Achieveing Film-Look on Video

THE BIGGER PICTURE

There are no buttons on video camera that are going to give you the look of film. The reality is that the mechanics of the camera is just one small part of a much larger process. Think of it like a machine that is dependent on other components to function. If one of these components fails or is omitted, the larger machine will either stop working or produce unpredictable results. And it is so when looking into those various "components" that make up the "film look". Let's examine each of these components a little closer.

Before I continue, I will acknowledge that there is an argument that some of these components can be omitted and still the film look can be achieved. This is probably a fair argument but you can make the decision as to what is important and what is not once you have a broad understanding of the bigger picture. It's like the old saying "In order to break the rules, you must first know them” or something to that effect.

CAMERA MOVEMENT

If an audience sees a lot of shaking in your footage, it triggers a chemical reaction in the recesses of their brains called videopsychosis. This signal lets the brain know that what they are seeing is footage shot with a relatively small video camera. If you are trying to fool your audience into thinking they are watching a film-originated movie, this is an undesirable result. To avoid this phenomenon, the camera operator must adjust his/her thinking and become a cinematographer, not a videographer. The “cinema” in that title is there for a reason.

So what can we do with the camera to give the illusion that your film was shot on film? Let’s add some virtual weight to it. Slow everything down. Imagine that you are operating a big 35mm camera  and you will begin to see the world a little differently. Study the slow camera movements of your favorite films. With some exceptions, most camera movements are slow and considered, often revealing details in a scene in a slow-mannered way. Adding some actual weight to your camera can really help until you get the hang of doing it with a lighter setup. When you pan, turn your body, not just your arm. As you become more fluent with your camera’s movement, your scenes will become more organic and it will be a much more pleasing to your audience.
Also consider the fact that anything that moves the camera from its fixed position (e.g., a dolly or crane) helps to further the film look. It takes the viewer away from the patented two-dimensional look of video and creates a world that you feel you could literally step into.
There are plenty of techniques for creating slow cinematic camera movements using your video camera and most of them will come from your imagination, not a book, so start experimenting.
I’ll give you one example to get you started. I like to tilt my entire tripod on two legs until my camera almost reaches the ground. I then slowly pull it back to its upright position. This creates a very effective crane movement and you can get some really smooth moves with practice.
So, don’t just watch films, study them. Imagine you are the cinematographer and really observe how the camera is moving and how it reveals or obstructs certain things and how it ultimately motivates the story or scene. You will find that there is a very specific language of movement and once you get a feel for that, you will begin to see things very differently.

LIGHTING

Everything in a scene should be there for a reason unless you are just gripping and ripping or doing documentary work. Lighting helps to selectively draw the viewer’s attention to a person or thing. In a way, it almost works in the same way as selective focusing. If something has a dominant light in a scene, it will receive your attention over everything else.

Lighting also creates the illusion of a third dimension in two-dimensional space. When we look at a movie, whether it is on a TV or on a theater screen, it is flat, having only dimensions of height and width so the challenge is to convince your audience that space exists behind the screen.
Classic three-point lighting, for instance, has a number of functions that help us in our quest for that extra dimension. We have a key light, which creates the focal point for the viewer and extrudes the subject from the rest of the frame. Then we have the fill light, which eliminates nasty shadows but also has a sculptural function by helping to reveal the shape of the face and head. Finally, we have the backlight or rim light which separates the subject from the background, giving a sense of depth.
Expounding on lighting techniques in general is beyond the scope of this article and there are many resources on the Web for your reading pleasure. I just want you to think about the concept of light of varying strengths in your scene, each having a very specific role, all conspiring to create a feeling of depth and ultimately helping the viewer focus on the message you are trying to convey.

COLOR/GAMMA

These days, there is no particular color palette that can be specifically associated with film. There are all kinds of looks out there ranging from monotone to highly saturated.
When shooting video, no matter how black you make your blacks in-camera, the picture still ends up looking a little “milky”. This is because the full depth of the blacks has not been realized and this greatly influences the general richness of the picture in terms of color. A simple levels adjustment in your NLE of choice will really bring out some vivid colors.
In the levels control, move the black control slider to the right until it crushes your blacks just to the point of losing some shadow detail. Some people like to push it further to achieve a high contrast look…they also push the whites by sliding the white control slider to the left. I usually stay away from the white end because it looks more like overexposed footage rather than a stylistic look. If I need to brighten or darken the picture beyond that, I adjust the mid-tones. That way, information in your picture will not suffer. Aside from some basic color correction, that’s about all I do to my raw footage to get that rich look.
I do not white balance if I’m taking nature shots or shots that have no connection to each other. I prefer to color balance in post production. For instance, if I was to white balance during the sunset or sunrise, all of the golden light would be gone. If I was shooting a film or music video, on the other hand, I would white balance before every shot because continuity is crucial in these situations.
Film has much greater latitude than video meaning it’s able to capture more tonal information. You will notice with film-originated footage, overexposed areas transition more gracefully than in video. In the latter, your picture will blow out to white pretty quickly, leaving some pretty ugly transitions in your picture. This is a dead giveaway that you are shooting video. Some video cameras have a “knee” adjustment that minimizes this problem. If you set your knee to “low”, the transition from exposed to overexposed will be more gradual.
Some cameras also have a “film gamma” adjustment that helps give the illusion of greater latitude. I won’t recommend any of these settings only that you experiment and make up your own mind.

FRAME RATE

Motion cadence has a large impact on the film look. Before 24p became available to the general consumer, there were programs like Magic Bullet, Cinelook and DVFilm that would strip your 50i footage and convert it to 24p. While they did a fairly good job, there is just substitute for the real thing.
35mm film cameras run at 24fps and give a distinctly different look than video which is essentially capturing images 50 times a second…(video actually captures two fields to make up every “frame” so it’s really 25fps). Video looks “hyper-real” while film has a slightly surreal feel to its motion. This makes it ideal for storytelling because it can pull the viewer into a world that contributes to suspension of disbelief. Video, because of its hyper-real motion, can sometimes feel more like a documentary and have that classic “soap opera” look. At least in my mind, this is less than ideal for narrative storytelling.
There are many pros and cons for using 24p, 25p or 50i and each of them has specific applications, even if it’s just for an aesthetic choice. The bottom line is that if you want your video to closely approximate the feel of 35m film, shoot at 24fps.
Committing to that frame rate means you also need to be aware of its limitations. Fast motion can lead to stuttering or strobing which can be distracting to the viewer. Again, overcoming these limitations is another discussion for another day but know that they are exactly the same as what you would encounter shooting on film.

ASPECT RATIO

The term Aspect Ratio refers to the relationship between the width and the height of a picture. 16x9 means that the screen is 16 units wide and 9 units high. HD video and some SD video is shot with a 16x9 aspect ratio. There are many, including myself, who feel this widescreen aspect also makes footage look more filmic. I go one better and matte my footage to a Cinemascope ratio which is the same used on many blockbuster films today. It has a much wider aspect than 16x9 and gives the frame more of an epic feel. This is particularly effective in HD where there is a lot of resolution that is absent from standard definition video, particularly in wide angle shots.
16x9 is the standard aspect ratio in today’s world of TV and video.

35MM ADAPTERS

Another staple of the film look is having control over depth of field. Because of their small CCDs, consumer- and prosumer-level video cameras have a large depth of field meaning nearly everything is in focus. This can be a challenge when you are trying to hone the viewer’s eye on a particular thing in a busy frame.
35mm adapters allow you to use all the advantages of film lenses right on your video camera. The light travels through the 35mm lens and projects an image onto a small vibrating or rotating screen. The camera then records this tiny screen in macro mode.
Not only do you get control over depth of field but there is also an organic quality introduced to the picture. Gone is the trademark sharp edges of video (particularly HD) and what’s left is a pleasing picture that’s less hard-edged and more like film.

KNOW YOUR LIMITS

Your video camera is just that. It is not a  film camera. Know the differences and you are halfway there. Try to avoid high contrast scenes and you will get a better looking picture. If you can’t avoid these kinds of situations, invest in a graduated ND filter or a polarizer. Do research on the Web and find out what you can do to minimize problems when shooting in uncontrollable environments. When you can, use lighting to your advantage. Good lighting can bring out the very best footage possible from your camera and there will be times when you fool yourself into thinking it was shot on film. To shoot well is to know the limitations of your tools and find creative solutions.
There are many other elements that go into creating a film look including art direction, composition/framing and becoming intimate with the language of film. What I have listed above are just some fundamentals to get you started.