Replicating "Out of Sync Shutter" but on digital cameras

[Sam David Zhang]

Hey all,

 

Talking to a director about achieving an effect similar to what was done in Saving Private Ryan where the film camera's pull down claw is mistimed with the exposures to get vertical streaks of light.

 

Similar to this image from the movie Limey (off of Shotdeck).

 

Don't know if this is achievable with digital cameras. Is there a way to emulate this? Or would this have to be a purely VFX thing done in post?

 

Thank you!

 

[Robin Phillips]

the light streaks are made by the physical pull down of the film during exposure, so even a rotary shutter digital camera like the Alexa Studio can't do this. replicating this is going to be a post effect. I havent looked for one, but its entirely possible if not likely someone has made this as a plugin. Your other option is to just shoot film for the relevant shots, say with a 435, and find a vendor with the timing box that lets you do this offset, but unless you shoot short ends its gonna be pricy. 

[Phil Rhodes]

The only digital camera I have ever seen that was even theoretically capable of this was the Viper. It had a mechanical shutter and frame transfer CCDs, so for a brief moment after power-up, before the shutter mechanism was properly synchronised, it would produce this effect. There was never, as far as I'm aware, a firmware option to do it intentionally.

Modern cameras use entirely different sensor technology, so this will be entirely a post effect.

[David Mullen ASC]

There are plug-ins now to create that effect in post:

https://store.pixelfilmstudios.com/product/progleam/

[Sam David Zhang]

Ah that's what I figured. Thanks, my director and I'll give a talking to the post side of things to test it out.

Not really achievable by other means practically right? I'm spit-balling here, but anyone have experience doing something like vaseline smeared in one direction to get a similar effect?

Sounds a bit messy in terms of image quality.

[David Mullen ASC]

Sure, or even sharper would be a streak filter like the ones used for fake anamorphic flares, just turned 90 degrees. Trouble is that a shutter timing error usually just starts at the highlight and either goes up or down, not across the highlight.

I noticed that "West Side Story" (1961) had some shutter timing issues now & then with their 65mm camera.

 

[Sam David Zhang]

On 8/1/2023 at 8:02 PM, David Mullen ASC said:

There are plug-ins now to create that effect in post:

https://store.pixelfilmstudios.com/product/progleam/

 

9 hours ago, David Mullen ASC said:

Sure, or even sharper would be a streak filter like the ones used for fake anamorphic flares, just turned 90 degrees. Trouble is that a shutter timing error usually just starts at the highlight and either goes up or down, not across the highlight.

I noticed that "West Side Story" (1961) had some shutter timing issues now & then with their 65mm camera.

 

Thank you for the link. I checked out the sample photos of this plugin. A bit hard to gauge just how effective it is at isolating the highlight regions that would display the streaks best.

My classmate/editor just took a swing at taking a stock photo and applying an effect. Mask layer that isolates the brighter highlight regions that directional blur works on, and a finished product. It kind of runs into the same issue as what you mentioned with streak filters. The line runs ACROSS the highlights rather than a single direction up/down. I think I'll try to finesse in after effects to see if there's a way to reposition the anchor point of the streak layer upwards to offset the bidirectional nature of "directional blur" in Adobe....

Can't scratch my brain and think of another way to achieve this using the stock FX in Adobe suite. Might have to go into expressions and the formulas for after effects...

[Dan Finlayson]

This wouldn't be very cost effective but I wonder if Fotokem could pull this off using a film intermediate process with an optical printer?  This still wouldn't be in camera but I imagine it could look pretty good.  I don't know much about the hardware limitations here

[Adam Froehlich]

@Sam David Zhang In AE you can use CC Vector Blur. Set the type to Directional Fading, and set the vector map source as any plain solid, and you can control the direction with Angle Offset, in conjunction with your luma matte.

Edited August 3, 2023 by Adam Froehlich