Advice for old home-movie look

Mj882

Mj882

Well-known member
I'm planning on shooting a short film with my HPX171e/Letus combo. The entire film will be shot in 1080/25p, however there will be scenes where a character is watching supposedly "home video" footage on his television.

When I say home video, I'm refering to the video tape camcorders around in the late 80s - 90s (ones before digital camcorders).

What would you suggest to best replicate that look in terms of camera settings etc/production and also post-production.
 
I don't think it would be expensive you could find a VHS recorder. I haven't seen one in years.

What you CAN do is watch some old VHS and see the look of it. Then recreate it in post with filters. Keep in mind that you probably want it 4:3, too.
 
Ah yes 4:3 it must be. In terms of recreating it, it's got quite a subtle look to it (unlike 8mm etc), might just be easier to try and get hold of a VHS camera and then have it transfered to the pc.
 
In my area VHS cameras are being sold on Craigslist for about $25.

Another approach might be to shoot in HD, but then put it in an SD sequence and record it off to VHS. Then capture that VHS back in.
 
wplate said:
In my area VHS cameras are being sold on Craigslist for about $25.

Another approach might be to shoot in HD, but then put it in an SD sequence and record it off to VHS. Then capture that VHS back in.
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You can also take an old VHS from 10 or so years ago, so you'll get the aged magnetic tape look. Or perhaps an old VHS movie from your collection. Just stick a piece of scotch tape over the no-record tab.

Also, make sure you're shooting in 4:3 DV 480i/30P. I'd probably keep the audio from the camera's track, as your sound engineer might have better filters than a VHS pass-thru.
 
I'd say these are your best bets:

A) Shoot on a VHS camera recording over a 10+ year old VHS tape.

OR

B) Shoot DV 480i/30p, run through Magic Bullet with a Telecine Net Warm (or similar) filter, export over a 10+ year old VHS tape, then import.

Best of luck!
 
If you want a video look, you don't want to shoot 30p. And if your project is going to be 25p overall, you definitely don't want to shoot 30p (30p makes a terrible conversion to 25p or 24p). Would make no sense to shoot 30p in PAL land at all.

Part of the video look, of course, is the motion cadence, so you'd want 576/50i. The only problem there comes if you render/export the whole project as 25, the 50i will be converted along with it and it'll lose that motion cadence.

You could, of course, export the whole project at 50i or 50p; the 25p footage will still look like 25p and the 50i will look like 50i, but you might get some unwanted surprises in any moving text or inserted motion, or in the cadence of fades/wipes/transitions.

So, choose what works best for your overall project. If you'd rather suggest "home video" by other means, like adding video chroma patterns or moire or phasing, and have it all be 25p, it might work. Or, if it's critical to have that real video-ish motion, then 50i it might be.
 
Ah I had a feeling 30p sounded iffy.

So what I want to know is, when I import the 1080/25p and 576/50i footage, what timeline do I insert it into? I'm assuming a 1080/25p timeline.

After editing, if I exported the project at 50p and I incurred the unwanted suprises, would there be a way to get round those?

Thanks David
 
Sounds like you guys are making this needlessly more complicated than it needs to be. People are shot watching TV all the time in movies and they don't overcrank the film to match the TV ntsc frame rate. There are cartoons on all over in the movie 'The shining' and a billion other movies. Just play a vhs tape in a real tube tv... and shoot it at your normal film rate 24 or 25p, you might have to adjust shutter but I say nah, the flicker looks good if it's off sync a bit. If you don't already have one people are literally GIVING them away on craigslist.
 
It depends on how authentic he wants it to look. The tools available now, even to us, are well beyond what was available when they were making The Shining, so it's possible to do better than The Shining if he wants a real, solid, home-video look.

Also, for purposes of timing complication, it may well be easier to put the footage on the TV screen post than it would be to try to get it on the screen on set.
 
Mj882 said:
Ah I had a feeling 30p sounded iffy.

So what I want to know is, when I import the 1080/25p and 576/50i footage, what timeline do I insert it into? I'm assuming a 1080/25p timeline.
Click to expand...

That would make the most sense.


After editing, if I exported the project at 50p and I incurred the unwanted suprises, would there be a way to get round those?
Click to expand...

Yes, though it would require rendering twice -- once to 25p, and then using that 25p file to render to 50p or 50i. Basically, you'd use the rendered 25p file everywhere except where the "video look" stuff would be used -- editing the rendered 25p file and the 50i stuff together -- and then re-export all of that as 50i or 50p. That way, all the text, transitions, etc., would have been rendered originally at 25p and will keep its apparent cadence when re-rendered at 50p or 50i.

Wow, I hope that made sense. :)
 
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