Major Project: Editing-Colour Grading
For the final part of my edit, I had to grade this documentary. Grading is not something I have done a lot of before, as such I knew it was important to research and plan it out carefully. Through looking at my previous source material, as well as taking inspiration from new content that stood out to me. Then looking in to the deeper connotations of each colour, i was able to piece together a concept for this grade in my head.
For our documentary I wanted my grade to be primarily constructed of oranges and yellows. Creating warmer tones, that highlighted the struggles Alex would face on his journey and making the film more eye-catching and visually appealing to a viewer with its use of brighter colours throughout (but not to the extent where it becomes overpowering).
The grade also involved making sure that within my individual scenes, all my shots matched in terms of colour profiling. This was no easy task, but thanks to our session with Nathen Cawes I had a clearer idea of how to go about this process. The difficulty I often ran in to was that i could match some tones of a shot, but at the detriment of some of the other colours. But by using the lumetri colour tool (one of the most versatile correctors in premier), I was ablse to get the manually adjust the temperature in each shot. Allowing me to more easily pair cameras with different colour profiles. From there I delved in to the individual RGB curves and colour wheels to that once some of my tones matched, i could carefully adjust the levels of the other colours such as the red's or greens so that they matched the level found in the previous shot.
This still was no easy task, and often when I thought i had got it right, I would compare it to a shot further down the line and find it still stood out. The point of this correction is to create seamless emersion within our film dso the audience forgets about how it was filmed and jsut focusses on whats in the film. So often I had to leave shots and revisit them later with a fresh pair of eyes.
Despite requiring little in terms of actual grading, one of the most dificult scenes to colour grade/correct was the diary room. I knew the shot I wanted to base the scene off of (the 2nd shot in the sequence which was the mid shot). But due to the large number of different cameras used in this sequence, it was very tough. The close up shot was much greener than the others, and the tracking shot was very pink. With such wildly different tones in each shot it was no easy task to fix. Just when I got the skin tones to match, you would notice differences in the hair. So after some careful masking I was able to fix this individually.
The majority of the grade actually proved to be slightly easier than i was expecting. I did the majority of the work through adjustment layers, allowing me to put a consistent filter over multiple shots without tampering with the originals. For my grade I raised the temperature of most scenes to bring out the oranges and yellows. Also made sure created stronger differentiation between my darker and lighter tones by decreasing highlights and raising the shadows.
But for on-track footage, I took some extra steps. I raised the contrast in many of these shots to help whichever car Alex was driving to "pop"and stand out from the track. I also added saturation to the blue's and greens in these shots so that things like the grass and sky were key focal points that added to the mise en scene.
To get each shot looking consistent I made many many cuts in my adjustment layer to allow me to manually adjust the settings of each individual shot if necessary. Since some obviously had different lighting or exposure. Although time-consuming this proved to be a successful endeavour.
The grade was fairly consistent throughout, except for one particular sequence. Namely The South Downs sequence. With this sequence being visually and stylistically different from much of the other parts of the doc. I knew it was important to give it its own grade. Taking inspiration from the Twighlight movies (and the grade they use to enhance its emotive content). In this scene I contrasted it to the rest of the doc by bringing out more of the blue's and greens. The issue i had with this is it took a long time for me to get the sky and grass to match in each shot, especially since the temperature changed throughout the sequence anyway. But after careful work with curves and colour wheels, I was able to get this to look the way Alex envisioned.
The darker, more mellow tones in this sequence help add to the emotional content that is being conveyed on screen. It brings Alex's character down a few levels, so we see him as a human with relatable thoughts and feelings.
Overall I am really happy with the grade of this documentary. Considering I did not have a lot of time, considering it was my first real attempt at grading on this scale, and considering I did almost all of the grade on my own, without my director or D.O.P there to offer feedback. I think it turned out really well.
I had to make some minor adjustments along the way as some frames were a bit off or changed sooner than they were supposed to. Then when I showed it to the group they pointed out that some scenes (in the Abbi interview in particular) were over saturated. But after these changes were amended I think we have a successful grade.
If there was more time, or I did have my director/D.O.P with me to help then i may have built upon it further, but I think it does its job well.
For our documentary I wanted my grade to be primarily constructed of oranges and yellows. Creating warmer tones, that highlighted the struggles Alex would face on his journey and making the film more eye-catching and visually appealing to a viewer with its use of brighter colours throughout (but not to the extent where it becomes overpowering).
The grade also involved making sure that within my individual scenes, all my shots matched in terms of colour profiling. This was no easy task, but thanks to our session with Nathen Cawes I had a clearer idea of how to go about this process. The difficulty I often ran in to was that i could match some tones of a shot, but at the detriment of some of the other colours. But by using the lumetri colour tool (one of the most versatile correctors in premier), I was ablse to get the manually adjust the temperature in each shot. Allowing me to more easily pair cameras with different colour profiles. From there I delved in to the individual RGB curves and colour wheels to that once some of my tones matched, i could carefully adjust the levels of the other colours such as the red's or greens so that they matched the level found in the previous shot. 
This still was no easy task, and often when I thought i had got it right, I would compare it to a shot further down the line and find it still stood out. The point of this correction is to create seamless emersion within our film dso the audience forgets about how it was filmed and jsut focusses on whats in the film. So often I had to leave shots and revisit them later with a fresh pair of eyes.Despite requiring little in terms of actual grading, one of the most dificult scenes to colour grade/correct was the diary room. I knew the shot I wanted to base the scene off of (the 2nd shot in the sequence which was the mid shot). But due to the large number of different cameras used in this sequence, it was very tough. The close up shot was much greener than the others, and the tracking shot was very pink. With such wildly different tones in each shot it was no easy task to fix. Just when I got the skin tones to match, you would notice differences in the hair. So after some careful masking I was able to fix this individually.
The majority of the grade actually proved to be slightly easier than i was expecting. I did the majority of the work through adjustment layers, allowing me to put a consistent filter over multiple shots without tampering with the originals. For my grade I raised the temperature of most scenes to bring out the oranges and yellows. Also made sure created stronger differentiation between my darker and lighter tones by decreasing highlights and raising the shadows.
But for on-track footage, I took some extra steps. I raised the contrast in many of these shots to help whichever car Alex was driving to "pop"and stand out from the track. I also added saturation to the blue's and greens in these shots so that things like the grass and sky were key focal points that added to the mise en scene.
To get each shot looking consistent I made many many cuts in my adjustment layer to allow me to manually adjust the settings of each individual shot if necessary. Since some obviously had different lighting or exposure. Although time-consuming this proved to be a successful endeavour.
The grade was fairly consistent throughout, except for one particular sequence. Namely The South Downs sequence. With this sequence being visually and stylistically different from much of the other parts of the doc. I knew it was important to give it its own grade. Taking inspiration from the Twighlight movies (and the grade they use to enhance its emotive content). In this scene I contrasted it to the rest of the doc by bringing out more of the blue's and greens. The issue i had with this is it took a long time for me to get the sky and grass to match in each shot, especially since the temperature changed throughout the sequence anyway. But after careful work with curves and colour wheels, I was able to get this to look the way Alex envisioned.
The darker, more mellow tones in this sequence help add to the emotional content that is being conveyed on screen. It brings Alex's character down a few levels, so we see him as a human with relatable thoughts and feelings.
Overall I am really happy with the grade of this documentary. Considering I did not have a lot of time, considering it was my first real attempt at grading on this scale, and considering I did almost all of the grade on my own, without my director or D.O.P there to offer feedback. I think it turned out really well.
If there was more time, or I did have my director/D.O.P with me to help then i may have built upon it further, but I think it does its job well.
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