Before the age of digital, film grain occurred naturally in films. It was caused by the silver granules in light-sensitive celluloid film tape that became visible when exposed to light. Audiences got used to seeing it. Unconsciously, they came to expect it as part of the film experience. It’s what we call the cinematic look in filmmaking. Shooting digital took away the film grain and, with it, a sense of movie magic. Digital looks too real, and thus unbelievable. To make digital video cinematic, filmmakers artificially add film grain in post.
Adding Film Grain Is Cheap
You might think “well, rather than adding film grain to digital film, why not just use an analog film camera that shoots on 8,16, or 35mm film?” Big names in Hollywood shared your idea and shelled out a big chunk of their budget to indulge in this artistic quirk. Analog film equipment costs a fortune, even for Hollywood. Shooting digitally and adding film grain is definitely the way to go for weekend warriors and indie filmmakers.
Film Grain Is Easy to Apply
Adding film grain to your film project is the easiest thing you’ll do today. Because it’s such a basic and common part of today’s post-production process, it’s usually no more complicated than sliding a preset filter or film grain preset onto your footage in your NLE of choice. Whether you use Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere, Da Vinci, or even Adobe After Effects, they all have film grain in their FX lists.
You will usually have the option to further tweak the effect until you achieve the desired look. A fine grain usually takes down the contrast and makes for a softer, dreamier image, typical of the 80s. A coarse grain will create a raw, olden days look you’d find in world war footage, for instance.
You can also create film grain in-camera, by bumping up your ISO, which introduces noise into your footage. Of course, you’ll have less control over the effect, and you won’t be able to remove it or change it too much in post.
Film Grain Adds Value to Your Movie
As said before, film grain recreates the look and feel of celluloid-based film which movie-loving folks who were born before the digital area came to expect from Hollywood movie productions. To anyone else, it’s a stylistic choice a film director makes to elicit certain emotions from the audience. It makes the footage look more raw.
Film genre or topic can also influence a filmmaker’s decision to add film grain to his creation. Historic movies or dramas that want to elicit a sense of ‘realness’ in their viewers will do well with adding some grain.
You can also introduce film grain into one particular scene for added impact, rather than your entire film project. Grain can add nostalgia to your flash back scenes or grittiness to your fight scenes. Many digitally filmed Hollywood productions use film grain this way, as a storytelling tool used for impact in selected scenes, rather than a stylistic choice for the whole movie.