Have you ever been dissatisfied about the final look because of the directors choice?

[jambredz]

Ok i ask this because I Dped a video and the final result didnt look good to me because of the grading. I wasn't involved in that process...just shot it on set. The director graded it himself and the colour was kinda crappy. End result was graded pretty dark also. When someone that knows my work saw it he was surprised at the end result and asked if i was sure i shot it and what happened to the lighting. So i showed him some clips of footage i had of the video that i graded in my spare time and showed that it was actually lit properly ect. he was like "oh...phew..looks much better." If I direct, i'm usually the DP and editor/colorist. . But i do DP alone for peoples projects. How do you guys ensure that the looks of your work is good in the final outcome? Are you heavily involved in the grading process?

 

[bwwd]

Yes thats why keep ungraded version for you for your showreel for the future.Grading can ruin your work as a DP.
*Hey sometimes it happens on big sets and people avoid giving real names as DP so nobody knows who really shot such bad colored movie, its the only way out sometimes, hide your name from credits, change it for made up pseudo or something.

 

[jambredz]

lol. for real. I may have to do that. I have raw footage of all the stuff I dp. But not the raw edited versions. I still can cut a reel from them...just more work

 

[kevinkt]

Just avoid using those works which you dislike the director's final edits. It's also about working with someone that you know has vision and knows what they are doing. Don't DP for someone if they don't know what they are doing.

 

[bwwd]

Example how movie can be ruined be moron behind picture mastering having fun with color correction, he bumped up contrast so high its ridiculous.
I have no idea how this was approved by distributor.
*Its a crime to do this on such movie.I would be very angry if someone would do this to my shots.

 

[Jordan Scott Price]

A DP should ALWAYS supervise the coloring/timing of footage he or she shot for any film. And a DP should know before shooting begins what kind of look will be applied in post, found by his/her testing and experimenting before principal. Of course, some cameras systems (Alexa, Red, etc.) are built for achieving the look in post by recording a flat image, while other cameras like DSLR's demand a careful hand from principal to coloring, but this does not change the DP's involvement.

Think of it like this: It is the DP's job to translate the Director's vision into a two-dimensional image. Yes, a Production Designer is a key ingredient in that, too, but the grading process does not add or subtract set pieces, rather it affects the qualities of light in the image. No one should be stepping on your toes as a DP. When the Director is also the Colorist, he/she should not be sending anything graded to be mastered without your approval. In theory, you would already know what LUT's to apply or how to reach the target look you two agreed on from preproduction, but if that discussion never took place and the Director is just going Crayola Crazy on the footage YOU poured yourself into, and he/she just doesn't want to listen, well, that's the last project on which you work with them.

And as others mentioned, always try to keep a copy of the dailies for you to grade properly for your reel.