Colour

Member lesson

Colour in film and grading

Lesson 26 of 27 in Colour.

Using Colour To Tell A Story In Film · In Depth Cine
Lesson

Film colour is decided twice: once on set through lighting, wardrobe and production design, and once afterwards in the grade. The second cannot rescue the first, which is why a grade applied to badly lit footage looks like a filter.

shadows liftedhighlights heldthe look lives inthe shape of thisline, not in asaturation slidergrading is contrast first, colour second
A grading curve lifting the shadows and rolling off the highlights.
Three rows of the same café shot: mismatched colour casts at the top, neutral matching frames in the middle, and one warm shared look at the bottom.
Three shots with different colour casts are first made to match, then given one shared look. Correct first and grade second, or the shots drift apart.
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  1. Question 1, locked

    Which of these words means this? “Adjusting colour after shooting, for look rather than correction.”

    • Warm
    • Spot colour
    • Pigment
    • Grading
  2. Question 2, locked

    Which of these words means this? “Making shots match and look neutral. Happens before grading.”

    • CMYK
    • Correction
    • Grading
    • Ramp
  3. Question 3, locked

    Which of these words means this? “A lookup table applying a fixed colour transformation. A preset, essentially.”

    • Contrast ratio
    • Rendering intent
    • LUT
    • Tone

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