Dehancer: turning video into "film."
If you are a content creator like me, especially in the realm of video creation, you may have marvelled at how some social media footage looks so cinematic in nature. It is something to admire, and more times than often, to even be jealous of!
For a long time I used to film using whatever iPhone I had at the time. A few years ago, I got the Sony ZV1 MK1 to launch my Youtube channel and that was a great camera for general video work and also a good point and shoot for photography. I probably didn't stretch the ZV1 as much as I could, but it did (and still does) me proud for several years. More recently, I started to use the new Apple Pro Res log feature on the iPhone 15 Pro to take things up a notch. Earlier this year, I took it a step further by buying the mighty Fuji XH2s which let me tell you, is an incredible hybrid camera with phenomenal photo and video capabilities.
With each step, I kept trying to get closer and closer to that magical "film" like look. Yes I've upgraded my camera. Yes I've started to use 1/8 mist filters...but even so, something seemed missing, I just could not make my footage have that a cinematic look.
That is until now.
Recently, Dehancer saw some of my work on YouTube and asked if I would like to review their software. Now funnily enough, I had already heard of Dehancer even before they got in touch. I already knew a bit about their products. Basically, Dehancer produce extremely advanced software that replicates analogue film. Living in a digital age, it is highly unlikely that most of us will able to shoot footage on actual film. The next best thing we can do is to use software to act as a film emulator. This is exactly where Dehancer comes in.
Dehancer is the brainchild of Pavel Kosenko who hails from the former USSR and who has 40 years of experience with analogue photography. He is the co founder of SREDA Film Lab, the biggest film laboratory in the ex USSR...and wow does it show. I have spent a few months working with the Dehancer plugin for Final Cut Pro and it is an incredible piece of code for those people who do want that film look. Not everyone does, but it does a fantastic job of recreating film for those who are going after that particular look.
The plugin is also available for Da Vinci Resolve and Adobe After Effects. The plugin consists of various stand alone modules that can be bought separately or altogether in the Dehancer "Pro" version of the software.
The plugin offers over 60 different type of film profile such as the classic Kodak film prints used in 1980's Hollywood blockbusters. Each film print has been painstakingly recreated by sampling the actual analogue film and then fine tuned using various other laboratory techniques. On the Dehancer website they have a section that goes into incredible detail about how they have achieved the film emulation. It's really quite an amazing achievement, and I get the impression that it has been created by individuals who have a massive passion for analogue film.
There are several sub modules within the film profile module. These include the film developer, film compression, expand, print, CMY Color Head and print toning. I think you can see just from this first module, that the level of control and granularity that you have over your content is something to marvel over.
The next module is film grain which lets you fine tune the amount and type of grain present in each film preset. Next is the halation module which lets you recreate the halation effect seen on analogue film.
All these effects have been impressively recreated using software and really do give the impression that they have been shot on analogue film. Obviously, it's not going to be as realistic as actual film, but in the real world, this is a pretty good approximation in my opinion.
Then there are some other more subtle modules that can also be deployed. These include film breath, gate weave, film damage, overscan, and vignette. Each of these modules can again, be fine tuned, so that you can get the exact look that you are after.
I have already tested the software on some stock footage, (as well as my own footage) and the results are quite good. I made one of several YouTube promo shorts to demonstrate the power of the software:
I feel as if I have only just really scratched the surface with Dehancer in terms of it's true potential. I need more time to fully evaluate the software and really put it through it's paces. I've recently upgraded my editing rig from a 2019 Intel i7 21.5" iMac to an M2 Max Mac Studio. My old Mac could not really handle Dehancer and even some M1 Macs struggle. So really, you need a beefy set up in order to edit smoothly using this plug in.
I have made an introductory video about Dehancer, which goes into a bit more detail about the plug in:
The beauty of photography and filmmaking is that it is very much like cooking. The basic ingredients are the same, however each creator has their own unique recipe and that's what makes creative endeavours so fun....... there are no rules.
I certainly feel that with plugins like Dehancer, we can get closer and closer to achieving that feature film look that we as content creators always wanted to make.
Stay tuned for more testing and reviews to come in the next few months.