Film Burn
Thursday, November 16, 2006 at 1:04PM OK, so you've bought your 35mm lens adaptor for your DV camera and you've shot your requisite things-coming-in-and-out-of-focus backyard test footage. You've even got it all cut together to some nice mopey guitar music. But something's missing.
When you apply the preset you'll see several control sliders. Here's what they do:
Overall Flicker Amount controls a general exposure flicker that runs through the whole clip. Set it to zero for no flicker.
Overall Flicker Speed (fps) controls the flickers-per-second. Larger number = faster flicker.
Cut Flicker Speed (fps) controls the speed of the flicker effect that happens at the head and tail of the clip.
Cut Flicker Amount controls the intensity of the flicker effect that happens at the head and tail of the clip.
Max Burn (stops) controls the exposure, in f-stops, of the burn effect.
Tail Burn Max Time (frames) controls the length of the burn effect at the tail. Note that the length is randomized, so this value represents the longest burn you'd ever want to see, measured in frames.
Head Burn Max Time (frames) is the same thing, but for the head of the clip. Set it to 0 for no head burn.
Burn Tint allows you to select a color for the burn effect.
The last effect is the Exposure effect that makes it all happen, and you should not touch any settings here.
The fun thing about this preset is, if you have your edit assembled in AE, you can simply select all the layers and apply it. Easy!
This effect works really well with Magic Bullet. Just apply Look Suite to an Adjustment Layer over top of all your trimmed layers, and select the preset of your choice!
Download filmBurn.ffx (4kb ZIP file)
And remember, you can subscribe to ProLost TV in iTunes.
Music: Life From Afar by Oswald.
Reader Comments (23)
very glad you posted the iTunes link, was not aware you were making materials available that way too- absolutely loving the blog so far!
Only thing the preset needs is some way of speeding up the footage near the end, like when you turn off a 35mm camera. Dig the preset though.
Hi shervin, thanks for the comment! Believe it or not, that exact effect is something I included in my book. There's a project on the DVD that allows you to simulate hand-cranked footage, and you can animate the camera's crank speed manually to create that speed-up effect.
What a coincidence, as soon as I was reading this my brother sent me txt message saying he finally got his hvx200+M2 setup
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nuzz/299742435/
I'll tell him about this preset. BTW, I appied/interviewed with you guys last week. Keeping fingers crossed :) Great blog.
Stu,
How did that filter make Marc Sadeghi look so dreamy-like...
Which 35mm adapter did you get? It's looking great.
Did anyone from the O go check out the Red screening the other day in LA??
thoughts?
Yes, we had homies there. 4K is definiely 10% better than 2K. And that footage of Marc was shot with an unmodded DVX100a!
Hey Stu,
Thanks for that one. It'll come in handy. Here's a link to my latest video that has been enhanced greatly through your posts regarding colour profliles & linear light in AE7. Let's here it for 32bit linear compositing. There's no way I could have done the skies at sunset the way i did (thats at the end). Switch off linear or 32bit and it was very dull.
http://www.dalemccready.com/movies/SweetheartWeb.mov
Noob question: I've added the .ffx file to my AE presets folder. Where does it show up in the Effects menu? I can't find it...
Hi Noob,
Open your Effects & Presets palette and search for it there, or the presets stuff is under the Animation menu.
Hi,
I get an error message when applying the preset, it says:
class "effect" has no attribute or method with the name "color", expression deactivated.
I´m on the German Version of AFX 7, could this be the origin for the error ?
Priyesh
Hi Priyesh,
Yes, the preset does not have international matchnames in its expressions. I'll try to post a new version soon so you and other users of non-English AE can try it out.
I wish there was a way for the pickwhip to generate matchname syntax!
Hi Stu,
thanks for the response ( and the presets, I´ve tried rebel CC, too, very cool, works perfect ! ) - very interesting blog, by the way.
Priyesh Puthan Valiyandi
Hi stu,
Great preset,I hope u can do something very soon 4 the French people because he doesn't work on mine (same problem as Priyesh)
Long life 2 u
Eric
not currently an owner of your book, so perhaps you touch on it there. but t the montereyweb.mov movie is simply stunning ... am I correct in assuming you shot this in DV?! I see you mention 35mm adaptors etc. Any links to explanations of them (and benefits etc)? How have you graded these shots/sequences their look fantastic. great blog by the way I'm amazed I only just got put on to it.
These comments have been invaluable to me as is this whole site. I thank you for your comment.
Hey Stu,
I too LOOOOVED the ftg clip. I would love to know what "35mm adapter" you used. I have a HDR-HC1 HDV cam that takes fabulous images & would love to try this adapter. Please post whatever info you can on it...thanks.
Big fan of your work & The Orphanage in general...thanks for taking the time. What's the name of your book, BTW? Is it packin' a DVD loaded with Stu goodies?!?!
Joey
is this file compatible to download for adobe after effects CS3? When I tried to download it there was an error saying it was an unsupported filetype
Hi there!! Great preset, very usefull. I wonder if there´s a way to use it as a transition in Adobe Premiere. Thanks for now.
Great plugin. Even though it is dated, still looks pretty good and very easy to use.
Like the commenter above, i also wanted to throw it in premiere, but I dont think you can somehow convert it to transition can you?
btw love your work and the blog, keep it up.
It could work in Premiere, someday, if only Adobe would do this:
http://prolost.blogspot.com/2008/10/what-should-adobe-do-with-premiere-pro.html
Hey Stu,
Love your work man! I'm only 13 years old and I'm still in the amatuer section of filming and editting but your tips and blogs help me out a lot! I still have one question though... When i download the preset, it says that the file is not supported or something, i have Adobe After Effects CS4. Can you tell me what's the problem?
Hey, Stu!
I know it's been awhile since you last posted on this topic. But, I would love to mention that your preset is most excellent. Works perfectly well with AE CS3 with no problems, to my knowledge. I was also wondering what the title was for the song you used for the video?
Yes, the mopey acoustic guitar. :) Get back to me when you have the time! Thanks.
Great information and preset, Stu. I just posted a few film burn clips that are free to download on my blog. They would look GREAT with your preset attached to the end of the clip.
http://pierceproductions.org/blog/film-burn-effect
Keep up the good work, my friend.