Real old school film effects

[Andreas Wideroe]

Hi all,
I'm going to do some work on a music video for a Norwegian band next month and we're going to do a lot of effects directly onto the film (16mm). First we'll do a fine scan of all the material, then we're going to scratch, step on it and draw directly onto the film.

What I need from you are ideas of other tricks and things that we can do with the film. It's suppose to be rough and the effects should look like the 80s.

My list is this:

- Scratch
- Draw
- Dust and hair

[JoshuaRyan]

You can do effects like they used to do back then by drawing stuff (titles, animations) on glass and putting that between your subject and camera. Kinda like the opening credits in the movie se7en (they used a bunch of film like tricks there) or like this music video i JUST saw http://www.mssvision.com/VOD/037.asp#DBHH its the jack stafford one. Its on the same site as someone elses music video from this forum.

[BK]

You could also bleach or dye it I guess.

Bill

[S8 Booster]

Just throwing in an idea:

If you got more of that Quarz film stock you may film "nothing" (A grey? back ground) to get natural flicker (I think Kahl sells some of this damaged stock?) and later superimose it over the real film.

While filming with your Beauleu you can fiddle the aperture manually some stops up & down to add some uneven exposure. Overxposure mainly?

After you get the film processed you may run it through a really dirty projector to add some damage to the film.

Once upon a time a lot of this could be done in AP 4.0 for the MAC in post though.

My dos Riksdaler.

R

[sunrise]

Watch Garbage's "Stupid Girl" video. It's bath tub processed, scratched, dyed and bleached. Alternately watch Nine Inchs Nails "Closer" or other videoes by Mark Romanek for David Bowie and Johnny Cash. The place to go is www.markromanek.com.

michael

[soundboy]

Hi all,
I'm going to do some work on a music video for a Norwegian band next month and we're going to do a lot of effects directly onto the film (16mm). First we'll do a fine scan of all the material, then we're going to scratch, step on it and draw directly onto the film.

What I need from you are ideas of other tricks and things that we can do with the film. It's suppose to be rough and the effects should look like the 80s.

My list is this:

- Scratch
- Draw
- Dust and hair

When filming you could also try fogging up the lens with some vaseline.
Are you going to use your K-3 Awand?

I'll be shooting a film clip soon with my k-3 and a few old Tri-X 100 foot spools I can get very cheaply.

[espo]

The music video for the Smiths' The Queen is Dead by Derek Jarman has a superb sequence following a boy with a spraycan, filmed at about 9 f.p.s. with a handheld camera. It is really fast and jerky and fits the music beautifully. Some of his other Smiths' videos have really cheesy crossfades of gladioli and Morrissey's crooning face, with lots of lurid backgrounds, quite surrealist but in very bright colours. I think that kind of camp stuff is very 80's.

That glass painting thing was done really cleverly by Spike Jonze in one of his music videos, the band are walking backwards but the film is projected backwards as well and it looks like really awkward forward walking and at the end one of them 'un-breaks' a piece of glass between them and the camera with a hammer which they proceed to 'un-spraypaint'. It's brilliant and on that DVD of his videos that came out last year or so.

ed

[Actor]

After the film has been processed submerge the reel in cold water for a few days. Then take it out of the water and let it start to dry. As soon as the emulsion starts to feel tacky (a slight adhesive effect) pull it off the reel and hang it out to dry. Once dry wind it back onto the reel. This process sometimes results in bits of the emulsion being pulled off the film.

[Andreas Wideroe]

Just throwing in an idea:

If you got more of that Quarz film stock you may film "nothing" (A grey? back ground) to get natural flicker (I think Kahl sells some of this damaged stock?) and later superimose it over the real film.

While filming with your Beauleu you can fiddle the aperture manually some stops up & down to add some uneven exposure. Overxposure mainly?

After you get the film processed you may run it through a really dirty projector to add some damage to the film.

Once upon a time a lot of this could be done in AP 4.0 for the MAC in post though.

My dos Riksdaler.

R

Thanks Booster, but it's gonna be a 16mm video and I'm not shooting it. Just helping out with telecine and effects.

Cheers!

[JoshuaRyan]

Yah many NLE programs have these effects so you never actually mess up the film.

[Andreas Wideroe]

The thing is that we WANT to mess up the film.

We want to do whatever we can do to it to create weird, funny and strange effects. I have noted the suggested ones and I hope to get some more.

[sunrise]

Do you remember the bucket processing I did a year ago?

Could be great with colours that would shift because of messing with processing times. Could also look good in 16mm.

How about finding some expired film...

michael