One shot color grading

[Thanh Duy]

I'm about to grade a one-shot commercial for Apple, but i don't really have any experience on color grade one shot so far, so how can you guys start the grading with a one shot video?

[Tom Evans]

Hopefully the light stays consistent throughout the spot. I would start with contrast and exposure and add dynamics to keep it consistent. Then do a color pass on top of that. By using offset controls you adjust the whole picture and doesn't have to think about that it might break into some strange color behaviour when going between rooms or in and out of different lighting conditions. 

 

 

[Orash Rahnema]

Last year I have done a 15 min long short movie, shot on a single long take at sunset hour where the 4 subjects kept going in and out a house, so lots of exteriors and interiors with a massive light change.

The DP i have worked with had done a great job "shutter pulling" and that helps a great deal.

First thing I have studied how the light was changing and I found a  "master shot", then I have found all the places where I could hide the dynamics  and balance the whole thing with very simple correction, mostly offset and contrast working with the light changing and not going against it.

I have used the layer mixer and create stream for each change I needed

Then I have worked on the "look" and placed it within the single streams, to use the dynamics I have done before

I have done a general correction after everything also.

After all this I have worked with masks and stuff.

The key is to keep it as simple as you can, things can become messy quite quick.

try to brake it into smaller problems and think it like a multi shot video, that rather to have cuts have  dynamics.

Choose if you want a massive node tree with a layer mixer like a did or to brake the cut in editing using cross dissolve. I don't like that approach as I rather move keyframes that to jump within cuts and fix dissolves.

I hope I was clear enough

[Thanh Duy]

23 hours ago, Tom Evans said:

Hopefully the light stays consistent throughout the spot. I would start with contrast and exposure and add dynamics to keep it consistent. Then do a color pass on top of that. By using offset controls you adjust the whole picture and doesn't have to think about that it might break into some strange color behaviour when going between rooms or in and out of different lighting conditions. 

 

 

 

11 hours ago, Orash Rahnema said:

Last year I have done a 15 min long short movie, shot on a single long take at sunset hour where the 4 subjects kept going in and out a house, so lots of exteriors and interiors with a massive light change.

The DP i have worked with had done a great job "shutter pulling" and that helps a great deal.

First thing I have studied how the light was changing and I found a  "master shot", then I have found all the places where I could hide the dynamics  and balance the whole thing with very simple correction, mostly offset and contrast working with the light changing and not going against it.

I have used the layer mixer and create stream for each change I needed

Then I have worked on the "look" and placed it within the single streams, to use the dynamics I have done before

I have done a general correction after everything also.

After all this I have worked with masks and stuff.

The key is to keep it as simple as you can, things can become messy quite quick.

try to brake it into smaller problems and think it like a multi shot video, that rather to have cuts have  dynamics.

Choose if you want a massive node tree with a layer mixer like a did or to brake the cut in editing using cross dissolve. I don't like that approach as I rather move keyframes that to jump within cuts and fix dissolves.

I hope I was clear enough

Thank you for your specific guides, i had learn something new

[Thanh Duy]

23 hours ago, Tom Evans said:

Hopefully the light stays consistent throughout the spot. I would start with contrast and exposure and add dynamics to keep it consistent. Then do a color pass on top of that. By using offset controls you adjust the whole picture and doesn't have to think about that it might break into some strange color behaviour when going between rooms or in and out of different lighting conditions. 

 

 

Do you use specific keyframes or masks to make the product pop out?

[Jussi Rovanperä]

Yo can also add extra cuts with crossfades where the color is changing, that's usually easier to manage than one shot with lots of keyframes.

[Margus Voll]

You have to decide from material which way works best for you.

There is no wrong if you deliver what client asks you just have to figure out proper way.

 

Have done it in both ways, many many many keyframes or fading recut clips depending your color app.

[Dylan R. Hopkin]

Cross fades are your friend. I did a an entire one-shot 90 min feature film like that. (Resolve 14).

But since you are doing a commercial, which is shorter in length, keyframing multiple dynamics could also be an option. Or a mix of techniques. It really depends on the amount of power windows involved.

You could also consider using multiple adjustment clips too. Resolve 16 or newer 😉

Edited November 12, 2019 by Dylan R. Hopkin

[Thanh Duy]

On 11/13/2019 at 1:49 AM, Dylan R. Hopkin said:

Cross fades are your friend. I did a an entire one-shot 90 min feature film like that. (Resolve 14).

But since you are doing a commercial, which is shorter in length, keyframing multiple dynamics could also be an option. Or a mix of techniques. It really depends on the amount of power windows involved.

You could also consider using multiple adjustment clips too. Resolve 16 or newer 😉

Thank you, i had read all the comments and follow the guides. Did try to use keyframes and cross fades so the color was approved pretty fast.

[Anton Meleshkevich]

I prefer to use keyframes instead of crossfades.

[Margus Voll]

Any specific reason?

[Anton Meleshkevich]

37 minutes ago, Margus Voll said:

Any specific reason?

Less CPU / storage bandwidth intensive and no need to switch between color and edit rooms for transition timing adjustments.

Also it can be useful to keep the same edit list from begining to finish for edit or vfx roundtrips.

 

Actually I'm talking about long clips with exposure / color balance changes.

If I would have to grade 15 min one-take film, I'd definitely use crossfades as well as keyframes. 

Edited November 18, 2019 by Anton Meleshkevich

[Thanh Duy]

8 hours ago, Anton Meleshkevich said:

Less CPU / storage bandwidth intensive and no need to switch between color and edit rooms for transition timing adjustments.

Also it can be useful to keep the same edit list from begining to finish for edit or vfx roundtrips.

 

Actually I'm talking about long clips with exposure / color balance changes.

If I would have to grade 15 min one-take film, I'd definitely use crossfades as well as keyframes. 

The reason why i need to use crossfade beause the camera was panning from one to another set and the lighting was yellow, then our client wanted to changed it to be natural light. 

[Eric Denis]

On 10/31/2019 at 1:23 AM, Margus Voll said:

Have done it in both ways, many many many keyframes or fading recut clips depending your color app

I used both techniques on a real one shot feature film (1h 30min) a couple of years ago.

Using a predefined node tree with enough nodes to adjust to different places in the grade helps a lot to not get lost during the process.

[Marc Wielage]

Anybody who's been at this for more than a few years has had to deal with long shots or long single-shot projects. I did a single-shot music video back in 1984 (Steve Perry's "Foolish Heart"), and I used what we would now call keyframes and about 20 color corrections for it.

In more modern times, we have access to more complex methods. Steven J. Scott did an interview five years ago discussing what he did on Birdman, and though this was all done on Lustre, the principles apply to any color correction software. It's a great-looking film and Steven did an amazing job on it.

 

 

[Thanh Duy]

On 11/24/2019 at 3:00 PM, Marc Wielage said:

Anybody who's been at this for more than a few years has had to deal with long shots or long single-shot projects. I did a single-shot music video back in 1984 (Steve Perry's "Foolish Heart"), and I used what we would now call keyframes and about 20 color corrections for it.

In more modern times, we have access to more complex methods. Steven J. Scott did an interview five years ago discussing what he did on Birdman, and though this was all done on Lustre, the principles apply to any color correction software. It's a great-looking film and Steven did an amazing job on it.

 

 

Thank you for such an amazing information Marc