1960s/70s Production Technique

[robemich]

I'm looking for tips on a video production technique.

The look that I'm trying to achieve is footage that was filmed in the late 1960s or early 1970s. I think back to episodes of Star Trek (Original Series) or Batman. Some of the early James Bond films like Dr. No and Goldfinger had the same feel. Some recent examples of this would be one of the last Veronica Belmont episodes of Mahalo Daily where they did a 1970s spoof. The colors seem so rich, but the cameras were so low-tech. How did they do that?

My real question: Is this something that can be achieved with post processing through FCE or is this something way bigger than a novice like myself could hope to achieve?

Thx.

-mike

 

[Sdashiki]

play around with the image settings...hue/tint/saturation/vignetting etc

im sure youll find something

 

[amiga]

I'm looking for tips on a video production technique.

The look that I'm trying to achieve is footage that was filmed in the late 1960s or early 1970s. I think back to episodes of Star Trek (Original Series) or Batman. Some of the early James Bond films like Dr. No and Goldfinger had the same feel. Some recent examples of this would be one of the last Veronica Belmont episodes of Mahalo Daily where they did a 1970s spoof. The colors seem so rich, but the cameras were so low-tech. How did they do that?

My real question: Is this something that can be achieved with post processing through FCE or is this something way bigger than a novice like myself could hope to achieve?

Thx.

-mike

I think you'll find that the answer in most instances is film... probably 16mm. Thats how they've recently been able to remaster Star Trek original in HD... Obviously Bonds films will have been shot on 35mm film. I know what you mean, there is a raw quality to the way they cut the stuff together.

 

[LethalWolfe]

FCE has pretty limited color correction/grading tools so there's not a ton you could do in post. Here is a short thread from the Creative COW about getting a 70's look using Color. Obviously you don't have Color, but basic idea is the same no matter what software you are using. Many shows of that era used a t-o-n of diffusion when they shot women. Star Trek especially went into full on "glamour shot" mode whenever they cut to a single shot of an actress so try applying very soft blurs and stuff to soften up any single shots of woman. Try doubling up a shot (have a copy of the shot on V1 and V2), applying some filters to the clip on V2 then adjusting the opacity to mix V1 and V2 until you can take the edge off the image w/o it being distracting.


Lethal

 

[Alican]

I think you'll find that the answer in most instances is film... probably 16mm. Thats how they've recently been able to remaster Star Trek original in HD... Obviously Bonds films will have been shot on 35mm film. I know what you mean, there is a raw quality to the way they cut the stuff together.

Are you sure the original star trek was filmed on 16mm? Obviously 16mm copies were distributed as a cheaper option for some TV companies. But the BBC were repeating the original star treks off film as late as the mid 1980s, and they were 35mm copies.

 

[huntercr]

I'm looking for tips on a video production technique.

The look that I'm trying to achieve is footage that was filmed in the late 1960s or early 1970s. I think back to episodes of Star Trek (Original Series) or Batman. Some of the early James Bond films like Dr. No and Goldfinger had the same feel. Some recent examples of this would be one of the last Veronica Belmont episodes of Mahalo Daily where they did a 1970s spoof. The colors seem so rich, but the cameras were so low-tech. How did they do that?

My real question: Is this something that can be achieved with post processing through FCE or is this something way bigger than a novice like myself could hope to achieve?

Thx.

-mike

These plugins work with express ( and are free ) and I use 3-strip technicolor to get a brady bunch look for myself. ( despite the examples on the page, and like reference, you can actually get some pretty flexible and subtle color changes out of them )

http://pistolerapost.com/pluginz/

 

[ppc_michael]

The main difference is that most stuff from the 60s/70s was shot on film rather than video. You won't be able to achieve the exact look because of the very different characteristics between video and film, including shutter, frame rate, contrast ratio, film speed, etc.

If you have the latest Final Cut Studio, Color.app is your best bet, although DV (which I assume you're using) is not the best format to use with Color because it's so compressed that you lose a lot of the nuances that Color is designed to play with.

Otherwise the plugins others have provided should get you at least in the ballpark.

(but seriously, check to see if a local university or something has a film camera you can use, it's a great experience no matter what!)