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Improving Film transferred to video.
Hey all,
So, I have been capturing old family movies shot on super 8mm using a black box that you project the film into one end, and then take a camera and film the footage on another end of the box.
I have been capturing right into FCP via Canon XL-1’s firewire, so its not going to tape first.
I am wondering, are there ways in FCP, Color, or even After Effects to improve the image quality? Such as reducing the flicker from the film, or sharpening the image?
I was actually blown away by the power of the “sharpen” effect in FCP that actually sharpened the image that was a bit out of focus.
Any tips for getting film into video to look it’s best??
thanks!
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9 Replies
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Most of my ideas come in on the recording side… I’m presuming you have pointed your XL1’s lens into the box to record the film projection. Make sure that your shutter speed on the camera is sufficiently high enough and that the iris is letting enough light in that your are getting the nice crisp images you want, this will help reduce any flickering caused by the combination of the camera’s shutter and the additional flicker from the film. However, I figure you have already done that. Something else you can do on the recording side is to set the XL into movie mode/24 frame mode, this induces some frame blending that can help reduce it. To that end, look for some sort of frame blending in final cut.
Lastly, is there any sort of fine adjustment to the speed of your projector wheel that you can use to reduce the flicker?
Sorry, these aren’t mostly final cut solutions, and I’m additionally sorry that these are mostly common sense (and potentially wrong common sense).
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homemoviedepot.com
Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Board of Directors
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group -
LAME!!
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Flicker reduction? Nope, can’t fix that. Not unless you color correct every frame…frame by frame…and take days/weeks/months. Other than that you can employ the tricks that colorists use to make footage look good. But that is an art that can’t really be explained in a text posting. Things like crushing the blacks to make them richer, pumping up the whites to bring out detail, adding saturation if needed, changing the colors if needed.
Not much can be done with the cheap…pardon…inexpensive way this was transferred.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
That is why I suggested a company that does this all the time.
Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Board of Directors
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group -
Thanks guys for the advice!
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Thanks sir!
Yea, I was messing with the shutter and iris on the camera and got better results. I have it at 1/30 at an F-stop of 5.6. So coming in it looks sharp, with out much flicker at all.
The projector does not have any flicker in that department, but it has some speed adjustments, and light enhancers.
My goal is to get it in as best I can, then bring the image “up” using FCP or After Effects to sharpen, de-flicker, etc.
thanks for the help!
alan
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[Alan Callaghan] “Any tips for getting film into video to look it’s best??”
I don’t know how handy you are, but here’s a DIY 8mm film scanner:
https://www.super-8.be/s8_Eindex.htm
Arnie
Post production is not an afterthought!
https://www.arniepix.com/ -
There’s a device that transfers film to video with your camera, and employs an “aerial image” technique which provides a very clean image: https://www.moviestuff.tv/ No ground glass or screen pattern to get in the way.
I have one and, while the concept and image quality are good, the projector in the unit leaves a lot to be desired. The units incorporated into the transfer setup had relatively cheap mechanisms and I’ve had film damaged by it. Definitely not as good as the old Bell & Howell 8mm projectors or Elmo Super 8 projectors.
I intend to rebuild the setup I have, using our family’s Bell & Howell, as well as my Elmo projector. The key to it all is the condenser lens which lets your video camera focus right down to the film gate. A much lower-powered lamp is employed since the image isn’t being projected across a room. And that means film doesn’t get burned.
The creator of the transfer systems also set up a nice frame-by-frame process where the projector will trip a switch that captures individual frames directly into your computer. The transfer speed is somewhat slower with this but the quality is better. When transfers are done in real time there can be quite a few double-exposed frames since the projector’s frame rate and video frame rates don’t match. Films transferred frame-by-frame don’t have that problem. And there’s no flicker.
Dean Sensui — Hawaii Goes Fishing
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