The colour grade

The colour grade was a very important part of the process for me, considering my career plan to work as a DIT and colourist. I took my time and designed a structured approach based on the suggestions in the Blackmagic user guide. I began by normalising and colour balancing each clip to create a fairly neutral starting point. I then selected one clip from each scene (or each location as the intercutting meant that similar shots were spread throughout the film). From this corrected starting point, I was able to apply a creative look to whole sequences using the ‘group post-clip’ feature. I enjoyed developing this workflow and familiarising myself with the online grading suite and resolve panel.

I found no major issues in the footage while grading. I had been slightly worried about the exposure of bed scenes as the monitoring LUT had made them look blown-out in the edit – in the grade though, I could see that my use of the in-camera exposure tools had been successful and no detail was lost. I was very pleased with how some shots turned out after grading, particularly in the bathroom scene. Overall, I’m now feeling much happier with the project than I had been after seeing the picture lock.

Though the grade is mostly complete, I’m still a little unsure about the brightness levels and perceived darkness in the party scene – I will ask Andrew for some feedback and possibly tweak the darker scenes a little. We are still waiting on Alanah for the sound edit, but once that’s complete I’ll be able to combine it all together in Resolve, add titles and master the finished film!

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