Need to add grain to a movie project, seeking ideas/options/tips please

[Bilbofett]

I had to restore an older movie that was previously wrecked w/ multiple layered bad interlacing choices, tons of jitter, ghosting, terrible resampling, on and on. What's left is a very stable movie, but it looks too sterile, clinical, waxy, lifeless. It was definitely shot on film (35mm?) and I'm seeking to add a wee tiny bit of grain back into it. Any grain that was there is long gone. I have several grain plates I could overlay in Premiere (or Resolve), but I'm open to ideas. The grain technically *should change over time in the running length, and increase in darker scenes and decrease in lighter scenes, right? It should be dynamic. Can you guys please give me some pointers/tips as this will be my 1st time attempting this. I *could go w/ a grain rendering program, but that route seems very artificial and I'd rather overlay some real grain. Please share some ideas, I appreciate your time and help!

[bronan]

Start here, it's free, go more advanced if needed:

https://fanrestore.com/thread-1217.html

[Bilbofett]

Start here, it's free, go more advanced if needed:

https://fanrestore.com/thread-1217.html

Thanks. I can add grain plates right in Premiere as a top layer. BTW what's more advanced?

P.S. Are you the guy I sent grain plates to a year or so ago? I have 8/16/35, fine/medium/coarse, 1080, 4k, literally hundreds. 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, they were all free.

[velocity]

I've heard great things about chickendream (available for AVS and VS), but would probably need significant tinkering to achieve the desired look. Alternatively, vsdeband has a wrapper with many noisers, including Realistic Film Grain Rendering which sounds promising.

[bronan]

Thanks. I can add grain plates right in Premiere as a top layer. BTW what's more advanced?

https://www.filmconvert.com

[zoidberg]

I suppose the obvious thing to do would be to refer to other films from the same era, which used ideally the same stock and lenses and aim for a grain plate which replicates that. Remember that any grain plates you already have can be tweaked to make grain coarser or finer, lower or higher contrast. Finally when it comes to encoding you will need a decent bitrate or the grain will go mushy. If there is any letterboxing due to the film being scope or 1.85:1 then it may be worth shifting the frame line so it falls on a macroblock boundary, in order to get the cleanest edge possible.

[Nick_M]

I got the best results with After Effects, which allowed me to customize and match grain with surrounding footage. Other programs and plug-ins merely provided grain plates. I'm not terribly fond of grain plates. It's easy for them to look like they sit on top of the image.

[zoidberg]

The best 'regrains' are acheived by applying a separate grain plate with different qualities for each layer, based on the characteristics of the film stock. This is what the majority of restoration houses will do for 4K restorations. They degrain, do the repair/clean up, then add back the grain

[Bilbofett]

Thanks. I can add grain plates right in Premiere as a top layer. BTW what's more advanced?

https://www.filmconvert.com

thanks