Much of making a video look like film involves recreating the unintended artifacts of old technologies (hand cranked cameras, for example) and the ravages of time and lazy projectionists.

There’s also a very positive side to the look of film. For example, film responds to light in a non-linear way that compresses the brightest and darkest parts of the image with appealing results. Different film stocks accentuate different colors.

Often, people go to great lengths to achieve a particular “film look” which they use throughout a movie or even a TV series.  They set a unique look that might be tied to mood, place, or a time period. 

You can design your own look using the appropriately titled “Film Look” plug in.

It doesn’t take much for you to create a wide range of aesthetically interesting looks. The most dramatic changes occur with adjustments to the Color, Saturation, and Film Gamma controls.

So, let’s start with this parking lot scene: 

Drop the “NewBlue Film Look” plug in from the Film Effects collection on it. Make sure to choose the “Reset to None” preset so no effect takes place yet.

We’ll start by accentuating the color. Click on the Tint color button to open the Color Chooser.  

Choose an orange color to add “warmth” to the scene.

Close the dialog. Notice that the color hasn’t done anything yet. Dial up the Tint knob to add the orange into the image.  

Notice that the image takes on a subtle orange warmth.

Now, try the reverse. Drag the Tint to the left to subtract out the Orange.  

With the orange dialed down, the whole scene takes on a colder, blueish tint.

Not bad. Let’s leave it this way.

Next stop: Saturation.

The Saturation knob increases or decreases the amount of color in the picture. When you turn Saturation up, the colors in the image become vivid and strong. Turn to the left to reduce the amount of color; turn all the way down to pure black and white.  

Typically, for film looks, the saturation should be turned down. However, there’s nothing wrong with dialing up the saturation if it creates the look you want!

For our example we turn it down half way. Note that the colors become darker and subtler. 

Now we’ve got our color, but it doesn’t yet look like film. It still looks flat like video. It’s time for the Film Gamma control. 

Turn Film Gamma to the right and watch how it changes. As the darks darken and the lights lighten, the image really starts to pop out. 

Depending on the overall light intensity of the scene, you might need to adjust the Brightness up or down as the Film Gamma increases.

Finally, for a little extra fun, add a little Diffusion to the scene. Diffusion adds a little glow around the lighter elements in the picture. 

Not bad!

Now, just for fun, go back to Saturation and turn it positive to create the perfect "car dream" sequence.

After making any final adjustments to Contrast and Brightness, save this as a preset. Call it “Glowing Warm Saturated Film” for lack of a better name.

Note:  The easiest way to use this preset is to drop it onto an entire video sequence. Do this in Vegas by inserting the effect as a Track FX or Video Output FX.