Getting a film-like look in Sony Vegas

Creating a Film-Like Appearance in Sony Vegas

Making video look more like film has been a goal of videographers since desktop video was a concept. Video simply cannot look exactly like film, due in part to the perfection of video and the conversion process, the compression process, and the interpretation of imagery. Film, shot on celluloid, is an analog format that has it's own warts, but warts that have defined how our eyes see images. Someone once said "video is what the eye sees, film is what the imagination sees." Kodak's Tom Wallis commented, "film feels organic to audiences and that's why they associate a film look with fantasy and video with reality." There is a great amount of truth to this, hence the desire to make video look more like film.

Many companies offer "cure-all" plugins to make video more film-like, but in the opinion of all but the most amateur, these plugs merely make video look like video treated to look like film. Compared to the real deal, it's pretty clear what is what. Some of the more expensive tools, such as Magic Bullet from Red Giant, can do an excellent job with video shot like film, but Vegas can approximate most of that same look without the plugin tools.

First off, to make video more film-like in appearance, the video must be shot like film would be shot. Great lighting, shadows, and depth of field are critical. DV cameras allow for too much depth of field in most cases, so videographers who are aware of this also are aware of the many work arounds to get a good shot with tight foreground focus and weak background focus. For instance, using a Neutral Density filter and opening the iris to full helps. Blurred backgrounds quickly indicate a sense of "unreality" and go a long way to getting video to look more film-like. Shooting through pantyhose behind the lens or shooting through a Tiffen Black Mist filter can help soften the look too. Opening the iris and reducing the amount of light that can pass the filter will call for more/better lighting too. With cams like Sony's PD150/170, you can easily underexpose and then correct in post if you know what you are doing. Be cautious of this workflow with cameras that are noisy in low light. Take careful notes, either as voice notes on the tape or have an assistant write down the settings. Starting each roll with a gradient or shot color bars will help define colors under conditions when it comes time to correct in post.

Next on the list is cadence. NTSC video is shot at 29.97 frames per second and PAL video is shot at 25.00 frames per second. Film cameras shoot at 24.00 frames per second. The 24 frame 'stutter' gets DV closer to film pretty quickly. Many great film makers that find themselves having to work with digital video shoot PAL cameras, as it's not a big thing at all to match 25 frames to 24 frames per second. In fact, if you plan on making a feature that looks like it was shot on film, acquiring a PAL camera should be a consideration. Panasonic offers the DVX100, a DV cam that shoots at 24 fps, some folks don't care for the video quality while they love the cadence of 24 fps. Some folks just aren't interested in learning another camera or another format. Another difference is the interlaced format of NTSC video and film being progressive scan. But what if you don't have a PAL or 24 fps camera?


This is a screenshot captured from Vegas' Preview Window prior to all processes being applied. Click the image to see the streaming original.	This screenshot is captured from Vegas' preview window after all processes have been applied. Obviously you can't see the cadence, but the deinterlacing and other processes are obvious. Click the image to see the streaming finished image.

This is where Vegas and its format agnostic, resolution independent featureset comes in. Vegas is indeed optimized for capture, editing, and output of DV files, yet does offer other alternatives too, thereby removing the limitations so many applications impose on the editing process.

Vegas is capable of working with 24p natively, performing what's known as 3:2 pulldown during playback. This is referred to as "inverse telecine." Telecine is the process of converting 24fps to 29.97 fps. Therefore, pulling the frames back out is known as inverse telecine or IVTC. For a simple explanation about pulldown, go here;

Vegas will easily convert 29.97 fps footage (commonly referred to as 60i) to 24p, which is actually 23.976 fps. This creates the cadence of film, where during the process essentially 6 frames/12 half-frames per second are removed from the stream. Another way of expressing the difference between 24p and 60i or 50i is: NTSC is 59.94 fields (60i) per second, PAL is 50 (50i) fields per second. Film is 24 full frames per second. NTSC and PAL have the "reality" look due to the smooth motion rendition. Part of the film look is the much slower 24 fps acquisition rate. To simulate this with video, you must throw away or blend fields to create 24, 29.97, or 25 frames per second instead of twice as many fields per second. The interpolation of the removed frames is pretty critical to making this all look right. Also important to consider is working with 24p titles, transitions, generated media to keep the image accurate. To my knowledge, Vegas is currently the only application working with native 24p transitions, titles, FX, and generated media. Nevertheless, here's a workflow to keep quality, edit your 60i or 50i (PAL) as 24p media without losing any quality.

Editing and Converting:

First, edit your media on the timeline as individual events and cuts-only. Do not do any transitions, titles, FX at this time. You might want to leave heads/tails on the rendered events for future transitions or edit requirements. Render these individual clips out by double clicking the event to select the event as its own region. These events will be rendered out to a compressed or uncompressed, 24p format. Save the .veg file. Some users might have issues with the render to DV vs uncompressed, but the Vegas codec holds up just great, and most users will have no issue with the quality of image going from DV to DV. Once all the events have been edited, render them individually by creating a template containing the following settings:

Set the Project Properties/Deinterlace mode to Blend Fields. (default)

Choose File>Render As

Name the file, choose .avi as the file format, select NTSC or PAL DV (inserting 2:3 Pulldown)

If you wish to render Uncompressed, Select the Custom button, In General Tab, select rendering quality of Best. Select Video tab, in the Video Format dropdown box, select "Uncompressed."

Render this event to a folder where it can be located later. Render all events as 24p. (NTSC-DV or Uncompressed)

After all events have been edited, open the saved .veg if you've closed it down, and set the Project Properties to 24p (NTSC or PAL) If you've rendered to uncompressed, replace the events in the Media Pool with the 24p uncompressed files you created earlier. Do the same if you've rendered to 24pDV. As soon as all the events in the Media Pool have been replaced, notice that any uncompressed events are letterboxed. (DV compressed files won't have this issue) This is due to uncompressed media being square pixel aspect ratio and DV media being non-square pixels. To correct this, right click the first event on the timeline and select Properties. In the Properties dialog, select the Media Tab.

Uncompressed or DV, right click the first event again and choose Switches>Disable Resample. This will prevent the project from trying to reinsert the missing frames for playback.

Copy the first event, then right click the second event and choose "Select Events to End." Right click again and select Paste Event Attributes. This will cause all events to have the resample disabled and correct pixel aspect ratio. Now you can begin editing.

One of the first things viewers associate with the film look is letter boxing or 16:9 screen. So, using Pan/Crop on the first event, choose the 16:9 crop preset from the Pan/Crop dropdown menu. If you choose this option, you'll need to apply this to all events on the timeline, so once again copy the first event, select events to end, and choose Paste Attributes. This will apply the letterbox to all events on the timeline. Depending on the framing of the shots, you might need to adjust individual events for composition.

Apply transitions as necessary. Apply titles and any other overlays. These will be generated at 24fps, progressive scanned as determined by the project properties.

Color correction can be applied at the track level to create a similar look for all events. However, if individual events were shot under different lighting circumstances, it might be advisable to put all similar events on single tracks or save color correction presets per shot location so that color correction may be quickly applied to groups of shots.

After applying these basics, the next steps are entirely subjective and experimental and subject to personal preferences and will vary depending on the desired final output appearance. However, adding an HSL filter to saturate the colors, adding a touch of Glow will go a long way to getting a great film-like look. For the demo file, I used the Zenote' Glow set to 1/4 Tiffen, plus the Zenote' Film Grain set to 35mm plugins. Sony has a good glow filter as well, I find I like the Zenote' a little better as it's slightly smoother, and the Film Grain are a little more quick to use, but the Sony Film Grain can be tweaked to look similar to the presets of the Zenote' plug. Adding Motion Blur to pans or transitory elements can also make a difference in a shot. Consider using SuperSampling on Motion Blur shots. Don't forget that Pixelan has some excellent film look plugins for Vegas as well. Their Spicefilters are some of the coolest plugs available for Vegas.

From this point it's entirely related to your desire, experimentation, and quality of original video that will determine the final output. The demo video was shot entirely with existing light, backlit, and generally poorly composed but the quality of color shift and 'film like' imagery is clear to see regardless of it's original quality. Had it been lit correctly and shot with an eye for film like composition, it would be even more effortless to create a more film like appearance. It can't be stressed enough that the lighting, shooting technique, and composition make all the difference in the world. Don't expect to shoot with a palmcorder and no tripod with a digital zoom and expect to have imagery that looks like it was shot with an Arriflex.™ It's not only a pipe-dream, it's impossible. Even the most expensive, top-end plugs can't work these sorts of miracles, but Vegas surely comes close to being a miracle worker with bad footage, and can make really good footage look fantastic.

When shooting with most any DV camera, shoot in interlaced mode rather than in frame or 'film mode' as some of the cameras call it. Otherwise you are throwing away pixels that otherwise add to the quality of the original image. Some cameras actually cut the frame rate to 15pfs when shooting in a Progressive mode. Other cams simply shift pixels to create a frame-look.

It's generally better to do de-interlacing at the NLE rather than throw away data that can otherwise improve the picture. Spend some time studying lighting, contrast, and camera angles. Experiment with ND filters and lighting and you'll find your image not only improves substantially, but you'll become a better shooter and editor for it. Hollywood rarely uses a zooming lens, but rather uses a 'prime lens' (a fixed focal length) and a dolly or jib to move into or out of a shot. This also prevents changes iá*ÐìGET http://al1.ilin will shift aperture and shutter speed based on the focal length position of the zoom lens. Try shooting without using a zoom, you'll find a better look, and a more disciplined shooting style will help you plan shots better

In case it's not immediately obvious, to print this to tape requires a camera or deck capable of receiving a 24P stream. If you already have a camera, most of this tutorial is of no value, so we'll set that aside. This technique is most valuable for printing to DVD, and competing with some of the bigger fish in the market when it comes to film look. I showed a video that was created with these techniques at a small film festival in Milwaukee, WI last September. A reasonably well-known director asked me what kind of film I'd shot it on. He was shocked when I told him it was shot on a pair of DV cameras. The video won first place in the children's category. It was shown from DVD. Render the project out using the Vegas 24P NTSC or PAL template, you can render as a DVD Architect NTSC/PAL video stream if you intend on rendering an AC3 file for the audio, or render as a 24P NTSC/PAL file where the audio will be packaged with the video stream.

These small tips should help you to create a look that approaches the film-look fairly easily. It is indeed a process in terms of the steps required; at the same time it provides a great alternative means to a 24p camera and more importantly as the 24p formats and technologies develop, it allows owners of typical DV cams to have the 24p look without buying a new cam. The greatest advantage of this workflow is that up to 25% more media can be stored off on to a DVD when the media is 24p. In order to preview this media on an external monitor, you'll need to insert the pulldown, but Vegas can also do that on the fly. Playback might be a little slower due to the inserted frames in real-time, but it's still capable of being viewed on an external monitor for color correction and other filter tweaking. (the output framerate must be at 29.97/NTSC or 25.00/PAL fps to be viewed on an external monitor)