---
title: "How to add a film noir with Claude (tested prompt and ffmpeg command)"
description: "The bright holographic set turns into a moody black-and-white noir shot: the purple bottle goes jet black against a pale label, the backdrop's facets become harsh gray streaks, and the corners fall into shadow. Install one skill and ask Claude Code, or run the ffmpeg command we tested yourself."
url: https://www.recharm.com/effects/film-noir
---

# How to add a film noir with Claude

The bright holographic set turns into a moody black-and-white noir shot: the purple bottle goes jet black against a pale label, the backdrop's facets become harsh gray streaks, and the corners fall into shadow.

Made by the command on this page, from our own test clip.

## Get this effect

1. ### Switch to Code in your [Claude Desktop App](https://claude.com/download)

2. ### Install the skill (once)

   ```
   Install the Recharm video effects skill: download https://recharm-growth-staging.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/website/downloads/recharm-video-effects.zip and unzip it into ~/.claude/skills
   ```

3. ### Ask for the effect

   ```
   Add a film noir to input.mp4
   Input/output brightness points: 0/0 0.5/0.03 0.72/0.3 0.82/0.9 0.86/1 1/1
   How dark the corners get: PI/3.2
   ```

## Several videos, several effects, one ask

Put your clips in the folder, mention them with @, and ask for everything at once. Claude runs one tested script after another on each clip, then joins them.

Add a film noir to **@clip1.mp4**, put a sale badge on **@clip2.mp4**, give **@clip3.mp4** a VHS look, then join all three with crossfades.

## Settings you can change

Ask Claude to change any of these, or edit them at the top of the command.

| Setting    | Default                                     | What it does                                                                                                           |
| ---------- | ------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `CURVE`    | `0/0 0.5/0.03 0.72/0.3 0.82/0.9 0.86/1 1/1` | Input/output brightness points. Move the 0.5 and 0.86 points to choose where shadows go black and highlights go white. |
| `VIGNETTE` | `PI/3.2`                                    | How dark the corners get. PI/5 is subtle; PI/2 is the darkest.                                                         |

## Without the skill

Don’t want to install the skill? Paste this prompt into Claude Code and Claude writes the command itself.

```
Give all of input.mp4 a film noir look with ffmpeg, from the first frame to the last: remove all color (hue=s=0), then apply one brightness curve to all channels through the points 0/0, 0.5/0.03, 0.72/0.3, 0.82/0.9, 0.86/1 and 1/1 (ffmpeg's curves filter, input/output from 0 to 1), so everything below half brightness goes nearly black and the brightest parts clip to pure white. Then darken the corners with ffmpeg's vignette filter at angle=PI/3.2, centered on the frame. Keep the 540x960 size, 30fps, the 6 second length and the audio. Save it as output.mp4.
```

## Run it without Claude

This is the exact command we tested. Save it as `film-noir.sh` and run:

```
sh film-noir.sh input.mp4 output.mp4
```

```
#!/bin/sh
# Film noir: harsh black and white with crushed shadows, highlights pushed to pure white and dark corners.
# Usage: sh film-noir.sh input.mp4 output.mp4
set -e
IN="$1"; OUT="$2"
CURVE="0/0 0.5/0.03 0.72/0.3 0.82/0.9 0.86/1 1/1"   # input/output brightness points: the lower half goes black, the brightest parts pure white
VIGNETTE="PI/3.2"                                   # lens angle for the dark corners; bigger is darker (PI/2 at most)

ffmpeg -y -i "$IN" -vf "hue=s=0,curves=all='$CURVE',vignette=angle=$VIGNETTE" \
  -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -pix_fmt yuv420p -r 30 -c:a copy "$OUT"
```

## More retro and film

- [1950s color film look **1950s color film look**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/1950s-color-film-look)
- [35mm film look **35mm film look**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/35mm-film-look)
- [70s film look **70s film look**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/70s-film-look)
- [Camcorder date stamp **Camcorder date stamp**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/camcorder-date-stamp)
- [Camcorder viewfinder **Camcorder viewfinder**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/camcorder-viewfinder)

## Find 3x _winning ads_

Recharm cuts your ad footage into tagged, searchable clips: hooks, testimonials, product shots. Find the shots that win, add the effect with Claude, and ship 3x more ad edits.

[Start 14-day free trial](https://www.recharm.com/get-started)