Film clutter, light leaks, burns, grunge and glitched title elements for use in Final Cut Pro X and Motion 

What are Scratch Tapes?

The term comes from early computer days, where tape drives were used for dumping of data for re use later. When I started out as an editor, cutting on linear tape based systems, I ended up creating and carrying around a selection of Beta SP and Digi Beta tapes, containing effects and footage that could be re used in other edits. Examples of the stuff I used to keep on these tapes are: Film grain, flashes and clutter, light leaks, video feedback, background plates, lighting/flare effects and so on..

These packs were originally produced as stand alone clips, but since I’ve created my own FCPX effects with them, I’ve packaged them up for other editors to try.

How to use them.

They can be used in a number of ways, but probably the most obvious would be as overlays on existing footage or as backgrounds. Below are a couple of tutorials, using FCPX of how you can achieve old film clutter effects with a couple of mouse clicks in the effects or titles browser..no tweaking of multiple controls involved. This demo clip was created very quickly using just 4 or 5 different overlays, used to create transitions, add film grain/clutter and to create flicker effects on the text. This was achieved by stacking layers and adjusting each layers composite mode. No other plug in or effects were used.

Scratchtapes: Frame Damage

Frame Damage Vol.2 £5.00 Commercial & Personal use licence.

Frame Damage, is a mini collection of effects templates for FCPX or Motion, containing 10 FCPX  effect template elements and 7 transition elements. Themed around severe film damage, this collection is ideal for grunge and damaged film elements in any project. Used as overlays, the clips can effect underlying elements in quite extreme ways. Used as backgrounds or layers, both the clips and the image textures can be combined to create various lo fi film effects. 

Scratchtapes: Interface Free

A micro pack of retro sci-fi interfaces for Final Cut Pro. The pack consists of four variations of 1980s inspired, science-fiction interfaces and heads up displays. This micro pack is entirely free to use for both personal and commercial projects. As a bonus there are also two text templates, using the Syncro Let font, as well as an audio effects preset for voice processing those droid style comms. Install these in your Motion Templates folder and fire away.