The image of the main footage is particular, the one with the singer and musicians. I am well aware of why it looks like shit, you don’t need to mention why. What I am interested in is how one would qualify the graphical effects of the video, particularly on the face of the accordion player which can be contemplated in a 10 hour loop here: - YouTube
Again, no need to tell me that it was shot with very bad equipment by messed up moronic amateurs. No need to talk about the inset images and the cut-in footage of the war, I am only interested in the music video part.
I am quite struck, like many others, by how creepy the accordion player looks. I would like to understand why, graphically, he has the impact he does.
If someone wanted to take ordinary footage and transform it into something similar, what would they have to do? If someone wanted to do the polar opposite of that style, what would they have to do?
To my eyes, it looks like part of what creates the effect is a mix of washed out colors, high contrast (which creates very stark light gradients on his face, most of all the crease in his brow) and low resolution.
I am not really sure what you are getting at, but the opposite of posterization would be gradientation. If you are looking for a filter, it would be called something like “Add Gradients” or “Remove Banding”.
There are also massive compression artifacts in this video. That suggests that the effect you are asking about is a result of overprocessing/poor quality rather than a deliberate artistic effect.
I’m not the world’s expert in video effects, but I have looked at lots and lots of video of differing qualities, and spent lots of time with colorists and online editors. I agree that the look of the video is caused by degradation of a poor original image rather than by a deliberately applied effect.
To give you context, I am asking because I am dicking around with computer graphics software and was inspired by that video. I wish to draw lessons about how to get the same emotional impact (drab and creepy) as well as its opposite. I think its opposite would make for joyous and attractive stylized graphics.
Until now, I never even thought of using multiple dubs to deliberately degrade an image. It really does make for a creepy as fuck look. Every instinct is to avoid getting that look.
Some weird techniques I’ve either used it seen used:
Don’t use Posterize, but rather Solarize. Make a copy of the layer/video above it, and instead apply a filter like Find Edges. This will outline high-contrast areas in black (and a threshold slider for adjusting where the edges are defined. Multiply that layer on top of the bottom one.
Now, in something like After Effects, you can make this a pre-comp and experiment on this compound effect as if it were one. Then try stuff like applying a slight to moderate Gaussian blur, then use the sharpen filter to a crazy amount, then blur it again. Try de saturating a bit, then add in a little video noise or film grain.
Point is, trying to degrade it digitally, might get you a cool/disturbing effect too.
The After Effects filters won’t degrade the signal in an uneven way. Some hand drawn masks and multiple passes for different areas might approach the sublime horror of old VHS tape dubs.
This is not VHS, or other analog, copy-of-a-copy. You would see dropouts throughout the picture (manifesting as little horizontal glitches), and likely some unsteadiness where the background seems to waver, a little like air currents causing light refraction effects in those telephoto shots in Lawrence of Arabia. This picture is technically rock steady, and looks strictly digital though of a low resolution.
May I suggest it’s a combination of stark lighting and “the guy just looks like that”? I see no evidence of any deliberately applied effects.
OK I looked at frames, and there is something else going on, there is no way to get that zombie look on half his face with any kind of tape degradation, which means I retract my earlier off the cuff analysis. And yeah, it’s pretty fucking creepy. I now have no idea what the hell is happening.
