcdenton** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 12:23 am

Thanks for explaining me this. Unfortunately the DVC30 and the DVX100are a little more pricy than the GS400.

Epsilon · Post by **Epsilon** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 12:08 am

How to get a film look? Easy. Shoot with film.

jcdenton · Post by **jcdenton** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 6:37 pm

If you pay it, no problem

I like the 10 Minutes Moviemaker tutorial on this page, where this hollywood guy (who actually did "it") says "don't use film - it's just a waste of money" (or something).

BTW. In an earlier post I was talking about "focal distance", but actually I meant "depth of focus". Ok, bot things may be related, but it isn't the same. I was talking about pictures where one thing is sharp and all other things are blured, also if they are only one meter closer or more distant than the thing that's in the focus. Like in a dialog where the guy who's facing to the camera is focusized and the other guy who has his back against the camera and stands close to the camera is totally unsharp.

It can be hard to achieve this effect with a cheap camcorder, but as I said, using the zoom and then film the scene from a higher distance (with an external mic/long wire) will have the same effect.

Radiate · Post by **Radiate** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 1:29 am

Does anyone know how much an actual film camera would cost? I found a store that sells them right by my house but a havent gone into look yet......
Also how much would a dolly and crane cost?

Almondo99 · Post by **Almondo99** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 1:39 am

Off topic...
But probably like 2,000$ for a good one, if you have that much to spend.

Radiate · Post by **Radiate** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 3:41 am

alec, i know u woudnt know, so ill just start a new post if its "off topic".

Almondo99 · Post by **Almondo99** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 12:30 am

There is a site called "Google"

ALove · Post by **ALove** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 2:37 am

Pal deinterlaced slowed to 24p will cover the 24p.

However that will still not look like film. You need to maintain high production values, light appropriatly, and I even think Color Correct. Also shoot with an ND filter to keep you iris completly open.

jcdenton · Post by **jcdenton** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 12:06 pm

(BTW it may be easy to get a film camera, 16 or 35mm, but the camera isn't what's expensive. It's the editing of film, especially digitizing aka scanning it, the prices are around 5 euros for each frame AFAIK)

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