FMP - Techniques and processes - De-interlace Footage

I was forwarded this post by Faadil after I expressed concerns about using interlaced footag, I wanted the video to have an authentic film look to it, he suggested the technique could be just what I need to achieve this.

Firstly when your shooting, try to get hold of a film lens adapter system which fits on the end of the camera. I use a Letus Extreme, which is cheap and does the job well, it allows you to put on Manual SLR lens' from old school cameras, so immediately you get a more anamorphic view, i think you can hire them for around 40 pounds a day - well worth it.

Once you've finished your film, the first thing you want to do before compressing and burning to dvd or export to the net is to de-interlace the image. So in Final cut;

1. put your in and out points on your timeline sequence using the 'i - o' keyboard shortcuts - this selects the bit of the clip you want to export.
2. once highlighted, go to 'file' - 'export' - 'quicktime movie' - give it a name, make sure the box entitled 'make movie self contained' is left un-ticked, give it a destination and click ok.
3. once your film has finished exporting, make a new sequence in final cut.
4. reimport the clip into the sequence, twice, make sure both clips are in sync.
5. delete one of the audio tracks from one of the clips you imported.
6. so you should be looking at two identical video clips, one on top of each other in video channel 1 and 2, while audio just fills audio track 1 and 2.
7. in the effects window click on the 'video filters' tab, then 'video' tab, then click and drag the 'de-interlace' effect onto both video clips.
8. double click the top clip and in the viewer window select 'filter' tab, make sure field dominance on the top clip is set to 'upper' (i think that should be default).
9. double click the bottom clip and in the viewer window select 'filter' tab, and set the field dominance to 'lower'.
10. highlight your film in the timeline sequence using the 'i - o' keyboard shortcuts and export anyway you like.

Now your clips are de-interlaced but will need rendering, depending on the project this may take some time.

Now i havnt mentioned colour correction. before you de-interlace i always drag on the 'colour corrector 3 - way' video filter onto each clip and fiddle around with the settings untill the blacks are really crushed, while increasing the yellow tint in the image - this is really essential to do, but down to personal taste so just practice with it.

The final stage is to use adobe after effects. There's constantly new 'film look' filters coming out on the market, most you can download for free but they require researching online, have you used the 'creative cow' forum? most of the filters are simply variations on 'de-interlacing' and 'flicker control'. I won't go into the nitty gritty of using after effects but try searching for the 'magic bullet' effect on google, this should open the door to other such 'after effects' film filters.