Scrolling Clip

The first thing I noticed that I needed to do in this shot, before doing any sort of colour grading, was to fix up the brightness of the curtains in the background. Firstly, I tried to lower the exposure, but in doing this, I noticed that it was messing with my skin tone. I needed to make sure that my skin tone was properly balanced with the rest of the shot. So, instead of adjusting the exposure, I decreased the highlights and whites, and increased the shadows and blacks. The amount that I adjusted each changed with the different looks I was going for.

In version 3, I wanted make the shot look more like it was supposed to when I originally shot this. The camera wasn’t properly white balanced, and so it looked very yellow. So, I turned the temperature down a bit. I noticed, however, that this made a lot of the undertones really off coloured. To fix this up, I went into the colour wheels selection, and adjusted the midtones, shadows, and highlights accordingly.

Version 4 was supposed to look a lot warmer and vibrant. Personally, I felt this was a bit of a failure, because it was difficult adjusting the look of the curtains without completely fucking up my face. In an attempt to make my face look a bit smoother, I actually slightly lowered the black tone a bit, which helped a bit. To make it look a bit warmer, I upped the temperature a bit, but again, had to adjust the colour wheels accordingly. Finally, I significantly upped the saturation to make it a bit more vibrant. Looking at it now, I guess it could do with a bit more exposure.

Version 2 was my attempt at making the scene look kind of bleak. Again, looking at it now, it could use an exposure boost. But other than that, I think it sort of works. For this one, I significantly lowered the temperature, and added a slight green tint. To make it look a little colourless, I also lowered the contrast a shittone. To top it off, I also faded it a little.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cocktail Pouring Clip

With the colour grading of this clip, I wanted to experiment less with vibrance like in the clip above, and a bit more with how the colour affects the actual mood. With this experiment particularly, I wanted to take a bit more of a subtle approach to it, in that the viewer wouldn’t consciously notice the fact that the clip has been altered.

Clip 2: The main colour I used in this grade was purple. I wanted to get kind of a retro style in it (or what others would call vaporwave). However, since purple is quite an obvious colour when it comes to this, I had to balance the tint out by greening the midtones and highlights a bit. The overall effect was, in my opinion, successful. The purple gives off that retro style, without being too ‘in your face’ about it.

Clip 3: I wanted this one to look a lot warmer, and more inviting, like those whiskey commercials on TV. In doing this, I used an orange filter, and bumped up the saturation a bit. Since orange is a bit more of a natural colour, because it’s reminiscent of sunlight, I didn’t have to counterbalance the midtones and shadows as much. Instead, I actually had to make them a bit more orange too. I guess it works, I mean, I would drink that…

Clip 4: In this clip, I wanted to see how the colour blue would change the mood. I was kind of expecting it to do the opposite of the orange filter, and make it feel less cold, but instead, it made the colours of the cocktails stand out a little more, which still made them look appetizing. The blue also made it a bit easier on the eyes (I wrote this at 2am, and so my eyes were already dead).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spooky Bear

The aim of this colour grade was similar to the aim of the cocktail pouring clip; use different colours to change the mood. However, unlike the previous edit, with this one, I wanted to take a slightly less subtle approach, in that the colouring was much more exaggerated and obvious. I used this clip because of the only colours (or shades in this case) are white and black, and so the whites would definitely show off the use of the grading. I felt that this approach was a bit of a hit and miss, in that it depends on how it’s done, and what colours you use, that affects the quality of the grade.

Clip 2: In this edit, my aim was to make the bear look kind of ominous and evil. I boosted the redness of the shadows and midtones, and counterbalanced them with slightly blue highlights. I also decreased the vibrance to make the details and shadows in the fur a little more obvious. Overall, I felt like this edit kind of worked, as in it pulled off the effect I was going for, but I felt that it just didn’t look visually appealing. I don’t know why, maybe it’s just me.

Clip 3: The idea of this edit was the same as the previous one; ‘make the bear look kind of ominous and evil’. But I wanted to take a different approach, in that I wanted to make it look less, well, shitty. So, for this one, I used a bit more of an orange filter. I boosted the orange in the midtones and the highlights, and counterbalanced them with a bit of blue in the shadow tint. I pushed the shadows out a bit too, so that you could see a bit more of the shape of the bear. I felt that this one pulled off the effect just as well as the previous edit, but would look slightly less out of place in a higher budget film.

Clip 4: The grading for this clip was supposed to do the exact opposite of the previous two; make the bear look a little less ominous, and slightly more inviting. So, obviously, I went with a bit more of a blueish filter on it. With this one, I actually blued the shadows a bit, and counterbalanced it with very slightly red highlights. I also cooled down the colour temperature significantly. As an edit, I felt that this pulled off the effect successfully, as it looks like something out of those Christmas animations that people make for kids, but personally, I felt that it made it look even spookier, as those animations are the creepiest things in the world.