Telling the Story - The Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction - page 338

“I think story is really important. I know any time I'm going to grade
a film—if I'm doing a DI—I'd either like to read a script or at least see a
cut of the movie before I do it to know what's involved or to know what
the genre is, because I think that has a lot of say on the color as well.
I think that's really a key. I think that's extremely important to do that,”
states Creaser.
I think story is really important. I know any time I'm going to grade a
film—if I'm doing a DI—I'd like to read a script.
- Greg Creaser, freelance colorist
He doesn't have that option as he starts grading the bedroom scene
from “Kiss,” though, so he has to make up the story as he goes. “If I were
the DP on this, I'd want more of a mood, so it'd be definitely warmer.
And I would probably dip right into the shadows with this and probably
the midtones: probably want to drop it down a little bit density-wise.”
(Note that Creaser uses the photographic/cinematographic term “density”
to describe the brightness of the image. “Density” is also the term used by
the original “colorists”—negative timers.)
“I'm just going to look at the highlight color and see if pushing it to the
warm side makes it nicer. I think that makes more sense,” he says as he
checks back from his grade to the original image ( Figure 8.18 ) . “That's a
little cyan for me,” he comments, then switches back to his grade ( Figure
8.20 ). “That's a little more in the mood. I'd leave it there to start with for
the client” ( Figure 8.21 ) .
I point out that pretty much all of the colorists who worked on this
image warmed the shot up and darkened it. Creaser adds, “That's the
whole point of this. Somebody—the DP or director or producer—is
making these choices. Somebody's got to say, 'My taste is to have this
shot darker or warmer.' And you know what? I think that's what makes
a good colorist. I think being able to have that interaction, being able to
help the client make creative decisions—a lot of time they maybe don't.
I've heard from clients about being in a room where they didn't get
what they wanted and they kind of didn't even know what to do with
a shot themselves—so it's kind of helpful if you help them with that a
little bit.”