The importance of colourgrading. 'Real work'.
Added 2024-01-25 16:53:00 +0000 UTCOver the last three days, I've been colourgrading 3 films (part of a series) and I wanted to show you guys that when we watch any cinematic, film or TV show, that it has been manipulated to high heaven. Yes, I coloured this image. We do it to make you feel things and you don't even know it.
After about 5 seconds, you've climatized and you no longer see the coloured footage, you just see footage. It's what I call the devil in the detail, it's painful because we spend hours, days and sometimes weeks on this stuff and you "don't" see it. If you don't see it, it means as a colourist, you've done your job correctly.
The shot above is RAW out of the cinema camera I used on set. The below image is the final shot with colour correction and colour grade applied. My own custom look aka grade (Blue Maverick)
Kai
Comments
The top image is the closest to what it looked like in real life. The camera shoots RAW and so strips some of the contrast away. The bottom one, I would have applied my super blue look and changed the talents skin tones so it looks a little warmer. I have also changed up certain areas of the image so it pops on screen for example, make the glass in the background more blue/green, less colour than the foreground. There is also film grain and something called halation that I've done to it so it looks as if it was captured on film stock. This was one shot, this film had another 100 something shots to be coloured. The more interested you are with this film stuff, the more I'm happy to talk about it. :D
Kai Zammit
2024-02-20 14:47:57 +0000 UTCWhich version did it look closer to in real life?
Jonathan Palmer
2024-02-20 14:28:28 +0000 UTCThis is why I call it the devil in the details, it's painful to do the job because there is so much of it or it's just a challenge. If you've done a good job the audience shouldn't notice which then makes it hurt even more. This short film alone had 150-200 shots of colour grading.
Kai Zammit
2024-01-30 17:23:22 +0000 UTCMost people I know don't realize the amount of work that goes into post production; it really is night and day
Onearmy
2024-01-28 06:49:14 +0000 UTC
