An introduction to the concept of colour grading in film post-production. Contains examples of before and after grading shots and how 'looks' are created and relate to genre & narrative.

1. FILM GRADING
A Beginner’s Guide

2. What & How?
⬜ Colour grading is the process of altering and enhancing the
color of a motion picture or television image either
electronically, photo-chemically or digitally.
⬜ Primary colour correction: adjusting of red, green, blue,
gamma (mid tones), shadows (blacks) and highlights (whites).
⬜ Secondary correction: adjusting luminance, saturation and
hue in six colors (red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, yellow).
⬜ NB: Check primary after doing secondary as shadows and
highlights may be affected.

3. Realism:
low saturation, low contrast (sometimes mid-high)

4. Amelie: high contrast, high
saturation

5. Schindler’s List:
highlight one element of an image using color,
masks/mattes & motion control

6. Film Noir:
total de-saturation and high contrast

7. The ‘Look’ of Your Film?
● Film ‘look’: slightly lower saturation and higher
contrast (also adjust frame rate/de-interlace)
● Cold blues – crime drama
● Neon greens – sci-fi
● Warm reds & orange – romance

10. See: The Art of Color Grading ‘Color
can instantly change the mood of a scene’

21. Using Scopes:
⬜ Videoscopes are meters for measuring
the light & colour in an image.
◼Vectorscope – measures the intensity
of the six colours that make up the
image.
◼Waveform Monitor – measure the
levels of black and white in an image.

22. Why use scopes?
● The scopes will give you a true reading of
what your eyes are detecting.
● What your eyes see and how your brain
interprets it will be influenced by many
factors, e.g. the image settings on the
monitor, the ambient light in the room, etc.
● Using the scopes enables you to accurately
balance each image with the one
immediately before and after it in the cut,
giving a consistent look through the whole
film.

23. FCP Scopes

24. Other Scope Apps & Plug-ins

25. How to . . .
Click on the image to go to the web page:
http://digitalfilms.wordpress.com/2008/0
9/07/color-grading-in-fcp/
http://digitalfilms.wordpress.com/2009/1
2/05/color-grading-effects-demystified/