AV1@Scale: Film Grain Synthesis, The Awakening

> This grain, formed from tiny particles during the film’s development, is more than just a visual effect. It plays a key role in storytelling by enhancing the film’s depth and contributing to its realism.

I never understood the “grain = realism” thing. my real eyes don’t have grain. I do appreciate the role of grain as an artistic tool though, so this is still cool tech

> my real eyes don’t have grain.

They definitely do at night when it's dark out. There's a kind of "sparkling" or "static" that comes in faint light.

Fortunately, our eyes have way better sensitivity than cameras. But the "realism" just comes from how it was captured using the technology of the day. It's no different from phonograph hiss or the way a CRT signal blurs. The idea is to be "real" to the technology that the filmmaker used, and the way they knew their movie would be seen.

It's the same way Van Gogh's brush strokes were real to his paintings. You wouldn't want his oil paintings sanded down to become flat. It's the reality of the original medium. And so even when we have a digital print of the film, we want to retain as much of the reality of the original as we can.

Your Van Gogh analogy makes sense for old movies. It doesn't quite explain why we're still adding grain to new movies, except for those few which are purposefully evoking older movies.