Something that becomes clear when you start trawling the internet looking for tips on how to give something shot on video a more filmic feel, is that asking film professionals for tips for a film-look on video, is a bit like asking the Jewish community for tips on how to be more like Mel Gibson. The words "rag", "bull" and "red" come screaming to mind in no particular order. Wherever there are forums where people ask, "how can I get the film look?" there are people who answer with "Use a fucking film camera!" Consequently it's difficult to get tips on what can be done to "film-up" your footage.  |
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Okay first up, let me say. I'm not an infant. I KNOW that you cant take a ten year old Canon Mini-DV camera, shoot your footage and have it turn out like fucking Laurence of Arabia. I know it is video and it will always look like video. I don't have 50 grand's worth of Panavision gear that I can pull out of my arse pocket, and that no matter how much post-production jiggery-pokery is done, it will not look like it was shot 24 frames per second on a strip of plastic covered in light sensitive chemicals.
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So here's what I'm getting at. I am not trying to make it look like it was shot on film. I'm trying to make it look better. Yes, better in my opinion probably appears a little more like film and less like video. But so be it.
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So I have started to try and tweak the footage. As per everything else, I read a little about what it is I'm trying to do and then start fumbling in the dark. Dotted throughout the posts are examples (by no means finished) of the results I have started to achieve.
What I have done so far is to drop the brightness, up the contrast, drop the colour saturation and tweak the colour levels. There are other tricks and tools that I am going to experiment with as well.
As I said these aren't finished results but (he takes a deep breath, conscious that he may well have pissed off some film fans) if anyone has any opinions or tips I'd love to hear them....
When will people learn you just can't replicate that film look...I'm kidding, I get frustrated with this attitude too. I learnt a bit about shooting on film on a course I did and it mostly seemed time-consuming, awkward and expensive. The cost alone prohibits pretty much anyone making a film on no budget to use film, so I think it's a bit of a snobby point of view to say don't try and replicate it. I agree with you - it's about making the film look the best it can look.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I'm impressed by how much of this you're doing by yourself! And the changes to the shots above look really good so you obviuosly know what you're doing. I'm doing the same thing with mine to get it to look more like a film, only I have no idea how to go about doing it myself so have had to get someone else to do it!
Thanks for that dude. Glad to hear it's not just me.
ReplyDeleteI can also assure you that I don;t know what I'm doing, but that hasn't stopped me so far at any stage of the project.