Making good video look bad?

[Jeff Troiano]

I'm doing a 2 camera edit. It was from a radio interview. One camera was on DJ (good camera), the other was on 2 guys being interviewed (bad camera). The good footage is crisp sharpe and clean, while the bad is softy, out of focus at times. It's only for the web, and I think I've done all I can do, to the bad footage, to try and enhance it. I've sharpened the edges a little, keyed the skin ones. Adjust the overall colors. But it's still just crappy footage.

I was wondering if anyone had any tips on which filters to try and soften the good footage, or and combination of things? I've messed around and tried different things, but I don't seem to be getting too far. It still looks like good footage versus footage that looks like it could have been shot with a cell phone.

Thanks,
Jeff

[Jason Sovey]

Personally, I wouldn't try to make the good video look bad. Then the whole presentation could look poor.

You could try to display the bad footage as a picture-in-picture. If the bad footage looks like it was shot with a cell phone, you could try a P-I-P image of a cell phone, with the bad footage appearing on the cell phone screen.

I can think of other things you could try in AE, like TV static.

[Nevin Styre]

If you were running both cameras the whole time you could do a picture in picture like it says above, have the good shot take up more of the frame and have the bad camera in a smaller section. Or just show it like this for when the interviewers ask a question then push into the good camera taking up the full frame after the question is asked.

[Jeff Troiano]

I would love to do something like that, if the cameras were reversed. But the geniuses who were filming, decided to put the good camera on the radio DJ, and the crappy one one the two band members. This is for their website. They are in the virgin islands, on tour for the winter. While they are there, their trying to film a reality show. Well, I have the first 30 days of footage, and I had to send a whole laundry list of things to the camera guys.

Any how, I was just trying to put a quick edit together. I just did a multi shot A/B edit. But I need to soften the Good camera shot, to try and bring it a little closer in bad quality. On the band members shot, as I said before, looks almost like a cellphone. You can't see much details in their faces (minor details, like if they needed to shave). But the shot of the DJ, you can see every pore in his face.

I was just wondering if there were any tips and tricks do make this work. I could definitely get more creative with it, if only the cameras were reversed.

[Jordan Hooper]

Have you tried all the obvious stuff like desaturation, add noise, blur, colorize, for example?
It seems like it's so hard to make poor footage look good that it should be easy going the other way.

Do you have some other footage of them performing or some stills of the band you could show while the interviewer is asking narrated questions?

[Craig Parkes]

It's a pretty common tactic to make the bad footage in this sort of situation black and white - makes it look like it's more of a purposeful difference. If you want to go extreme you can try and find some plugins/effects that make it look like it was shot on an 8mm camera for extra indie hipsterness, but that might be a bit too much.

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

I agree with Craig, make the poor footage black and white, and with a lot of grain or something, so it looks like it has a purposely 'bad' look...