How to paint in the darkness
Phewww, it’s a bit past the third anniversary of this blog and I’m not sure which anniversary of the project in general but here I am anyway, still stubbornly cracking at it 😅 This time the reason for delay was that 2021 got super intense at my day job which actually resulted to a small career change which seems to have in turn resulted to me having more bandwidth and energy to get this thing over the finish line. Another motivator is that I am truly aching to get the next project going but before that, this little exercise needs to see the light of the day. But anyways, more about that later.
Let’s briefly talk about colour!
The approach this time around (spoiler alert: contains shortcuts)
My original thought for a long time was to spend some time learning colour grading and then apply those learnings to this project. But well, I just have to admit that I don’t have the luxury of time to learn everything I want to so some shortcuts were needed. Also I don’t regard this project to be high caliber enough to warrant the budget for a professional treatment so the shortcut should be budget friendly.
Luckily just a couple of weeks ago there was a sale at Noam Kroll’s Cinecolor, a site and a product that I’ve been following for quite some time. I ended up buying two of the technical LUT packs, PRIMARIES and MASTERING and also one of the digital film packs which I ultimately did not end up using.
(by the way, just that we are clear, this is not a paid post or anything, just found useful stuff :)
Using primaries and mastering LUT packs I was able to get a professional look rather quickly. The stylized pack did not really work well with the material I had but hopefully I will get to use it for something else later. Instead, I ended up using a LUT from a long ago forgotten folder named “35 Free LUTs”, most of them were quite extreme looks but there was one that just fit the footage like a glove. After one evening spent testing different combinations of the LUTs and seeing how they work across the scenes I ended up finding the combination that worked for me.
In hindsight though, would have been a good idea to do some more tests developing the look earlier in the process especially as the choices made in the production are a bit non-mainstream (shooting wide open at night, using no extra lights other than those strapped to the actor) and as a result exclude like 95% of ready made solutions such as LUTs because nobody else just has this specific needs that this project had 😅
Okey but how does it look? Eg. before and after
Original frame straight from Panasonic GH4
To be fair, IMHO the original is not that bad to begin with given all the self imposed limitations but I felt that the ungraded shots were maybe a bit too flat/cold/emotionless and wanted to shift the mood to something slightly more cinematic and intimate.
Also even though I shot everything with the same camera using 98% the same lens there were some visible colour and white balance differences between shots. So a treatment to get everything lined up was needed.
After applying PRIMARIES_05 + Korben 214 + MASTERING_04 + some slight exposure adjustment
After comparing several different combinations this one turned out as the winner. Though it crushes the blacks to some extent (which can be compensated by pushing up the midtones) it gives a nice cinematic, even a bit vintage feel to everything but maybe most importantly it just feels right.
A few more
What’s up next?
The major missing pieces in order of importance:
- soundscapes: foley, effects, everything to make the world of the film feel alive
- so hiring a sound designer is next on the list, feel free to give tips if you have any contacts (via Instagram for example)
- soundtrack: laying in the emotional layer, which in a dialogue free film is going to be super crucial
- some elements were recorded a while ago so there is an initial foundation to work from
Some lesser tasks:
- fixing a shot here and there
- possibly re-editing one scene with new footage from last year, not super critical though
- considering if I will replace my main monster or not, that is the question 😅
Well that’s it for now. Until the next time which hopefully will be in a few weeks instead of a year + 3 months 😅