color correction?

[Hans von Sonntag]

From my experience i can tell this.

I have paid around 30 hours (well, lets say, producers have paid) to CC footage i have shoot either in film or in HDCAM.

The truth is that i usually requested a DV copy (yep) of the reels without CC so i can later "play" at home with the footage. And every single time i ended up with better grading (lets say, more pleasent to my taste, and since i am the DoP, i can say "better") that the one that was made in the post houses (and we are talking about 4:2:0 sampling and DV compression).
They use hundred thousands of euros in equippment. Of course i cannot do the job in real time at 2k, but the thing is that if get the chance some day, i would rather prefer to do the CC at home/office myself.

Hi Macgregor,

I had this experience very often as well. I think there are two facts that come together:

1. It is always good to take a long nap and review the things you (and the colorist) have done so far in a second session. You rarely can do that because of budget.

2. I often leave the colour correction sessions with a feel of compromise. He/she did not really understood what I wanted, an often enough I did not really knew what I wanted (see 1.).

There are two possibilities to solve this problem:

a. Get your own colour correction suite (talk to Luki or call Iridas for instance). Both systems fit into the budget of an "advanced" indie filmmaker with regulary paid jobs.

b. Try SpeedGrade On Set. You can do the grading before you do the colour correction session. If you use SpeedGrade DI later you can use the look. files you created in the online colour correction and only tweak things (see point 1.). Or, if you use some other tool you can use the JPGs SpeedGrade On Set created as reference.

I actually choosed possibility a. and purchased FinalTouch which did not really made me happy. Currently I am testing SpeedGrade and will have a look onto Scratch.

My 2 cents,

Hans

 

[Miguel "Macgregor" De Olaso]

Hans, your two facts are totally correct. I usually end up with a compromise.