How to Make Video footage Look like film

There are a variety of different things that can be done to make video footage look like film, as this is a common goal for film makers, however, most film makers nowadays film on video, and therefore wish to achieve to achieve the look of film, despite not using film.

1. Frame Rate
From the beginning days of film, movies were shot and projected on 24 frames per second. In order to achieve the video looking like film, you should make sure that your camera is set to this mode, unless you need to shoot at a higher frame rate, in order to achieve slow motion, for example. If you do not shoot your film at 24 frames per second, the clear giveaway is the lack of motion blur. Video footage is very clinical and can look incredibly perfect at times. Older video recorders only shot around 30 frames per second and so, it created a realistic look, but didn't look cinematic. Real film exhibits motion blur when an object is moving through the screen, and in order to get the organic motion blur on your footage, you must be sure to get the right frame rate.

Example of a frame rate

Example of a motion blur in Star Wars

2. Camera movement

Camera movement is an incredibly important, and can be considered to be the most useful in achieving a film look. Camera movement can be anything, such as placing the camera on a tripod with no movement, or creating a POV shot by using a handheld camera. In order to make your film feel cinematic, it is important to give focus to the camera movement.

3. Framing
Framing is incredibly important in order to make your film look cinematic. Having good framing in a film will allow for it to tell the story through the framing alone. It is important to get the framing right otherwise it will ruin all the other techniques used above. An example of good framing is a shot from the King's Speech, where the shot allows to show the emptiness of the character is feeling, as they are positioned at the corner of the shot, creating an empty space.