COLOUR SCIENCE
Get the look of your films just right by following these dos and don’ts EASY HACKS FOR BETTER COLOUR V ery few creatives get drawn in to filmmaking by the finer points of colour management, calibration targets or chromatic accuracy. But
while colour science might not be the most glamorous side of the industry, getting it wrong is one of the quickest ways to make good work look shamefully amateur. The good news is that reliable colour does not necessarily mean a full-time colourist, HDR finishing suite or years spent learning specialist software. For most owner-operators, production companies and small creative teams, the aim is simple: footage that looks natural, matches properly and stands up across different screens, all without slowing down your work to a snail’s pace. Think about colour as a workflow, not a last-minute fix. It starts before the shoot, continues on-set and only finishes in post. The filmmakers who get the best results are not usually the ones with the fanciest LUT packs, they are the ones who build consistency into the process from the start. There are three crucial stages. The first is pre-production, where you should calibrate your monitors, understand your camera and make sure your kit is providing a trustworthy baseline. Then it’s on to the shoot, where you need to set white-balance properly, monitor exposure carefully and manage mixed light sources before they have the chance to become a problem. The final act is in post, when it’s time to match clips accurately, establish a clean primary grade and – only then – start adding stylised looks. This is not an exhaustive guide to high- end colour science. It is a practical route towards better results for filmmakers who need decent colour, fast. TAKE 1: CALIBRATE FOR CONSISTENCY Before you shoot a single frame, you need to know the screens you are judging your work on are accurate. That sounds obvious, yet countless filmmakers spend thousands on cameras, computers and lenses, and then make critical visual decisions on a
BEHIND THE SCREENS It’s only worth investing in a great editing monitor like the new Atomos (above) if you keep it calibrated
unless you have a pre-agreed calibrated reference point. Some top-end monitors now have built-in calibration features. One recent example is the Atomos Studio Sonic Pro- 2710, a 27-inch OLED reference monitor aimed at editors and colourists. It offers true 33-point 3D LUT capability, real-time LUT previewing and a sensor-calibrated surround lighting system that measures ambient light as well as display output. It also supports recalibration via the Atomos Studio K-100 Spectral Calibration Probe that reads full spectral power distribution for lab-grade precision. Most filmmakers, though, still work from standard Mac or PC displays that can drift more than you may expect, especially over time. Regular calibration is essential. In a dedicated colour house it may be done daily. For most editors, however, monthly calibration is a sensible routine. The process is straightforward. Let the monitor warm up for around an hour, make sure it is running at its native
“Standard Mac or PC displays can drift more than you may expect” laptop or desktop monitor that has never been calibrated. Make sure to avoid this painful pitfall. If you view the same image on a laptop, an external editing monitor and a television, chances are they will all look different. Contrast shifts, shadows close up, whites drift warm or cool and colours become more or less saturated. You cannot control what each viewer will watch your film on, but you can make sure your own screens are not misleading you from the very beginning. This matters even more when working in a team. If one person shoots, another edits and a client reviews on yet another display, consistency quickly disappears
53
PROMOVIEMAKER.NET
Powered by FlippingBook