My research into colour grading led me to an article by Patricia Julia Christmann which stated the importance of capturing the right colour grade in your edit. "There are several aspects to the film where color is used as a tool to create special moods and emotions. This involves a certain degree of manipulation, which is partly clearly visible, but in other cases can also unconsciously influence the recipient". (hdm-stuttgart.de, 2019) We know that we have a powerful story within our fingertips and it is our task to enhance that experience in the edit. A lot of the raw footage has bland colours due to the generic format that it was filmed in, but we do have a few reference clips that we all like as a team and intend to use as a starting platform. This article clipping allows me to think about how we can change the grade for different parts of the edit. The part that stands out is the South Downs Sequence which seems to be both visually and audiographically different to a lot of our film. Knowing this allows me to think that we should grade this in a way which is different to the rest of the film to enforce the message upon the viewer that this scene is supposed to be especially powerful. "The unwritten contract between filmmaker and viewer requires a certain responsibility towards the audience and is based on the viewers trust in seeing something that is how it is: true. But is it necessary to reconstruct reality one by one on screen or is it enough to present something that gives an impression authentic enough to meet the audience's requirements?". (hdm-stuttgart.de, 2019). What differences will be in this grade is not yet decided, but highlighting key scenes and encouraging a different thought pattern through the grade is something we want to impose on the viewer.
Knowing that a lot of what we will be doing in the grade is colour matching our camera, I wanted to understand the style I should be going for when we actually make creative decisions within the grade. Once everything is aligned I do not want to change too much as a documentary typically does not have wild tones, rather sticking to more natural tones which many people seem to see as better in a lot of scenarios. "We often think of color grading as a way to stylize our footage to make it look better or moodier than what the scene may have looked like in real life, but in most cases color grading an image for realism will be a more effective approach." (noamkroll, 2014). I personally feel we should be using a similar methodology when editing our film as we want to ensure the viewer feels connected to the story rather than trying to figure out why we tried to be clever with our colour grade. This has thrown me off as a viewer in the past and because of it I have lost the morale of some documentaries. Noam suggests most films go for the natural look because: "They look so realistic that the viewer can become completely immersed in what they are watching."(noamkroll, 2014). The equipment we used, however, may mean that we spend more time editing than more high-end equipment. As we only have access to relatively (Under £1000) cheap cameras, we are not able to film content in such a good codec, which means colours often look off. "Typically DSLR colors don’t blend and bleed into each other softly like they would on film or a higher end digital camera, instead they feel more rigid, defined and separated from each other – more reminiscent of video" (noamkroll, 2014). Knowing this allows me to put the importance on making sure the whole film looks similar before we go to deep into our edit, as this opening process could be what we spend most of our time on. I believe that we should stick to a style which is not too dissimilar to real life as it ensures the viewer has an inherent connection to it. "9 times out of 10, films are best served with a color palette that is at least somewhat natural looking, so don’t feel like you need to stylize your film during the color process just because your can." (noamkroll, 2014). We would be silly to go crazy on our first attempt at a grade and try something very different, especially as we are creating a documentary. Saying this, it does not mean we should not look into the exact grade we want.
Allowing the colours to reflect the mood of the film seems to be really important. As I am going on a journey in a documentary I realise that I cannot play around with the colours too much as the need to keep it close to natural, but there are definitely ways to enhance the standard clips within our project. "Convey mood or emotional state. If your protagonist is depressed, colors could be cool or muted. If they’re happy you might want to use warmer colors or increase the saturation. Just like mood affects color, color also affects mood." (filmmakermagazine, 2014). I feel like my journey has been a happy one in which I go through various challenges to achieve a goal. Therefore, I think we should stick to a natural grade with warmer colours and some saturation. Even though this will be the main grade in our project, we need to ensure some scenes are distinct, which is something I'll speak about later in this blog. Ensuring the skin tones are consistent throughout will be a time consuming but worthwhile practice considering we have filmed on a number of cameras. These all look different and need to fit together seamlessly. "This is also the reason why getting skin color is so important in a color grade — we are experts at knowing when skin color is incorrect, even if we don’t know why. Call it the uncanny valley for human flesh tone. Colorists make sure that people look like people, and also that those people stand out from the background and other non-people things in the frame." (www.premiumbeat.com, 2016). This will be my first suggestion to George, ensure the documentary skin colours look the same before we spend much more time on the edit, this will allow us to use an adjustment layer over the top of these sequences to ensure every shot looks the same. I certainly have noticed it as it currently is, as the cameras are all different and it makes the experience jarring going from one camera to the next. We are honest with ourselves and realise it probably won't be absolutely perfect, but we need to ensure it is close enough so it does not jar the viewer from shot to shot, as that makes watching the documentary a painful experience.
I realise that my opinions will be playing a big factor in how this film is graded. I have been giving the crew consistent reference material throughout the project and it is now my job to pick the best bits of each one to give a case for how I want it to look. Communication seems to be key in this scenario as without being articulate with what I want, we may miss the style intended. "Like any artistic collaboration, communication is key. Communicate well with your colorist and you’ll get the look you want. Communicate poorly and it will be a disaster. How to do you speak to a colorist? It helps to at least know a little bit of color theory. You can use terms like “highlights,” “shadows,” “crushing blacks etc." (filmmakermagazine, 2014). Knowing the terminology I should possess when speaking to the edit team about my colour style, I decided to look at the reference material I have sent to find examples of the style I am after. From what I understand, I cannot change the style too much from the original tone of the camera as a grade far from reality would be very jarring in a documentary, as they are commonly only ever subject to a simple grade.
Both Icarus (above) and Joe Weller: Fighter, have a subtle grade which is used to enforce the messages being highlighted in the documentary. Icarus uses contrast to crush the black which heightens the drama of the film because it is instantly darker. This along with a slight saturation boost allows the colours to pop in the documentary without being too distracting or different from reality. In a particularly dramatic scene, the film uses shadows to make the shot even darker which allows the story to be surrounded by more mystery and suspense. Messing around with the highlights in a documentary is something I have learned not to do unless needed because this starts to make the documentary feel less connected to reality. Bringing back some of the highlights makes the film which is supposed to be showing reality, feel too staged and disconnected. This means I feel we should only be making small changes to the highlights in our edit unless a shot ultimately needs more or less to match the rest of the clips. Joe Weller's documentary follows a more traditional style and does not include much work on the colour grade. Slight adjustments to the saturation and contrast give a style which shows the journey is a hard one, but they are not as sophisticated as in Icarus, but we shall take ideas from both going forward. I was prompted to make these decisions are reading a clipping from an article speaking about how to tackle a colour grade for the first time. "If you’ve seen a look you like in another film (or even a photo), grab some screenshots to show to your colorist. It’s a great way to immediately convey what you want." (filmmakermagazine, 2014) Above are the two shots I have taken as reference and I did my best to find a shot from the daily rushes which nearly matches this. This will give a good base within our edit, meaning some clips may not need to be touched.
This is my reference image for the colour grade of dream chaser. I like how the colours pop and have an orange/warm tone in the face which feels nicer to watch, even though the colours are more saturated than real life. The use of shadows and crushing the blacks is something that I would like to use in the grade and I see us adding saturation as well as some contrast to most scenes as these additions allow the documentary to feel more dramatic. I think that all clips could do with a little sharpening as that will help the documentary become a little clearer, especially on clips where we had camera issues. Along with this, we will adjust the highlights accordingly but ensure they look as natural as possible and also focus our attention on clips which are blown out by light, as there may be ways we can make these shots fit in with the rest of the sequence around them. The brightness and vibrancy of each shot will be adjusted accordingly to ensure that the documentary is consistent through, except for when we are making it clear it is the difference. An example being he south downs sequence will alter to this and I am going to speak with the editor about how we distinguish this sequence. George has a clearer vision about how he wants this scene to look so I am happy to take his lead on the grade for this.
I am happy to have a clear creative vision for how we want this grade to look and I will be working closely with George in the edit to ensure that we make the best use of the sequences at our disposal. We can make powerful sequences even better if we colour grade them the right way and the intention is to be very consistent but also show off the time spent choosing the right grade. A slightly saturated and contrasted look will ensure our documentary hits home the right message and I believe my reference material has allowed me to make this decision alongside my research. Immersing myself within a colour grade is going to be a different experience, but one that I am interested in learning a lot about.
References
hdm-stuttgart.de, 2019 https://www.hdm-stuttgart.de/vfx/researchprojects/colour/color_grading
filmmakermagazine, 2014 https://filmmakermagazine.com/87033-how-to-survive-first-color-grade/#.XNR5QdNKh-U
www.premiumbeat.com, 2016 https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/the-video-editors-guide-to-color-grading/
noamkroll, 2014 https://noamkroll.com/how-to-color-grade-your-footage-for-the-natural-look-why-cinema-cameras-require-far-less-grading-than-dslrs/
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