editing matching a look

gdgross

gdgross

Hi all, I am working on a simple music video for my band. It's a bunch of old TVs stacked up, and clips of the individual band members playing on the various screens. One of the screens is an oscilloscope and the singer isn't present in the vid, but the oscilloscope trace of her voice is.

Here's the idea:

My question is simple, but I imagine it might have a complicated answer: how can I make the images on the TV screens look more like they belong there, as if they were actually played back for real, and recorded on the screens? Currently, to my eyes, they look more like they are pasted on, for lack of a better description. (Which the are, of course, haha!)

Frame rate? Lighting? some kind of screen curvature emulation? take the sharpness/resolution of the clips down somehow? (would have to think how to do that... in audio and electronics, we call it decimation... lol)

Any thoughts? Thanks!
Geoff

PS - i'm a musician pretending I know about video things, so speak to me like a newb!
 
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We did something (somewhat) similar in my movie Detours (shameless plug: watch it on Tubi or Amazon Freevee ) and simply recorded it, then played it through the TV. Granted it was only one scene but it worked fine.

Attached is a screen grab of one scene, which may (or may not) be similar to what you're aiming for.

Detours video on tv.png
 
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mlesemann said:
We did something (somewhat) similar in my movie Detours (shameless plug: watch it on Tubi or Amazon Freevee ) and simply recorded it, then played it through the TV. Granted it was only one scene but it worked fine.

Attached is a screen grab of one scene, which may (or may not) be similar to what you're aiming for.

Detours video on tv.png
Click to expand...
Thanks I'll see if I can check it out - that pic looks great 🙃

I actually tied to record the oscilloscope trace IRL, with the other TVs stacked up like that, but it's old display wasn't super bright, so it ended up being easier to record it separately in a dark room where I could bump up my ISO setting without blowing out the rest of the picture, and then apply it on top of the other clip, same as the TV clips.

It's too hard to get all the timing right though with the multiple screens, I think. I'd need some kind of multiple output video controller to syn them all up. (Not to mention that the big TV doesnt' work anyway, I found it for $20 on craigslist and thought it looked cool! lol
 
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indietalk said:
Use the natural edges of the screen slightly so it blends with the TV casing better. Don't go all the way to the edge. Talking a very little amount here.
Click to expand...
I would add to this that you should feather or blend the edges with the edges of the actual screen a little bit. It goes by a few names but most software refers to it as feathering. Maybe just 10 or 20 pixels depending on your resolution.

In addition to this I would add that there are many commonly available effects for this exact purpose many of which are built into editing software programs free of charge. Typically they have a number of controls that you can use to refine the exact look that you want.

Common names for these effects which typically drag and drop onto a footage layer would be things like Old TV, VHS tape, scan lines, etcetera.

I know for example that da Vinci resolve has a canned vintage television effect included that you can dial to taste in the settings on the upper right inspector pane once you have applied it to a footage clip from the master effects panel which is opened with a tab on the left hand side of the screen.

That should get you what you want. If you have any further questions I'll try to help.
 
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You could also add some effects, like a VHS or similar effect to one, and maybe a super-8 effect to another, etc. But you'll still want them clear and sharp for the most part so maybe use effects but still with high res or only use a certain percentage of effect.
 
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Thanks all


I've feathered the edges of the masks, and messed with another setting in the mask called "falloff," which seems related. Have gotten it about as good as I'm able; although I might still go in an super fine tune the edge points of the masks to improve it further. It generally seems like an improvement to me, as far as looking like the images are from the screens. I've also added some glitch effects, as you can see, from pixel film studios.

Here's what I think still needs fixing, maybe in order of priority:
1. The resolution/noise of most of the clips looks too "good" for the background clip. they are all 1080p, and now decimated to 30fps (except for the oscilloscope trace), so it looks a little less hi def. I think the 30 is right for the "TV" look. Is there a way, plugin, or other method to "defocus" the individual clips slightly?
2. The exposure and lighting on some of the clips make them look like they were pasted onto the background. One example of this is the drummer when they first come in, around 0:22. I think if I play with the exposure and saturation settings on this I might be able to get it looking less like it's two very different clips pasted together. Which of course, it is, and I'm ok with some of that look, but I'd like to get it as good as I can.

Any thoughts? Thanks!
 
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