In this tutorial, I’m going to share my secret cinematic weapons that give your footage character, without costing you a ton of time.
Gritty footage is one of my favorite stylistic features in a movie. Having elements like film grain, film burns, light leaks, and 8mm projector assets available make me feel like a kid in a candy store! Fortunately for me, the team at Shutterstock Elements has recently released the latest, greatest SPECTRUM pack — loaded with all of my favorite cinematic goodies.
Test Drive
Before we begin, you’ll need to download the Spectrum Pack from Shutterstock Elements.
Once you have this downloaded, open it in your NLE of choice and take each effect for a test drive. The most important step to elevating any downloaded assets from the internet is to learn what’s available in the product. I recommend you take ten to fifteen minutes to sift through all of the assets and effects provided in Spectrum, so you can get a better idea of what effects you dig.
Play with Effects
Next, import your asset of choice and layer it above your shot. After layering in your shot, go into Effect settings and change the blend mode into Screen.
You can then adjust the film effect’s intensity by adjusting the opacity and playing around with different blend modes.
Blend
If you’re struggling with the duration of the effect, or perhaps it doesn’t do the trick the whole way through, you can apply another film effect on top or after the current clip. Then, to blend it, create a keyframe animation and adjust the opacity from zero to one-hundred percent.
Finally, to provide a little extra punch, experiment with this effect on top: