Color Correcting the FIlm

A big aspect of the editing I wanted to focus on for this film was the color correction. It was something I didn't touch on during my first film but I now see that it is helpful in creating a certain mood or making the film look consistent. 

My main focus with the color correction at first was making the film look consistent. There were shots of the film that you could easily tell were taken on different days or with different settings. One of these shots was very bright and had an obvious yellow hue to it when compared to the other shots we had of the same scene. It stuck out like a sore thumb so I needed to go in and try to fix it. To do this I tried to alter all of the shots to have a similar look instead of trying to match the different shots to the rest.

Still of our shot that looked very yellow

Still of the shot right before that looked normal

To do this I asked the cinematographer for help in order to establish a vision of what the film should look like visually. The overall idea for the film was that it took itself so seriously that it came off as humorous. We wanted a slightly darker tone to match that energy. to make it feel more "serious", we darkened the shots we had for the interrogation scene and made sure the colors weren't very vibrant. This would juxtapose the scene right before it.

The running scene was shot in a park and the footage we took of it had its colors very toned down. this slightly matched the look we wanted but it mostly just made the film look boring. The cinematographer had the idea of making the scenery more vibrant by using CapCut so I did. It made the shots look more appealing and were better at keeping someone's attention.

Still from the raw footage of the chase scene

Still from the new edited footage that made the shot look better

This experience overall taught me about the relationship between an editor and cinematographer in achieving the look of a film. When first starting with the color grading I thought I had an idea of what I wanted to do. It wasn't until discussing with the person who shot the scenes that I was able to alter the shots effectively. I was also able to bounce ideas and see what someone else thought without having to edit something fully in multiple ways and see which got the best reception. Most importantly, I was introduced to other editing softwares and ideas that helped me create the first scene of our film.