GRADE MY R3D - FOREST SCENES

[Joshua Hoareau]

Hi all! So I've been seeing some other threads on here about test grades and loving what people are coming up with! Got really curious to see what people could come up with for grades on a shoot I'm working on at the moment.
I've got a few frame grabs from the shoot and would love to pick your minds on what you think would look good for grading
I'm personally going for a dark, spooky forest type feel

Have fun with the pics and nothing is too extreme! Looking forward to seeing how the pros do it

Thanks everyone!

P.S. there are 6 pictures in the RAR file File is 16MB

http://www.mediafire.com/?inbfsasxfc6pf87

 

[Will Keir]

Can you post a few images of the Forest so we can see the image before downloading your zip file?

 

[Derek Morrison]

Working on a grade, probably will post tomorrow. Let me say its difficult to grade that one without being creeped out after a while.

 

[Joshua Hoareau]

@Will For sure
@Derek Haha I think I know which image your grading

 

[Tasmyn Shirlaw]

Beautiful!

 

[Kalulu Ngilo]

nothing fancy, just some resolving done with a couple nodes.

 

[Derek Morrison]

 

[Rami Mustakim]

 

[Dovydas Miliauskas]

Wow, Rami! Love how the red color in her dress just really pops out while keeping a cold, spooky and mysterious background. Really nice grade
Edit: The monster looks amazing too Great images by Joshua!

 

[Rami Mustakim]

Thank you Dovydas.
You're right, Joshua did a fantastic job.
Awesome images.

 

[Joshua Hoareau]

WOW! Far out you guys are awesome! Loving these grades!
@Rami that last shot! THAT REDDDD. Almost makes the dress look like it's made out of velvet!
Here is one of the promotion banners I made for the film

 

[Noel R.]

 

[Marc Wielage]

I had 10 spare minutes, so I gave this a shot. I went in a more desaturated, moody direction, and tried to keep the backgrounds muted and the kids lighter.











So much would depend on what the filmmaker wanted and how the shots looked in context, this is just a stab in the dark.

 

[Marc Wielage]

Tried a major power window on the girl, which would need some major tracking and finessing for a real shot.



I think this one took four or five nodes in Resolve 9, but I try not to go much more than that unless the shot is really in trouble (which this one is not). All of the material was very nicely shot, BTW.

 

[Tom Van]

Beautiful images. I love these grade my r3d threads just to see the possibilities out there.

 

[Hurcan Yilmazer]

 

[Mike Garrick]

This thread really interesting as I'm on a job right now setting in the the aussie bush.

Similar location as the O.P. (different themes) so drinking in the different looks. No red dress though ...just a blue one !

 

[Corey_O]

Marc,

Your grade has a very nice film feel.

 

[Barry Sanders]

 

[Marc Wielage]

Marc, Your grade has a very nice film feel.

Thanks! The key to me is to try to use light to pull the characters away from the background to give the scene depth, so it's not so flat, and find a way to direct the audience's attention towards the things they're supposed to see. There's always a temptation to re-light the scene, which I think is wrong for a lot of reasons. To me, all the colorist is supposed to do is to enhance the work of the cinematographer, not to go too far. If he or she is actually in the room and says, "I really needed more fill light on the left, and can we barn door down all that spill on the right?", then that's different.

I'm generally not a fan of taking the original photography and twisting it in a knot with an involved, stylized look, either, but I concede it's a visual trend these days. I'd rather start off with something that looks like it happened in the real world and then smooth it out and make it pop, plus solve any on-set challenges from the shoot (like time of day issues, inserts shot weeks later, etc.).

I know of directors (famous ones) who literally will put multiple tracking power windows on every major character's face and essentially relight every scene from scratch in the color bay, basically turning the color-correction into VFX work. This is great if you have six months and an infinite budget, but not so good if you have 2 weeks at best and the film has to make a delivery date to an important festival or home video distributor.