Making video LOOK like film?

[dbzgundam]

I remember someone created a little series of filters to use in Adobe After FX (I lost that list long ago) and it was to try and make NTSC video (most likely captured from a home video camera) look more like Film material. Now I know this is technically impossible but I wouldn't be surprised if there are a series of filters in AVISynth that can somewhat get a filmic look...Not old age or anything, but the motion that a naturally 24fps movie can give, and of course the overall look of film.

First step is obviously a conversion to 24fps. Also I don't think it necessarilly has to be through IVTC, but just regular old conversion. After that...well I don't know, any help is useful!

[scharfis_brain]

hehe, I've made an AVISynth-function for this purpose!

http://home.arcor.de/scharfis_brain/ (60ito24p)

you should also do a search on convert60ito24p* on this forum.

[Mug Funky]

the output will look best if the shutter speed of the camera is as long as possible (1/60). otherwise you'll get an oddly jerky motion from the lack of motion-blur.

this works best in PAL land :)... all you need do is deinterlace and play with the colours.

[sh0dan]

Regarding shutter speed, you could also experiment with setting it to 25. This will actually produce progressive frames on many cameraes (I've tried it on a Sony PD 150).

On high motion it will give a sligtly more blurred look than film, but on regular and slow motion, it looks quite good. Plus you don't need to bother with deinterlacers.

Beside colors, you should also try adding grain. If your destination format can deal with the higher bitrates (DVD's for instance), it will make it look better in many cases. Try Tom Barrys AddGrain or Blockbuster.

The biggest problem in creating the film look is unfortunately optical. Due to the different design of video cameras, it is not possible to make the same amount of depth-blur, as film cameras. On many DV-cameras it is almost impossible to get a blurred background, even if you stand far away from the object/person you are filming. This is probably the biggest problem in getting a proper film look - and very hard to workaround in postprocessing.

I just love the closeups you can get on film with a very blurry background.... God I with we could shoot our stuff on film. :rolleyes:

[scharfis_brain]

sh0dan: you're talking about your PAL-Cam right?

my script does a NTSC -> Film conversion.
On NTSC-Cams this trick won't work.

hehe, I love PAL, because it's quite simple to work with it.

[Mug Funky]

1/25? never seen that on the consumer grade cams i've used :(

slowest i've seen is 1/50, which i never change as it makes no sense unless you want that awful "skate-video" look.

some cameras you can't even choose the speed... it's all at the camera's whim. i can tell you this is annoying.

yeah, i'd love to shoot on film. that's what lotteries are for i suppose.