Making Video Look Like Film

[jbridges]

mAN THAT REALLY HELPS OUT A LOT. The still on "A Night Like This" is the look I am going for. I will definately use your advice.

[twister!]

The main thing you can do to make your video look more like the films that you watch is to concentrate on achieving strong compositions and good lighting.

One thing you can do to help minimise the harshness of video is to use a diffusion filter (that's on the lens not in post). Tiffen Soft FX for instance.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ January 12, 2005 12:05 PM: Message edited by: Justin M. ]</font>

[jbridges]

Cool thanks. I hate the harshness of video. What's worse is this film is calling for a washed out look. I think I'm going to have a lot to do in post.

[curtinparloe]

I found a great tip for the bleached look in January's Computer Video Editing:

FCP, Vegas Video and Premiere both do this well, as does After Effects. Avid needs plugins, which is a pain, cause I usually use Avid [img]frown.gif[/img]

You take a source clip and put it on the timeline. Blur it a little. Then add the same source clip on top and desaturate it (make it black and white)
Then all you have to do is merge the tracks (composition mask or superimpose etc...) using Hard Light (brighter) or Multiply (darker), and it looks gorgeous.

You don't have to blur it, but I think it looks better.

[jbridges]

Just tried your trick curtinparloe. Looks pretty good. I am using AVID and the only difference is that I de-saturated the bottom video track as well as blurred it. It almost looks like it was shot with the promist filter. I think I will try to shoot with the promist though. It seems like it could add tons of time in post. Thanks for the cool hint though. I will use it with smaller projects most definately.

[TJ_the_director]

avoid WS as much as possible -- use MS & CU to tell your story on video instead.

spend more time lighting the set/locations for a better looking shot.

use a tripod for everyshot. handheld SCREAMS video.

most of all - tell a good and compelling story and people will forget crappy production values.