How to make a Mini DV camera look WORSE? (no VFX)

tompierrepont

Hi there

So I have a mini DV camera (Sony SONY DCR-PC101E)
I shoot a fair bit of fashion & music videos using multi-format cameras. Digital, 16mm & occasionaly Hi8/DV.

I'm looking for (if it exists) a cheap, simple way to to get a glitchy, bad looking image from my DV cam.
Right now, it's just a little too clean.

But i'd love to do this without VFX. O'naturale

I've thought about, scratching the tape? blowing dust into it? Marking it?
I know this is a bit bespoke and silly, but if anyone has any experience. I'd appriciate it.

Thanks!

tompierrepont

incase someone else comes across this post looking for a similar objective.
I'll post any information I find.

Ben King from LACPUG forums tested a bunch of DV & HDV tapes (various brands)
To see if he ran into any issues with re-recording over tapes again and again.

His conclusion was, it took longer than advertised. (20 times)
but eventually, artifacts would show up.

So one of my options would be to re-record until I eventually see similar issues.
Then mark a few tapes (20x) (40x) (60x) etc and use a different tape on how I'm feeling.

John7

I'm no expert but DV tape is not the same as film! If you damage a DV tape, you run the risk of quickly damaging the heads of recording/playback equipment. You also have no control over the effects of "worn" tape, not to mention the accelerated equipment wear caused by constantly running tape through to age it.

I would use VFX to achieve the look you want, then you can control the way it looks without damaging your equipment (and wasting loads of time on an unknown result).

tompierrepont

Thanks John, good points and I'll try to avoid any damage to the tape or heads.

But these cameras are pretty throw away, and using VFX is something I want to avoid for aesthetic reasons. I'm going to do some tests with re-recording over used tapes and see if that gives me the results i'm after!

Thank you.

noiseboy72

It depends what you are looking for. DV tends to pixelate and give odd blocks of colour. If you are looking for a more analogue roll with lines of break up, SVhs might look better.

Not cleaning the tape heads will give plenty of picture break up, as will allowing the tape to become loosely spooled in the cassette.

JabbaNut

What actual faults you looking to create

Take a old tape, spool some out and pinch, crease a small fold.  Effect done.

John7

Run a strong magnet at several points along the tape, that should give some good dropout effects. Put an old scratched filter on your lens. Smear some Vaseline on it and a bit of dirt.

Loopthrough

Seeing as the glitches Mini DV gave when it was defective, reading errors are digital, they were just pixel breakup, lines of pixel breakup and often green flashes/pixels, they're extremely easy to replicate digitally. A damaged DVD will give virtually the same effect and can just as easily be overlaid in FCP on video.

I successfully created the effect many times of digital breakup this way, using the breakup of damaged DVD (recorded to analogue and digitised again using a doemstic DVD recorded) and then keep it as an overlay.

I don't like using "fake" breakup effects either and would never touch these digitally created VHS and digital gitch overlays.

Hope that helps and makes sense.

Mini DV heads are very sensitive and especially sensitive to dew and mositure so be careful if you're trying to physically damage the tape. Cue/review in Mini DV looked very similar to breakup iirc (I haven't used the format since I was 19, over a decade ago, but I made many films with it so I remember it fairly well), so you could also maybe use that.