Film grain in digital film.

[mailesan]

Just saw this film - Bleed for this. my initial feeling was it was shot on film since it got the film grain. when I check making it looked like it shot on Alexa. My question how did they manage to get that organic feel like a film in a digital camera. Did they add film grain texture in the post or is it some kind filter or is it lens. Any kind of advice on this is helpful to me. Thank you

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ6ny-fROX8

 

 

 

Edited May 15, 2018 by mailesan

[David Mullen ASC]

I didn't really see any grain in the 1080P HD trailer. Just looks like naturalistic, often soft low-key or underexposed lighting and the Alexa's ability to hold detail in bright areas. A few shots show a bit more halation than normal for the Alexa so maybe some sort of mild UltraCon or low-con, maybe not (the Alexa sensor does sometimes bloom around light sources.). But the organic look you are talking about is mostly just good lighting.

[Ryan Constantino]

If you're actually referring to a physical grain pattern on the image there are a few different ways this could happen. The Alexas sensor has a rather pleasing digital noise pattern, with certain exposures you end up seeing more noise but it looks kinda like film grain, which is cool.

 

Otherwise you can add grain in post production using a variety of products. Such as http://www.gorillagrain.com/ or http://rgrain.com/ However, it should be noted for future reference: If a camera such as a dslr is used for a shoot, and it has a bunch of blocky noise patterns, simply adding more grain on top of that won't make it better. You would need to "denoise" your footage first before adding a fake film grain. Something like https://www.neatvideo.com/ (my personal favorite, it's like magic) will get the job done.

 

Many productions add film grain in post because it gives it a certain look. Even Steve Yedlin ASC mentions in his resolution demos when comparing film to video that you can create a grain "algorithm" that matches film pretty much exactly.

 

We may never precisely know the methodology behind the way the film looks because workflows tend to be secretive, that way as a colorist or DI company you can offer something to your clients others cannot.