Directing a film, short, feature or web project means you’ve got a lot of details to consider beyond the usual pre-production stuff of script, a casting, etc. Post production has a HUGE part to play in completing your film, helping you tell the story you’ve been harbouring in your mind. This is where colour grading can play a significant part in making your film a great one.

Warren Eagles of the International Colorist Academy walks us through a great tutorial clarifying how color grading can not only impact your image quality overall, but aid in giving your story subtle, deeper impact. For a glance thru the Looking Glass into color grading, check out this presentation from Colorist Kevin Shaw— cool stuff. Warren shows off a nice :30 second spot ( a PSA ), that’s deceptively simple– yet, utilizing his approach to storytelling with the aid of his color handling, the results are impressive. Great stuff here; have a watch and give it a try. For a bunch of other cool tut’s to tweak your color grading interests, head over to the iColorist Vimeo page— Heaps of Helpfulness shall be had.

Another interesting vid, sort of Color grading / color correction 101.  Tom Antos rolls into things a little slowly, but hang in there– he’s got some stellar know-how stuff to share. Heard of Adobe’s Kuler app? Tom steers the way to this online  color wheel, hosting a gallery of user-built complementary color collections. If you haven’t played with Kuler, you owe it to yourself. Options abound– load a reference picture, guide the color picker points over specific reference colors, and Voila! A color bar built of the colors found in your reference image. Tom uses Kuler to work up a color palette for his color grading maneuvers- nice way to get the right colors working together for the job– and Kuler is all about customizing the color schemes.

Wanna see where you land on the Color IQ Test? Here’s your chance to impress your friends and colleagues with your formidable hue distinguishing skills; jump over here and start sorting the color chips by hue– and see how you hold up!  Come back in a few days for another Handful of Helpful: Editing tips courtesy of Oliver Peters, editor/ colourist/ Post production pro. Good stuff shall be had.
Cheers- M.