When we watch footage with a film grain overlay, it takes on a dreamy quality that feels more like shared memory. Plain and simple, film grain evokes nostalgia. So, whenever filmmakers want to give their film a certain tone or evoke certain feelings, a film grain overlay can be a great way to achieve this. Because films and cinema have been around for over a century, film grain is, excuse the pun, ingrained into cinema. We associate film grain texture with older films. So, if technological advances naturally phased out film grain, why is it still important? Well, the simple answer is that it evokes emotion. Of course, as technology progressed, these particles became smaller and less visible, up to the point where everything switched to digital filmmaking, and the natural film grain texture disappeared from raw footage altogether. Whenever you see speckles on the screen, dancing around in random patterns? Those are small particles known as ‘silver halide’ - the primary photosensitive substance used in all celluloid films. Without getting too bogged down in the science of why it happens, it was a natural side effect of shooting on chemical film. What is film grain? Originally, film grain was not intentional or created on purpose, it was just a natural part of filmmaking. So, what’s going on here? Below, we dive into what film grain is, why it still matters and how you can easily add film grain texture into your videos using a film grain overlay from Artgrid. However, when it comes to post-production, you’ll often find that many colour grade artists and editors then insist on adding ‘film grain’ back into the image. In 2021, we tend to want to avoid grain in our shots. ‘That image looks a bit grainy’ is something you may hear every now and then while shooting, often in a negative context.