This video essay I watched recently highlights a unique artistry to the use of film grain. That it makes the imagery feel more alive.
As you may know, my previous project What's the time?, featured attempts at capturing an old VHS effect. I achieved this by duplicating the compositions of each scene and setting each of them with a different colour channel.
For example a scene that is red, green and blue, when I set the first composition to red it will exclude/darken other colours, focusing on the red of the composition, I do the same with the other two duplicated compositions underneath on after effects, one exclusive to green and one exclusive to blue. I then combine the compositions, overlaying into the very same image I already had. Except, this time I can adjust position of the colours themselves and separate to give the impression that the images were compiled on a vhs tape. This was my intent with What's the time?. I wanted to recreate/emulate the appearance of a lost piece of media, something which could have come out around the 1990's.
Although I have noticed that grain and noise play a significant part in the illusion, as