Filmizing
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Filmizing (a.k.a. Filmlook) is a generic and informal term referring to a process which makes video productions appear as if they were shot on film. This process is usually electronic, although filmizing can sometimes occur as an un-intentional by-product of some optical techniques such as telerecording.
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[edit] Differences between video and film
- Frame rate: 24 frames per second for film, 50 or 60 fields per second for SDTV video
- Shutter angle: Shorter (90° - 210°) for film, often ~350°, for video
- Exposure range: film captures a wide range of light intensities - about 11 F-stops, while video often captures only about 6
- Depth of field: Shallow for film (due to higher format / sensor size), nearly everything in focus for video
- Photo-chemical color-timing/grading: only possible with film; white balance adjustment for video performs a similar function.
- Noise type: film grain noise generally differs both statistically and visually from sensor noise
[edit] Frame rate
50Hz interlaced video (usually used with most forms of PAL and SECAM) can be relatively easily processed to give 25 progressive frames per second, which is the framerate that the PAL/SECAM telecine process also uses. Every two video fields can be "blended" together, every other field can be decimated and the remaining fields can be shown for double the length (this noticeably reduces vertical resolution), or a motion estimation process can be applied to achieve one frame out of every two fields. This technique is sometimes called Field-removed video or FRV. Some modern PAL video cameras do offer the ability to produce 25 frame-per-second progressive video, negating the requirement of post-processing the video to get a temporal similarity to film.
On the other hand, it is much more complicated to convert 60 Hz interlaced video (used with NTSC and PAL-M) to a framerate resembling that of film. Doing the same as PAL/SECAM filmizing will yield 30 frame-per-second video, which is significantly faster than film. Two out of every five fields could be dropped (and 3:2 Pulldown can be applied to the remaining fields), but any motion after this process will look very uneven. Sophisticated computer motion estimation and field blending is usually used to convert NTSC video to 24 frames-per-second - something which could not have been done until recently, and still does not yield as realistic results as PAL filmizing conversion.
Many computer editing programs can de-interlace video to give it more of a film look. Interlacing results in the horizontal scan lines that have come to define the "video" look. An interlaced frame is actually the combination of 2 fields -- an upper and a lower. By de-interlacing, the frame resembles that of a film frame. The catch is that most editing programs achieve de-interlacing by deleting one of the fields.[citation needed] The result gives half the vertical resolution of the original frame, and sometimes adds a jagged effect to the picture.
[edit] Shutter angle
For each frame, video cameras normally expose their sensor as long as they can, while film cameras only expose the negative up to half this time, so that they can transport the negative in the remaining time. Many video cameras now allow adjusting the shutter timing manually, though, so this is no longer a big concern.
[edit] Exposure range
Video camera manufacturers have come out with cameras that reach up to 11 stops (from regularly 6). Since a low exposure range means lost information that cannot be recovered in postproduction, using a fitting camera is the right solution here.
[edit] Depth of field
There are several ways to achieve the shallow depth of field often associated with 35 mm film productions:
- Manually rotoscope each depth layer in postproduction and apply selective blur to them. Very laborious and expensive. Done rarely
- During production, use regular 35 mm lenses and a special adapter, which allows these lenses to be used on video cameras. This adapter projects the image of the 35 mm lens onto a ground glass, which is in turn filmed by the camera itself. See depth-of-field adapter.
[edit] Grading
The footage may also be graded to have more of a "filmic look". In America, this process is often referred to as color timing, Magic Bullet, Cine Look, or the trademarked process called FilmLook.
[edit] Filmized productions
Many modern TV productions outside North America use the filmizing process, as television shows elsewhere (unlike their American counterparts) frequently are not given a budget significant enough to allow filming, which costs significantly more than modern video recordings. Also, it is easier to effectively 'filmize' most PAL/SECAM video (used in most countries outside North America and Japan) than it is to do the same with NTSC recordings[citation needed]. Productions that have been filmized include:
- Red Dwarf VII
- Red Dwarf Remastered
- The League of Gentlemen
- Doctor Who (2005 onwards)
- Grange Hill
- The Office
- MTV Video Music Awards (2002-2006 editions)
- Spaced
- Night and Day
- Home and Away
- Arrested Development
- Undressed
- Hall of Mirrors
- Hollyoaks
- Brookside
- Coast
- Drake & Josh (earlier episodes credited "FilmLook")
- Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Music Video)
- Holby City & Casualty (TV series) (s22)
[edit] Limitations
Footage that has been shot with the knowledge that it will be subsequently electronically filmized is usually shot in a very different way, with film-style lighting and framing. Regardless, there have been several attempts to process ordinary videotape to look like film, usually with little success. Notable examples include Red Dwarf Remastered - digitally remastered versions of the first three series of Red Dwarf. As well as being filmized, the episodes had been cropped to widescreen and had all their special effects remade.
BBC hospital drama-soap Casualty also flirted briefly with the filmizing process in the mid-1990s, but it was quickly dropped after viewer complaints that the show "looked wrong". The same happened with Emmerdale where it was used for 7 episodes in October 2002 before being quietly dropped.
Ironically, the fantasy series Neverwhere was a video-based production which suffered as a result of having been shot and lit with filmization in mind. The decision to filmize was later reversed, resulting in a negative response to the film-style lighting which came across poorly on the unprocessed video footage.
Filmizing success stories include The League of Gentlemen, Spaced and The Office, all of which can fool most people into believing they were shot on film. The Fox show Arrested Development used an elaborate post-production process to adjust colors and brightness levels to match those of film stock.
The 1970s BBC TV show Porridge provides a stark example of the visual differences between film and videotape. The show employed videotape for scenes inside Fletch's cell, whereas film was used for scenes outside of the cell. The difference in lighting style and frame rate is very noticeable [1]. Many British television series from the 1960s through the 1980s used videotape for interior scenes and film for exterior shots.
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