Film Motion in Video Footage

Digital video footage borrows a filmic property through the use of shutter-speed controls, which change the rate at which fields are converted to frames, compacting the time between field sets and elongating the distance between actual frames. The slower the shutter speed, the more motion blur will occur in images. Thus, images captured at shutter speeds greater than 1/60^th of a second show virtually no blur when projected, while those shot at 130^th of a second will appear more like film.

You can also use a number of software plug-ins and applications (like Cinemotion and After Effects) to introduce motion blur into video footage to achieve a subtle amount of the movement typical of images projected on film. However, as in other digital post-production processes, your footage quality will deteriorate because of the interpolation of motion blur that occurs in such programs. For this reason, it’s better to rely on your camera’s built-in functionality to achieve these effects than to depend on the computer to fix wayward footage.

Tip

Check your camcorder for adjustments that slow down shutter speed, a digital effect that can reduce high-speed camera motion. If you feel compelled to use fast panning during your shoots, you can employ this feature to improve your compressed video

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