Thanks Peter.... but I *think* it needs to be a bit more random.... speeding up just a bit.... slowing down just a little..... not quite as dead on and steady.

insert some black frames randomly - several in a row? Maybe move a short series of frame up / down ramdomly?

didn't magic bullet have a plugin that had gate jumps, misfires and stuff?

I know it would be tedious, but wouldn't using key frames on the velocity envelope help a bit, nudging them ever so slightly to create the illusion of not quite perfect timing.

What was the normal framerate in those days? 14-18fps?

I don't know if this will work or not but worth a go.

Try changing the speed in Vegas through several renders with resampling off. This will cause Vegas to drop a frame here and there. Doing it through a few passes might build up a fairly random pattern of dropped frames. Use frame rates that aren't factors might help too e.g. 17, 19, 21, 29.

If you've got After Effects it has The Wiggler i.e. a random number generator. That's be good for creating random jumps in the frames to help the look along.

Bob.

On the clip right click..properties

You will see playback rate…set .7 or so
And set your frame rate to about 11

Play around you will get that jerky video look

If you have a clip by setting these settings you can get that stiff shutter look from still cameras etc

Blink, You are referring to somewhat of a stop motion effect...
Several months ago, i too wanted this and only Pixelan CreativEase
offered the perfect solution.

Many of the Chaplin movies would have been made on hand cranked cameras and shown on hand cranked projectors. The operators often cranked the projectors faster than real time to allow more showings to be squeezed into the theater's schedule. The nominal rate would have been somewhere in the 16 - 20 fps range.

You may want to consider putting a little blur into the mix as well. Reducing the frame rate will give a jerky look, but if the video is sharp, it will lack the softness caused by gate float in a projector.

Many of the jumps associated with old film are due to feed hole damage which would result in the black divider between frames occasionally getting into the viewable frame. The edges of the divider are always ragged. That would require a considerable amount of work to insert frame grabs with the image shifted up and a photo-shopped divider added at the bottom.

One other effect is brightness flicker. This is more of an effect of telecine than in the original projection, but audiences have been conditioned to associate with an old film look.

RalphM

"Many of the Chaplin movies would have been made on hand cranked cameras and shown on hand cranked projectors"

That's exactly what I'm looking for.... the jerky, uneven action of a crank being turned by a human arm.

GREAT suggestions ladies/gents! I shall try them all..... perhaps even a few in combination.

Changing the frame rate randomly from 14 to 18 or 20 fps should do it.

Wikipedia has this under Silent Film: Projection speed
Until the standardization of the projection speed of 24 frames per second (fps) for sound films in 1926, silent films were shot at variable speeds (or "frame rates"), typically anywhere from 16 to 23 frames per second or faster, depending on the year and studio. Unless carefully shown at their original speeds they can appear unnaturally fast and jerky, which reinforces their alien appearance to modern viewers. At the same time, some scenes were intentionally undercranked during shooting in order to accelerate the action, particularly in the case of slapstick comedies. The intended frame rate of a silent film can be ambiguous and since they were usually hand cranked there can even be variation within one film.