Newbie colour correction question.

[Bubblegummonster]

This is probably a very obvious question to most but I really am new to colour correction so forgive me if it's obvious.

So I've edited my short film. I now want to tweak the colour and levels so that everything sits together well. My first thought was to do this during editing but this would mean applying the correction to all of the rushes as obviously I don't have the individual cuts rendered out.
But if I want to apply the corrections afterwards it will mean I'm applying it to a completely rendered out movie. Which again isn't what I want as I want to be able to tweak each shot individually.

So to sum up, what's the best process to colour correcting your individual edited shots?

Many thanks in advance


Peter

 

[Bruce Watson]

So I've edited my short film. I now want to tweak the colour and levels so that everything sits together well. My first thought was to do this during editing but this would mean applying the correction to all of the rushes as obviously I don't have the individual cuts rendered out.
But if I want to apply the corrections afterwards it will mean I'm applying it to a completely rendered out movie. Which again isn't what I want as I want to be able to tweak each shot individually.

So to sum up, what's the best process to colour correcting your individual edited shots?

There's no standard way to do it. It all depends on what workflow works well for you and your tools.

What I typically do is separate out color correction (setting black and white points, basic contrast, get rid of overall color casts) from color grading (artistic). I do correction to the rushes, which subsequently nests into my edit stream. When I achieve edit lock (sometimes an arduous process), I grade.

But what works for me might not work for you. Clearly, YMMV.

 

[Noel Evans]

Here's how we usually work. Cut and lock the edit. Then time and grade.

 

[eswaranb]

The workflow I have seen -

Export XML of the project that is then loaded into the color grading software (blackmagic or apple color). The grading happens per clip and once the renders are done, the original clip is replaced with the graded one and is relinked in the NLE project. Final render is done from the editor.

 

[drapeama]

Cut and lock the edit. Then time and grade.

I, personally, color correct in After Effects and then export all the corrected videos (.movs), then I edit the final version in Sony Vegas. I export the final version using FrameServer DebugMode and use MeGui for h.264 or HCencoder for mpeg2 encoding.

 

[Leon Bailey]

A lot of different methods I see. I normally do all the cutting then do the color correcting. Sometimes I color correct before I cut, but I usually forget. :-/