80s VHS retro video prompt
Fake a home-video or late-night-TV tape: colour bleed, tracking lines, soft focus and warm saturated tones.
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1Fill and generate
List the tape artefacts you want. Add on-screen date stamps and REC text in the editor rather than the prompt: generated text is usually garbled.
Footage that looks recorded on a 1980s consumer camcorder onto VHS tape. {{subject}} {{action}} at {{setting}}. Tape artefacts: soft low resolution, chroma bleed around bright colours, occasional horizontal tracking lines, slight wobble, {{extra_artefact}}. Camera: handheld home-video style, auto-focus hunting slightly, {{camera}}. Lighting: {{lighting}}, blown-out highlights. Colour: warm, oversaturated reds and skin tones, lifted blacks. Mood: {{mood}}. Duration {{duration}}, aspect ratio 4:3. Avoid: text, captions, watermarks, logos, extra limbs or fingers, warped faces, flicker, sudden cuts, crisp modern 4K look, smartphones or modern cars in frame.
Example input
Family in windbreakers waving on a beach boardwalk, camcorder zoom, summer daylight, nostalgic; 6s.
Example output
Footage that looks recorded on a 1980s consumer camcorder onto VHS tape. A family in bright windbreakers waves at the camera and laughs at a beach boardwalk with an arcade behind them. Tape artefacts: soft low resolution, chroma bleed around bright colours, occasional horizontal tracking lines, slight wobble, brief colour noise at the start. Camera: handheld home-video style, auto-focus hunting slightly, slight zoom in and out. Lighting: bright summer daylight, blown-out highlights. Colour: warm, oversaturated reds and skin tones, lifted blacks. Mood: nostalgic, carefree. Duration 6 seconds, aspect ratio 4:3. Avoid: text, captions, watermarks, logos, extra limbs or fingers, warped faces, flicker, sudden cuts, crisp modern 4K look, smartphones or modern cars in frame.
Troubleshooting
- It looks too clean: add a VHS overlay or filter in the editor; it's more controllable than generated artefacts.
- Faces warp in the low-res look: keep people at mid distance rather than close-up.
Known limitations
- Don't present synthetic 'home videos' as real family archives or historical footage.