How to Create an 80's Vintage Filter in Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2019

The 80s nostalgia trend shows no signs of slowing down. Shows like Stranger Things and movies set in that era have made the vintage VHS aesthetic more popular than ever. Even if the content was shot on a modern digital camera, there are times when you want it to look like it came from a VHS tape recorded in 1985. Faded colors, low contrast, film grain, and slight pixelation all contribute to that authentic retro feel.

Today I go over how to create an 80s vintage filter in Adobe Premiere Pro CC.

How to Create an 80s Filter

Color Grading

1. Create a sequence or navigate to the footage you want to stylize.
2. Open the Color workspace or apply Lumetri Color from the Effects panel.
3. In the Creative section of Lumetri Color, drag the Faded Film slider up slightly. This lifts the blacks so the darkest parts of the image become dark gray instead of pure black. This is the foundation of the vintage look.
4. Increase Vibrance and decrease Saturation slightly. This keeps certain colors punchy while muting the overall palette, which is characteristic of 80s film stock.
5. In Basic Correction, adjust the Temperature slider slightly warmer. VHS tapes often had a warm color cast. This is optional depending on the mood you are going for.
6. Decrease the Contrast to about -20 to -30. 80s footage had a narrower dynamic range, so pushing the highlights and shadows closer together sells the look.

Splitting the Colors

7. Navigate to the Curves section in Lumetri Color.
8. Click on the Red curve. Grab a point near the top-right and drag it to a slightly different position. Do the same with the Green and Blue curves. Each one should be shifted in a different direction.
9. The goal is subtle. You want a slight color split that gives the highlights and shadows different tints, mimicking the way VHS color channels would drift. Don’t go extreme here or it looks more like a glitch than a vintage filter.

Adding Film Grain

10. Go to the Effects panel and search for Noise HLS Auto (under Video Effects > Noise & Grain).
11. Drag it onto your clip.
12. In Effect Controls, set the Lightness noise to about 6%.
13. Lower the Noise Animation Speed to about 12. This makes the grain move slower, more like real film grain rather than digital static.
14. Change the noise type to Grain if available. This creates a more organic look than the default noise pattern.

Adding Subtle Pixelation

15. Search for the Mosaic effect in the Effects panel and drag it onto your clip.
16. In Effect Controls, set the Vertical Blocks to a number higher than your horizontal resolution (1920 or higher for HD footage). This effectively removes vertical pixelation.
17. Set the Horizontal Blocks to about 617. This introduces very subtle horizontal pixelation that mimics the reduced resolution of VHS tape.

Final Adjustments

18. Under the clip’s Motion controls, increase the Scale to about 105%. VHS footage was slightly cropped compared to the original recording. This subtle zoom-in sells the effect.
19. Press Enter to render the timeline. These effects are CPU intensive and may lag during playback.

Tips

• Add a VCR scan line on an adjustment layer for an even more authentic VHS look.
• Layer an RGB glitch effect briefly at the beginning and end of scenes to simulate tape switching artifacts.
• Use overlays like VHS static or tracking distortion for added authenticity.
• Add a CRT vignette. Old tube televisions had darker, rounded corners. A strong vignette with rounded edges mimics this.
• Don’t forget the audio. Pair the visual filter with a subtle low-pass filter on the audio to muffle the sound slightly. VHS audio was never crisp.

That is how you create an 80s vintage filter in Premiere Pro. Between the color grading, film grain, and pixelation, you can take modern footage and transport it back to the golden age of VHS.