How would you create the frame rate that "drifts around a bit"? There's the undercranking and velosity envelope thing I know, but how you'd get it to drift around b/t speeds I have no idea how to do.
RanbOn- I don't understand why you call this the video look. No video looks anything like this. What you're trying to do is simulate the old film look, or so it seems to me.

I thought there was an FX in Vegas that gives this effect. In fact I know there is because I used it a few days ago for a demo.

You can adjust the colour, scratches, grain etc and if you're fortunate enough to have Studio 8 (never thought I would use the word 'fortunate' for Studio) you can import your rendered AVI and adjust the speed and strobe effect too.

Unfortunately I am at the office now so can't provide any more info.

Al

Just use the velocity envelope combined with undersampling.

I think from memory though the FX your refering to creates static effects which look pretty lame, I'd suspect you need to do a lot of keyframe to get the scratches to move etc.

No the scratches appear to move quite randomly.

The film effects are quite fluid already. However, you can make good use of keyframes to alter the strength of them as time goes on. A occasional burst of dust or scratches can help remind the viewers that this is an old film while toning it down a lot in other scenes can help retain viewability.

Even if you don't think you want "film look" that is what you are asking about. The early Chaplin films, Keystone Cops, Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keyton, Harold Lloyd and so on were done with hand cranked motion picture cameras. The speed element was caused by both the projector rate (Which in the very early days was also hand cranked) verses the shooting rate. When 24fps was picked it made all the older films look even 'faster', when films were silent you didn' have that issue because they didn't have to worry about sync sound or a speed constant.

So - you would need to change the frame rate to about 16 - 18 fps and have it play back at 24fps with plulldown to give it the old silent film look in that way. For variations you can just add velocity markers/envelopes. Then you will have to take out the color and go a high contrast *or* very washed out look. Adding an overlay of gate hair in the upper corner would add to the illusion. Adding some flashes, grain and a some splice marks would also add to it all.

And you question as how to do this in Vegas. You can start by using the Film Effects plug-in as a start. You can also play around with the contrast settings. For the gate hair you may have to create an animated graphic in photoshop - or maybe WAX might allow for creating a gate hair right in Vegas, I have not used it yet so I don't know. Splice marks for old silent flms would be a combination of things - they would cement on the frame line so you could get a "jump" at that point. If they got some cement on the frames you could see so blotching. For this you would have to experement with various settings and plug-ins but you would want to add slight diffusion in an irregular pattern. Some discoloring as well.

There really isn't a quick and easy answer, you will have to play around.

Now if you are talking Kinescope - that is the effect of shooting off a TV Monitor esentially. (http://www.photosonics.com/images/KineReccam.jpg) For that you need to "TV Look it" more than "Film Look it", but it is a combination of both.

Awesome guys, thanks alot for the information. I am working on my movie as I am typing this and its turning out perfect thanks to all your help.

Il make sure to come here again if I have any problems, Thanks a million.

-Ramb0n

The film fX are the easy part. You can do those at the end to add whatever dust, grain, flicker you want. Contrast adjustments will help as well. However, as filmy says, a lot depends on getting the frame rate correct.

Here's an idea to get the effect you want:

I would suggest right-clicking on a video event. Click on Properties, and play around with Undersample rate and Playback rate. Undersample is going to be the key. As a starting point, try this. Set Undersample to 0.5 and Playback Rate to 2.0. Disable Resample. This throws away every other frame, thus doubling the playback speed (if you left Playback Rate at 1.0, it would duplicated each remaining frame). Trim the clip so that it is half its original lenght (if you don't, you'll just get the same clip repeated twice). Render this to a new track. You will now have a 15 fps clip playing at 30 fps.

Then, change the playback rate (slow it down) by Ctrl-dragging the right edge of the new event (the one on the new timeline). Play with this until you get the speed just about right. You can also set the playback rate directly in the event properties. I would suggest using 0.8 as a starting point for the playback rate (which is 24/30). This should give you about the right speed (if you leave it at 1.0, you will be playing a 15 fps clip at 30 fps, and you want instead to play it at 24 fps).

Finally, you almost certainly don't want the blending that Vegas normally applies when creating slow motion, so make sure before you finish, click on this new event's properties and click on "Disable Resample." You may also get better results by changing the project properties to Progressive before you do your final render.

This ought to give you a good starting point for your project.

farss: a little OT but concerning these "crank cameras" that they used in these old days, there's a marvelous film (wich title is "Lumiere and company") that's all about that: they asked 40 different directors from all around the world to make a short film using the cinematographer. One "load" of film and that's it! Might as well have a good shot now!
A quick link where they sell it and give a plot summary (lot more links on google):

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113718/

It's worth seeing as inspiration for these results one would achieve with Vegas concerning the looks of these old films as well as for any cameraman that's curious about the "old school".
And seeing all these modern things through the "eye" of this very basic camera ia a gem in itself!

Alright, ive almost got the old look down, Now there is one more thing that I need to know.

Say you have video of a blank lcd screen from about 2 feet away, then you have another video that will seem as if it is playing on the screen.

Now I have a general idea on how to do this but any tips would be much appreciated.

BTW when im done with this movie Il give you guys a link and you can see what ive done with it :)

Thanks

I did this with a dead tv recently by actually spray-painting the picture tube with blue paint. You could set up a blue screen or just place a sheet of colored paper over it then chromakey it.

You know, I tried this myself and every time I do a combination of undersamble and speed up or velosity envelope the image gets extremely fruzzy. This only occurs if I use best or good settings- but is very obvious both on preview and on rendered material.
I've tried different disable resampling settings (force and smart) as well as uninstalling vegas and using older version of it. No difference. each time fruzzy..
I did ask about this a few months ago and never found the crux of the problem or how to solve it.
My solution? I rendered at preview quality.