Movie effect

mpicard · #1 (**permalink**) 03-30-2008, 06:29 AM

Hello,

I am just wondering, i've been curious about this for a while. How do you give video that movie effect? Like you watch a movie in a theater and it looks like a movie. How do you make it so that video you shoot looks like a movie? Is it the camera? or is it in the editing stage?

If it's a camera, then it's probably really expensive. Is there any way around that? Is there like a certain effect you can do it with?

I have Adobe Premiere CS3, along with after effects, an another program called Magix Movie edit pro.

Thank you
mdpicard

TimStannard · #2 (**permalink**) 03-30-2008, 10:27 AM

Aside from "how do I get a light sabre effect", this is probably the most asked question in videomaking.
The short answer is if you want a movie to look like it's shot on film - shoot it on film.
The slightly longer answer (and this is not from experience only from what I've read) is shoot it as if you were shooting on film. Lighting is crucial. You need to be able to get the shallow depth of field associated with 35mm/70mm cameras (not achievable on cheaper cameras). You can do a little in post with colour correction and other effects. Video camera manufacturers will make a big deal ouyt of being able to shoot "24fps progressive for that movie look" (cine cameras shoot 24 frames per second and are by their nature "progressive" rather than the interlaced of SD or some HD video) but this is only a small part of the jigsaw.
Google "making video look like movie/film" and you'll find thousands of pages.
Good luck

Mark W · #3 (**permalink**) 03-30-2008, 01:35 PM

To ad to what Tim says, I think 24p is the least important factor - I think 24p looks rubbish, jerky pans and movement. The future in the cinema is 50p - 24p was never chosen as 'the best' just what was achievable and affordable.

Far more important is a good script / story / acting / make up/ locations / acting / lighting / costume / lighting / sound / camera movement / clourisation / editing / music / sfx / and onand on...

The Guru · #4 (**permalink**) 03-30-2008, 05:45 PM

24p is a gimick aimed at the US market. Most UK film is shot on 25fps and 25p video was "in" for a while as a "film" look but is slowly dropping out of fashion.

There are gazillions of tips for giving video that "movie" look, there isn't a "quick fix" easy solution. In essence you're asking "how can I paint with watercolours but make it look like oil?". (Also possible but why not just use the advantages of the medium you select?)

Darrel · #5 (**permalink**) 07-04-2008, 02:38 AM

Check out Magic Bullet Suite by Reg Giant Software. It'll help getting that look and feel of film.

Mark W · #6 (**permalink**) 07-05-2008, 12:24 PM

Well, sort of - MB is good but it only creates a charactiture of 'film looks' - to me most of the settings are too extreme.

And no amount of post processing can create the film look - the audience wont care - they will care and notice good cinematography - that IS the film look.

Jerry Hill · #7 (**permalink**) 08-30-2008, 03:44 PM

I agree it's the setting up that helps to re-create a film look more than anything, fortunately for me my subject of choice doesn't really benefit from over effecting video to try and make it look like film much.

But, one thing I will do is try to remove the harshness that video has, it's edgy bittyness. For this, depending on what you're after, take the finished edited film, import it into a fresh project, copy it onto another track, to the copy apply Gaussian blur anywhere between 5-20 %, then reduce the opacity to around 10%. This allows the original sharp image to keep definition intact, but adds a sort of softness by reducing grain a touch. Desaturating the colour can help with the effect, but I usually want full vibrant colours. Re-render the whole thing for the final effect.

Some experimenting with the settings needed as usual. but it does go a long way to helping video look less like, er, video.

Btw, I tried using 'film look' features on several video cameras which sell you this as a bonus, only to find them utterly useless for fast moving subjects, particularly on single CMOS cameras (we're talking Canon HV's here), so better to capture things as neutrally as you can imho, and leave the effecting to post.