Color Ready: A Colorist's Guide to Preparing Your Footage

Most of the problems a colorist corrects can be avoided with good preperation. The 3 main things a colorist fixes are exposure, white balance and color temp. What to do?

To get truly color ready, you need to think in three phases: what you do in-camera, what you do after the shoot, and what you do before handing the project to a colorist, or grading it yourself. These steps come naturally with training and practice, but most filmmakers don't think of them. And finally, there's one more thing you should know; How to ask your colorist for what you want, and what to expect in return.

What To Do In Camera

Exposure: Set exposure using false color, zebras, or waveform, then your eyes. Keep highlights below clipping (especially skin). Avoid crushing shadows, set ISO to capture low light detail. Keep exposure consistent across shots . Use ND filters instead of raising shutter speed. Watch out for changing lighting conditions,

Truth be told; I use auto-exposure outdoors and in changing lighting conditions, especially when shooting on the fly. I use manual exposure for controlled lighting scenes, like in a studio. Basically if you have the time and can set exposure, do so, if you don't, use auto exposure.

As a colorist, exposure is the first thing I correct. There are several tools that can fix exposure but the best one is the camera.

White Balance: Manually set white balance, never rely solely on auto. Match color temperature to the dominant light source. If your camera can adjust color temp, i.e. daylight, flourescent, cloudy, incandescent settings, match wb to your conditions.

Avoid mixed lighting (daylight + tungsten = splotchy patches). Mixed lighting results in reflections that will change the look of a scene and change the flavor, technically speaking. Be wary of colors that don't mix well.

~~flashback~~

One time, I was doing a tan car shoot on a purposely lit very warm set. Well this lighting director wanted to cool off the spot where the actor stood next to the car. So, he put up a purple scrimmed spotlight and didn't tell the video engineer (me) what he was doing. And of course the talent left the set leaving a beauty shot of this tan car with a big purple bruise in one spot and the trunk lid was a different color from the rest of the car. It was ugly.

I went nuts wondering what happened to my carefully graded shot, until I walked out on the set and discovered what the lighting guy had done. Who refused to take down the scrim even after I showed him what the camera saw. So, I turned to the director and asked if he would sign off on responsibility for the look of the video, in writing, so we could legitimately charge him for the almost inevitible post color grading session that was sure to follow. Down came the spotlight and out the window went a post production grading session I would surely have done.

~~The End~~

ISO & Noise: ISO is a standardization of the camera's sensitivity. And noise is unintended distortion. ISO amplifies the signals the sensor already receives. When you raise the ISO you also raise the signal to noise ratio. So, don't raise your ISO so you can see in the dark areas, you may just be adding noise.

A good camera will list it's native ISO detting, sometimes referred to as "Base ISO." If not you can test to find what is best for your camera.

Put the camera on a tripod and light a simple scene evenly. Shoot clips at ISO 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400. Look to see how much detail and noise you see in the dark areas. The ISO setting with the cleanest detail and least noise is your native ISO.

Use a slate with color bars and grey scale for reference. Keep WB consistent across the entire scene. If you really want to be prepared for color grading nothing is more helpful than good camera notes.

Include such data as scene, shot, take, camera settings, location and the mood e.g. warm, dark, sunny, cool, neon, blue, green, you get the idea, right?

Make your footage color ready with good, consistent slate information. Add it to your slate for every take or at least once during your shoot.

On the slate note f-stop, ISO, color temp, tint, fps and shutter angle, so you can match settings later. Also on the slate are roll, shot, scene, take # and production title.

Have you ever had to re-shoot, or get another angle, of a shot? With a slate that contains the right information a cinematographer (and a colorist) can quickly reach the right settings for a perfect match.

Oh yeah, a slate can also be used as a clapper to sync audio. When clapping make sure you do it with authority. No lazy claps, as silent claps are of no use if the microphone doesn't pick up the sound.

In The Can After The Shoot

File management: Presumeably your footage is recorded on an SD card or better yet an SSD (portable solid state) drive. Whichever device you use transfer speed matters. The faster, the better. Size matters as well. The more storage space, the longer you can record. The only drawback to this is when you try to edit your footage and the drive is overworked trying to keep up.

File naming can be a great way to organize your footage. Many cameras simply name the files as the time and day, when you hit the record button. Make sure your camera has the date set and is at the current time and day can really help identify the footage for the colorist.

Don't create proxies on the same drive as your footage. If you create proxies of your footage be sure to file those separately from your main media drive if possible.

Organize your footage: Create a file structure on your computer that makes sense. Start with a project folder and name that. Create folders underneath the project folder to itemize your media. If you use DaVinci Resolve give the clips keywords and include in bins.

Want your footage to look its best? I provide color correction, grading, and editing services on Thumbtack. Clients hire me for fast delivery, clear communication, and polished results. Tap into my Thumbtack service and make your footage shine...

See Also:
3d Animated Avatars - Meet the family of 3d animated spokespersons.
BWT Videos - animation, video editing and tutorial services.
Screen Recording Tutorials - video tutorial creation service page.
Video Editing - where you can custom order a video.