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Computer Editing: Film Effects

From documentaries to rap videos, the "film look" is popular. Here, we'll take a look at how you can achieve a film look with your DV footage, modern editing software and some sage advice. In the context of this column, we'll focus on post-production techniques as opposed to things done in the camera.

"Why not just shoot on film?" you might ask. It's expensive and can be complicated to work with. By using a combination of techniques you can make your video look like film, but it's an inexact science, at best. We talked with many video and film creators and no two opinions were the same on what the film look is or how to achieve it. But they all agreed that good results are readily achievable.

Video editors using editing programs like Adobe Premiere 6.0 and Apple Final Cut Pro 3 (FCP3) have a powerful arsenal of tools, including some that can assist in achieving the film effect. Chances are your editing software has similar tools; the principles discussed here are not limited to these two programs. In a perfect world, we'd get the results without needing to purchase (and learn) a high-end effects package.

Premiere 6.0 ships with a couple of filters that might be useful for creating the look you want. These filters include the QuickTime Effects feature and the Field Interpolate function (FCP3 has similar features).

QuickTime Effects is a compound filter that, when applied, will prompt you to select an effect from a list (Vegas Video 3.0 also has a similar aged film effect - Figure 1). The Film Noise feature has many definable parameters and they can be set to zero so that you do not necessarily get the "old" film look. Settings include Hair, Scratches, Dust and Film Fading. You can also process your video in Black and White, Warm Sepia Tone, Faded Color Film or 1930's-1940's Color Film modes. All controls are definable by the user and can be tweaked to provide minimal or drastic effects.

Premiere's Field Interpolate function takes video that's playing both fields in a video frame (30 frames per second and 60 fields per second), discards one (de-interlacing) and duplicates the remaining field into two, simulating the flicker that film has. Both Premiere and Final Cut Pro also offer variable frame rates so you can slow your footage down to 24 frames per second, which is the standard motion picture film rate. In Premiere, select the Time control called Posterize Time, then adjust the frame rate.

To attain a fake historical 1920's film effect, simply speed up the footage (see the Historical Film Speeds sidebar) and convert it to black and white. You can then place any vital dialog on a title screen with white letters on a black background just like the old silent movies. Consider this tip if you'd like to make some Keystone Cops-like video shorts using this technique. Viewers will love it.

Both Premiere and FCP3, like most of today's editing systems, offer color effects (see Figure 3) where you can tweak your video's hue and saturation (like Gamma Correction, only more basic). In general, film is warmer, with a reddish cast, and its color is more saturated than video. By raising these levels and trying various software settings, you can achieve some pretty convincing results. Final Cut Pro users can also use the Gamma Correction filter in the program to easily get color saturation that resembles film.