Transform Your Drone Footage with Dehancer: A Step-by-Step Guide to Adding Cinematic Film Looks in DaVinci Resolve

Introduction

In the world of drone videography, capturing breathtaking footage is only half the battle. The magic often happens in post-production, where you can transform raw clips into cinematic masterpieces. For anyone seeking to add a vintage, film-like feel to their drone footage, Dehancer offers a powerful solution.

In today’s post, I’ll be walking you through my experience using Dehancer, a film emulation plugin, with footage from my DJI Mini 3 Pro. This test was done using DaVinci Resolve, a video editing powerhouse that many filmmakers and content creators swear by. My aim was to see how well Dehancer could replicate the feel of classic film stocks and bring a more nostalgic, analogue vibe to my digital drone shots.

If you’ve ever wondered how to give your drone footage that classic Hollywood or retro film aesthetic, you’re in the right place. Let’s dive in and explore what Dehancer has to offer, how easy (or challenging) it is to use, and how it transformed my footage from simple and flat to something straight out of a 70s movie.

2. What is Dehancer?

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Dehancer is a film emulation plugin that replicates the unique characteristics of traditional film stocks in a digital format. Designed for DaVinci Resolve, Dehancer offers an impressive array of tools to help video editors and filmmakers bring a nostalgic, analogue feel to their footage. For those of us working with digital sources like drone video, this plugin is a game-changer.

The plugin provides an all-in-one package for creating that classic film look, offering features like film grain, halation, bloom, and gate weave—effects often associated with old-school film. You can apply different film stock simulations, each mimicking the textures, colours, and imperfections of analogue film, from Kodak Vision to more artistic stocks like LomoChrome.

What makes Dehancer stand out is its depth. It’s not just about slapping on a filter and calling it a day. The plugin allows for granular control over things like contrast, colour density, and even how the film “breathes,” bringing digital footage closer to the organic nature of physical film.

For this test, I focused on applying Dehancer to footage shot with my DJI Mini 3 Pro drone, which I edited in DaVinci Resolve. The Mini 3 shoots in a flat profile called D-Cinelike, which gives you a neutral base for grading. This made it the perfect candidate for applying Dehancer’s film emulation and seeing just how far we could push the footage towards that vintage cinematic style.

3. First Impressions Using Dehancer

When I first fired up Dehancer in DaVinci Resolve, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. It’s a large plugin with a lot of moving parts, and I was curious about how intuitive it would be to use. Straight away, the interface was simple enough to navigate, especially if you’re already familiar with DaVinci Resolve. All the tools are grouped together, so you don’t have to jump around too much.

For this initial test, I started by applying Dehancer to some drone footage I shot using the DJI Mini 3 Pro. The footage was recorded in D-Cinelike, a flat, desaturated profile that serves as a blank canvas for colour grading. In its raw state, the footage looked pretty lifeless—washed-out skies, dull colours, and no real depth. This flat profile is designed to give you more flexibility in post-production, but it also means the footage doesn’t look great until you work some magic on it.

After applying Dehancer to the footage, I was immediately struck by the transformation. The flat colours began to take on a richness and depth that made the footage feel like it had been shot on classic 35mm film. The default settings were a good starting point, and from there, I could tweak the look further to my liking.

One thing I noticed right away was how quickly you could get a filmic look without having to mess around with a bunch of separate tools. Everything from film grain to halation and bloom was available within this one plugin, and that’s a real time-saver. Overall, my first impression was positive: it’s user-friendly for those familiar with grading, but deep enough for advanced users who want to really dig in.

4. Experimenting with Film Emulation

The real fun began when I started experimenting with the various film emulation options within Dehancer. There’s a huge selection of film stocks to choose from, each with its own unique characteristics. I didn’t have prior experience with many of these old film types, but Dehancer gives you the chance to explore everything from classic Kodak Vision stocks to more experimental options like LomoChrome Purple or Monica Minolta VX 400 Super.

With my drone footage from the DJI Mini 3 Pro shot in D-Cinelike, the footage looked flat and lifeless. But once I applied a high ISO film stock to give it some grain and texture, the transformation was instant. I opted for a higher ISO to give the footage more grain and a gritty, realistic feel. This worked well for the landscape shots, especially where I wanted the sky and fields to have a more dramatic, textured look.

One of the most satisfying features is the push-pull processing slider, which lets you adjust the exposure and contrast in a way that mimics real film processing. I cranked up the contrast a bit to bring out the details in the darker areas, like trees, while making the bright parts, like the straw in the field, pop a little more.

I also played with the colour separation and colour boost features, which allowed me to tweak the saturation and separation of colours, making the landscape footage look richer and more vibrant. The film developer settings also let me push the footage into a more creative direction, adjusting the gamma to bring out mid-tones and boost contrast.

Each film type offered different results, and it was easy to get lost in all the possibilities. The plugin feels like a playground for anyone who enjoys experimenting with colour and texture. You can achieve anything from a subtle filmic look to a full-on retro, grain-heavy vibe.

5. Bringing Texture to Digital: Film Grain and Other Effects

One of Dehancer’s standout features is its ability to add realistic film grain to your footage. In the world of digital video, everything is often so sharp and clean that it can feel a bit sterile. Film grain adds texture and depth, giving your footage a more organic and tactile quality. It’s perfect for drone footage, where the high-definition look can sometimes feel too polished for certain projects.

With the drone footage I was working on, the addition of grain instantly brought the landscape to life. The flat D-Cinelike profile suddenly had character and felt like it had been shot on 8mm or 35mm film, depending on the settings I chose. I experimented with different grain types—there are options to simulate various film formats like 65mm, 16mm, and even ISO variations. I settled on a high-grain 35mm look, which worked well to add texture to the wide-open fields and skies.

Beyond grain, halation and bloom were two other effects that made a noticeable difference. Halation creates a subtle red glow around bright areas, replicating the way light would bleed on actual film. In my footage, this was especially visible around the edges of bright highlights, like the sun reflecting off the straw bales. It’s a subtle effect, but it adds a layer of realism that’s hard to achieve otherwise.

Bloom is another tool that gives your footage a dreamy, soft glow around bright areas. I found it especially useful for enhancing sunset footage, giving the city shots of Leeds a nostalgic warmth. Combined with film grain, halation, and bloom, the footage felt as though it was pulled straight out of a vintage movie reel.

Dehancer also includes features like film damage, gate weave, and vignetting. These effects are more for those who want to lean fully into the retro aesthetic, giving your footage imperfections that simulate old film stock or damaged reels. I didn’t use much film damage for this project, but the vignette tool was fantastic for subtly darkening the edges of my drone footage, guiding the viewer’s eye toward the centre of the frame.

6. Applying the Look Across Multiple Clips

One of the most useful features in Dehancer is the ability to export your settings as a LUT (Look-Up Table). Once you’ve fine-tuned the look of a single clip, you can save those settings and quickly apply them to other clips in your project. This is a massive time-saver, especially when you’re working on drone footage where you want a consistent look across multiple shots.

For this test, after creating a look I liked with one clip of the DJI Mini 3 Pro footage, I exported the settings as a LUT and applied it to several other clips. The footage went from flat and dull to a unified, vintage-inspired collection of clips. The LUT preserved the film grain, colour grading, and contrast settings, allowing me to maintain the same aesthetic without needing to manually recreate it for every shot.

To take things a step further, I applied the LUT to some city footage of Leeds, which I’d shot around sunset. The transformation was stunning. The consistent look gave the whole series of clips a cohesive, almost cinematic vibe, reminiscent of films from the 1970s. The grain and colour shifts provided by Dehancer were especially effective, adding warmth to the sunset scenes and an aged quality to the urban environment.

The ability to generate and save LUTs also makes Dehancer practical for larger projects, where time is often of the essence. Instead of spending hours tweaking individual clips, you can apply your LUT across an entire timeline and then make small adjustments where needed. It’s an efficient way to ensure your footage looks polished and unified from start to finish.

7. Challenges and Performance Observations

While Dehancer is an incredibly powerful plugin, it does come with a few challenges—mainly related to performance. The more effects you layer on, especially heavy ones like halation and bloom, the more strain it places on your system. In my case, when I added several effects to my drone footage, I noticed the playback started to slow down. At one point, my system dropped to 17 frames per second, which can make it harder to evaluate your footage in real-time.

This slowdown is something to keep in mind if you’re working with high-resolution footage or if you’re using effects that require a lot of processing power. While Dehancer is optimised for DaVinci Resolve, it’s still performing some heavy computations, particularly when dealing with large files like drone footage. If you’re working on a system with less processing power, you might find yourself waiting longer for renders or needing to reduce the playback quality to preview your work smoothly.

That being said, these performance hits are a small trade-off considering the creative possibilities the plugin offers. In most cases, once you’ve dialled in your look, you can export a LUT or bake in the effects to save on processing power during further edits. Another option is to apply the heavier effects at the end of your workflow, only activating them for final renders.

For those using 4K footage or higher, it’s definitely worth keeping an eye on system resources while applying multiple effects. Halation, in particular, seems to be the biggest culprit for slowing things down, followed by bloom and film damage. Still, the results are often worth the extra processing time, especially if you’re going for that highly stylised, vintage look.

8. Conclusion

After spending some time with Dehancer on footage from my DJI Mini 3 Pro, I can confidently say this plugin is a fantastic tool for anyone looking to give their drone footage—or any footage—a cinematic, analogue feel. From the realistic film grain to the subtle magic of halation and bloom, Dehancer offers a deep well of creative possibilities for transforming your digital video into something that feels more tactile and timeless.

The ease of use is a big plus—while it offers a lot of customisation for those who want to dive deep, it’s also accessible enough to get great results with minimal effort. Being able to save looks as LUTs makes it practical for larger projects, where consistency across multiple clips is key.

That said, there are some performance challenges, particularly when applying multiple effects at once. If you’re working on higher-resolution projects or don’t have a particularly powerful system, you might notice some slowdowns. However, these are manageable with workarounds like lowering playback quality or applying heavy effects later in the workflow.

For drone enthusiasts, filmmakers, and anyone looking to add a vintage or artistic edge to their footage, Dehancer is well worth exploring. It can take standard, flat footage and turn it into something that looks like it belongs on a classic film reel from decades past.

If you’re keen to bring a more nostalgic, film-like quality to your projects, I highly recommend giving Dehancer a try. You’ll be amazed at how quickly it can transport your footage into another era.