Cinemaography vs. Color Correction... how to balance

S

Svider

Member
I have finished a 25 minute film and I have more than a rough cut together.

Now is the time when I'm working on the final touches.

My question is about the non-technical side of Color Correcting.

While messing around with different color theme I found that certain ones work better with certain scenes, but no single "look" worked for the whole film. I want each shot to look beautiful, but this means a different look.

To what extent do I need to be consistent?

I've seen Traffic so I've seen the drastically different styles for the different locales/stories.

If my question sounds confusing, it's because I'm not sure what to ask.

Basically, I'm wondering how you guys approach color correction.

Do you aim for a consistent look? Do you adjust based on good reason such as mood or setting?

I understand that there are no rules in filmmaking, but I think it would be helpful to know some of the guidelines when creating a "look" for the film.

This film is not about cool effects, it's about the characters and the story. I just want to understand the right balance.

Any comments will be appreciated.
 
If your story is character driven then to me the answer becomes simple, if it does not detract from the story it's OK. I have never traied to apply a single color correction to the entire film, but color each clip to flow with the clip before and after, so the audience doesn't have a visual shock. Hope that helps
G
 
I don't think its necessary to have a uniform look for an entire film. You can color correct different scenes differently while still keeping an overall style and tone to your picture. Here's a simple example: one of my projects involved these two opposing heroes. I color corrected the scenes involving each character differently to highlight their differences. Then when they finally met in the climax I used another CC to emphasize a kind of bringing together of their opposing wills.
 
Don't beat the viewer over the head with it, though. For example, on my film "Guesswork" I tinted the lunch scene blue, as I shot it in early morning and wanted to further press the feeling, and tinted the rainy-day classroom scene a warm yellow-amber for a feeling of comfort in a storm. A scene directly after school was shot near sunset and tinted red, and a bathroom scene was tinted green. Each has its own feel but other colors are apparent in them, so it's not a monotone.

Personally, I didn't like the tinting in Traffic, it was too all-over-the-place. If there was a theme, it was too cryptic to pick up on first viewing. Then again, I probably wasn't paying attention, so take that with a grain of salt...
 
Color correction/grading only enhances good photography. Without quality pictures color grading is useless.
 
Usually the whole project is taken as a single color corrected endeavor. As it looks psychologically harmonize with the philosophical theme of your project. At the same time it is a purely artistic decision of what should look like what ...

Personally I don't like to use various looks for the same project (unless there is an extreme need which is a rare), so I don't recommend you to make your project multi-color ... You may look at all Hollywood movies. They all follow the same theme throughout.

Now, lets talk about some basic technique to achieve that similar look n feel in all your shots under different lighting conditions. Always keep a pure white-card/hard paper with you. It will give you the neutral reference in all light situations. Always white balance manually with a single/same white-card/reference for the whole project. For more information on White balancing there are lots of great resources available over the net. For a quick reference you may look for "White Balance Demystified" under 'Cinematography' section.

Remember the technique I described above is used to color-correct the footage in post-production. It is the most simple and effective technique that can be enjoyed by an amateur or a budget-tight indie filmmaker ...

Any suggestions ...
 
Different color themes look better on some scenes than others. If you didn't carefully plan and shoot your video on the set (sometimes there's no time to be picky) you need to fix them on post.

1. Very often raw video lacks nice contrast, so work on that and make it even in all scenes (scene after scene, the values will differ), try to remove some blown out areas if you have any.

2. Apply your color theme, many hollywood movies have different looks from warm to cold depending on the scene and they go smoothly along the movie, but choose it wise, be sure they all have something common.

3. Use the colors to show the mood of the scene, just try to not loose much image detail when CC ( hard contrasts set on scenes shot when sun hits the lens directly etc)

Sometimes you'll have to CC every scene a bit different, that's ok as long as your scenes looks good technically, go smoothly from one to another and don't distract from the main action.
Greetings,
Alan
 
Check out Little Buddha. Bertolucci uses a very broad color and light pallette; the pronounced variations in look serve the story quite well.

But One Hour Photo was brilliant in part for how the monotony of the look served the story.

I think it's a matter of what works for the story you're telling.
 
I think the look should start first and foremost with the lighting (and compostions as designed for the edit)

Capture everything raw and true. Color Correction comes later where your possibilites are limitless.
 
Jet Li's "Hero" had different looks for each story they told and i think it worked perfectly but as others said, the photography needs to be on point and in that movie it was amazing.
 
I don't have a lot of experience in filmmaking but I would agree with all of you, it sure is important to light things the way you want it and shoot everything with white balance. That will give you more freedom across the color wheel. I have done this short where I had to use green tint for greed. So what I did was, I used green gels on lights which worked perfectly for the look I was going for but again if I were to change my mind it would be much harder for me to tweak that in post than a raw white balanced clip. Thanks for reading. -Qazi-
 
When using a filter such as magic bullet, do you guys color correct before or after applying the filter or not at all?
 
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