How to get the film-look

[DAZMAN]

I think it has been established that no matter what you arnt going to get film look from DV footage. Having said this there are techniques to get pretty close to the 16mm feel and the final images look stuning.
I have only just finalised a technique that gives this effect for me in the last week or so. This is how i do it.

1) please please use constant lighting rather than the natural light in the room. Light the back drop seperate to the for ground. I find bouncing a light off of a reflecter on to the back of the subject helps seperate them too.
2) Play around with your apature settings to an exceptable level so that you can get the most out of your depth of field.
3) dont use 4x3. even if you have do fake it. 4x3 screems dv

Theses three things will give you a deeper image but then my best piece of advice is to buy magic bullet editors. I got it this week and a combonation of the 4 looks stunning. Though render time is a b**ch.

[BrownCowStudios]

Finalized the technique? This exact advice has been offered for years...

[DAZMAN]

I mean my own technique in terms of how i go about shooting footage, everybody films in their own way.

[914109]

Here's something I found in a magazine once, it requires after effects, which is easy enough to get hold of.
1) Import your footage to after effects twice. (You should have two copies in your project folder)
2) Highlight the lower copy, select File>Interpret footage>Main, and set the Separate Field menu to Lower field first. Click the ‘Motion Detect’ box as well.
3) Repeat for the other one, but set it to Upper Field first. Drag both into the timeline.
4) Set the opacity of the uppermost clip to 50% (highlight and press t). Turn off the audio. There is a free AE plug-in from forged images productions (www.forgedimages.com) which automates this process.

To complete the effect, you could also:
5) Tick the frame blend boxes next to both clips. Apply Effect> Video > Reduce interlace flicker, and set the softness to 1.0 or lower. Do the same to both clips
6) Export the finished film as a .mov file. Re-import and select Effect> Adjust> levels, and set gamma to 0.8. You may also want to alter the colour cast to suit.
7) Create a new black solid, and add effect> stylise> noise, set to 30%, un-tick the Use Colour Noise box. Apply fast blur, set to 2.0 for both horizontal and vertical.
Set the transfer mode of this layer to Classic Difference to add the noise. This can alter the contrast, so you may need to adjust Levels or Opacity.

[negusproductions]

If you own Premiere and Photoshop, export your video as filmstrip. Adjust curves and gamma. Import filmstrip back into Premiere. If you have a plugin such as Cinelook, Magic Bullet or Film FX, that works as well. There's a free After Effects plugin I saw while surfing the call film look comp. That works too!

[BrownCowStudios]

If you own Premiere and Photoshop, export your video as filmstrip. Adjust curves and gamma. Import filmstrip back into Premiere.

That would require massive amounts of disk space. Plus, you can do the same in After Effects without having to use a filmstrip.

[Theshapecool]

Well I use a sharp VL-ME10, and that has one mode of Gamma control that gives it the perfect 'film look'
It also has a nice amount of natrual grain, so it works perfect for us. But if you whant to get a DV Camera with a movie
feature on it, they are about, but they are very expencive, most of the time over a thousand.
you can create a good movie look by placing another layer of the film on top, but just very slightly out of place, works well,
but you whant it on the camera, not on filter. thats when it starts to look fake.