Hi, I’m Maik from Germany and I’m producing 90s rave music with that old hardware from that era.
I started wondering about the music videos from that era and how they were made. I know this topic isn't here for the first time, but my questions are more special I think. Googled and google and found out: most of that music videos were captured on analog film and / or maybe Betacam SP.
I decided to use Betacam SP format because the whole set (Camera, Recorder, Tapes) was cheap.
I got 2x Sony Betacam SP BVW-300AP and a Sony Digital Betacam Recorder DVW-A500P, playing back through SDI into my Blackmagic Card. There would not be a big loss in that workflow.
Now I started analyzing things.
What I want to do:
This video is the role model:
The loveparade documentary in 1995. It was a television broadcast production and I think this should be BetaSP because this was the standard broadcast format at that time. The characteristics are mainly the same, the camera movement fits to this monster on a shoulder, the zoom behaviour, the slo-mo parts are typical dynamic tracking / half speed and last but not least:
I think nobody ran with analog 16 or 35mm cameras to this event.
Starting with the first shot:
We see those leaves in the shadow, covered in blue. Everything that should be black in this video is simply blue. (missing UV filter?)
In the background over the sea obviously a lot of fog appears, but I think there was no fog?
next shots:
Again very foggy, flat looking, the black things are blue.
Third Shot:
The water is a mess. I simply don’t know how to describe it but I think everybody knows what I mean.
Here we have a shot of castle Bellevue. Compared with “Dune – Hardcore Vibes” (1995) Intro shot.
I think there are some equalities between the videos from Loveparade and Dune.
The flat-looking structure of the building is nearby the same, but the color is very different.
Next Shot from Dune:
The whole video is covered in a more blue look, black parts are blue, even the green leaves and trees in the background are more blue than green and very washed out. I know there was some post production done, but the base material won't look that different I think. The whole video could not have been much different.
Now I went with my camera into the forest at a normal sunny day, used filter 5600K and I got this:
But, no shiny fog effect at all. At least, a very good picture with a camera of that age.
Another shot from the Loveparade video:
I think this is mostly destroyed by VHS and Youtube, but we have a very colorful shot with blue tint but no (strong) fog effect.
Then this shot:
Is it even possible to have more fog effect in some video? So at a high range, there appears some fog at sunny days?
Switching to Haddaway – What is love (diffused, foggy, old 90s look)
Magic Affair – Omen 3 (same)
Again: The black parts in this video are blueish.
Next shot was at a local club, filmed with my Betacam. The auditorium was covered in red and blue, the stage in red. The black parts should now have a blue tint. Used Filter 1: 3200K
Not as much as blue as I wanted, but I tried the 3200K filter outdoor at a cloudy day:
This is no cool effect, this is simply bad white balance. Try again.
But in this video I found the first similarity to the Loveparade Video: Water (besides the bad white balance)
Back to the sunny day at the forest with the 5600K filter I tried to catch up this foggy look.
But if I can only achieve this through high distance, how was this shot made?
The foreground is already foggy. The hole shot is foggy.
And I think this wasn’t as much as bright as in a forest on a sunny day and I don’t think they used a fog maschine either.
My question is simply: Is there any possibility to influence these effects? And if so, how?