Rebuilding the Past

Right then, with all the footage shot, and enough clips cut and background stuff on hand, it was time I started to bring the past back to life! Or at least try to anyway!

I'm gonna use one example of photo in order to demonstrate the process I used to do this, in this case, the Moors one.

So, taking the initial scans I made and images I found...

I cut and pasted the appropriate image in order to set it apart as it's own canvas...

Then painstakingly erased all bits of life and movement from the image...

Then started to add bits of footage, one at a time in order to give the shot some motion and life again. I'd worry about the transition crossfade at a later stage when I brought everything together, but for now, I just concentrated on one image at a time.

I didn't want to cram it too much full of stuff, I kinda liked the bare streets and minimal life, made it look much older and authentic, especially when transitioning into a busy modern day version of the scene.

Once all this was added, I looked for a quick tutorial on old film effects, and found a great one here...

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/old_film_look/

...which also provided some old 8mm movie grain footage that could be directly applied to your work and blending accordingly to give the old look. I used it and it suited it perfectly! I also slowed down the speed so it looked its age more, and the finished thing came out as follows...

It was quite exciting seeing all the elements come together, and felt really rewarding to bring the past back to life, albeit in my own crappy,dodgy way! :P

I got hooked and blitzed through the rest of the videos, and wrapped the lot up ready to be edited in the final piece, which I was now ready and able to crack on with!