grain reduction in post

[Alina Postula]

I made a poor filmstock choice when shooting a short film. I used 500T realizing that it would be grainy but I didn't realize HOW grainy it would be. The worst part is that it's colored noise in the transfer. I was wondering if there is a) a way to minimize the grain ( or at least the perception of it) and B) if there is a way to make it not so colored (like noise ninja for video). Thank you for any help you can provide...

Edited January 28, 2010 by Alina Postula

[Adrian Sierkowski]

Depends on how you're getting it posted. Most telecine's/DI facilities have grain reduction. Arri's new Relativity software is widely applauded.

Also, you said you shot 500T, what stock? 35mm or 16mm or 8mm? Was it new? What color is the grain? What format are you going out to and how was your exposure?

Contrast in the scene, I find, also distracts the eye from grain, so any location/lighting setup which is low in contrast (e.g. white walls) will cause grain, at least for me, to pop out.

Some screen grabs of the footage might also help flesh out other possibilities.

[John Sprung]

Arri's new Relativity software is widely applauded.

 

Yes, the results are excellent. But it's a hand-tweaked shot by shot process, like color timing. So, expect it to be pricey. It's been out for about six months now.

 

 

 

 

-- J.S.

[Paul Korver]

We just bought a brand new, fully loaded DVNR 2K to service our new Spirit HD/2K suite at Cinelicious. The new AGR4 ME algorithms are amazing for real-time grain reduction. What resolution was your transfer done at? And on what machine? We could either retransfer the film on the Spirit or just work with quicktime files... although you'd get best results with a retransfer going back to the neg.

 

-Paul