Editing technique ? : Color

Jackie_Chan_Fan wrote on 6/25/2004, 8:57 PM
We all know color can be used to create mood through contrast and affinity in HSV etc...

My question is... How do you fit this into your editing workflow.

To me, color is extremely important and planning/chosing is causing me quite a bit of headache. I know.. Toss a coin and pick em and just go with it.

However its not that easy. Edits can go so many ways, how we cut, how we structure it etc. Staring endlessly at teh same clips as you try to structure your edit while worrying about color can cause a bunch of nightmares. Atleast in my case, it has forced me to redo entire ideas... sometimes never being happy with the result because of the almost infiniate possibilities of color and structure.

My question is... How do you fit color correction into your edit workflow. Do you rough cut and play with color.... then go full into the edit, and then do all of your color work afterwards?

I'm working on an action sports like edit where locations change quite a bit, cameras settings change quite a bit.... night time and day shots... desert like shots, urban shots etc. The footage is very varried, though well shot in composition and exposures etc.

I know i can control color per location "Desert is blue and orange tone" etc.. But of course what if i want a more crushed black and less saturated look for other locals.

Chosing color has become a nightmare on this project. So has figuring how to fit the color correction process into the edit workflow.

Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 6/25/2004, 9:15 PM
Depending on the shot, I color correct at the event or media pool level. If I correct an event, I save the correction chain or settings as a a preset.
However, if I'm correcting for effect, I'll create either a mask track to lay over the entire project and use that, removing sections as they work through.
A GREAT example of effect-use of color schemes is Mel Gibson's "Payback" film. Semi-dumb film, but great use of blue to show cold emotion on Gibson, reds to show heated passion/sexy/dangerous of Lucy Liu. Same sort of combinations in Michael Douglas' "Traffic."
Unless you're really awesome, capable, and knowledgeable about your camera and shutter/aperture settings, much of this can be done in post. DV doesn't offer a whole lot of options anyway, due to the nature of the color sampling format, so you don't want to limit yourself at the lens if you can avoid it, IMO. Don't know if this helps you or not, but it's my nickel's worth.
Also, you might try the Pixelan SpiceFilters Chroma tool for some effect-oriented colors.
Jackie_Chan_Fan wrote on 6/25/2004, 9:56 PM
Payback is a great example. Unfortunately color is nothing we really remember in detail. For example both you and i remember the incredible use of blues and contrasting blacks in Payback, but do we remember the color progression... or if there even was one. Did the film ever slightly alter its color in the final act? Did we see any progression?

Payback is a great example and i wasnt at all thinking about it. So its pretty interesting that you brought it up because it is a good example. Though i payback as i remember was mostly blue throuhout the entire film. Atleast thats what i remember most of the color scheme.

Such a scheme works well in payback because its a structured film where from shot to shot you exist in a locale for a scene.

How about in a more music video oriented edit where locales change litterally almost every cut. Using a single blue hue would make this simple... but perhaps not fitting?

Perhaps it is... Perhaps its a way to give unity to such a varied edit?

But i'm also interested in progressing teh color... to increase intenisty.. or perhaps mixing in black and white shots within an edit that perhaps has a single hue.. The B&W could be the "kicker" for intese shots.

A lot of this is artistic.. and its helpful. But also i'm curious as to where you make the decision and how you factor it into your edits.

When do you know "thats the color scheme!" (Often i tinker with whatever shots i have) But i find myself easily swayed to new ideas in color choices. i'm also curious as to when you decide to do the color correction pass. AFTER the entire edit has been acomplished... Or during as you cut your edit.

I've been studying films like Black Hawk Down, Three Kings, music videos etc... Where color is a very key component to the composition. It always is but those films just happen to be very interesting examples of color.
Spot|DSE wrote on 6/25/2004, 10:06 PM
Black Hawk Down.....listen to the rescue helicopter scenes, you'll hear some of my flute work in those segments...:-)
That has a lot of crush and color sterilizing to create the image of hurry, tension, and pain. Less saturation with greater contrast, etc...
If you use the color hues selectively, laid over full tracks, you'll be surprised at how well they work. Consider providing a color hue for each character, or for each location. You can always only use it for wide and medium shots as well.
Nothing wrong with using a color overlay to tie other things together, either. It's a common technique and when used right, looks great.
Try a gradient that maybe shifts in and out so that more and less is visible, depending on scene. For instance, a stock grade that is blue to transparent might cover all of one scene, but pull back to only have blue grade in the sky for certain segments/scenes.
I personally, LOVE cooled down colors and use the Pixelan tools to give me precise control. 3 Kings....I don't know that film. I guess I need to see it. Is it on DVD?
Jackie_Chan_Fan wrote on 6/25/2004, 10:14 PM
3 Kings is on DVD. Its a film about the Gulf war staring Mark Walberg, George Cloney and Spike Jones. They use a color reversal scheme were everything is insanely bright and contrasting.

As for the process of color correction... You mentioned overlaying on tracks... even full tracks... I'm curious as to what you mean by this.

Do you mean to apply a color correction filter to an entire track? Or are you talking about a more complex process of layering a track and using overlay mode and if so... What exactly are you overlaying? The same footage? gradients? etc.
Jackie_Chan_Fan wrote on 6/25/2004, 10:27 PM
I just tried overlaying a track, with a "solid color" generator. It works quite well. Should i be using overlay mode, or source alpha to do this?

Spot|DSE wrote on 6/26/2004, 4:24 AM
You can use gradient plug on empty event, you can use solid color with opacity reduced to almost nothing, you can use generated gradient in same way, etc. Sounds like you are on the right track of experimentation.