Primary Color Correction: Tonal Correction Tools - The Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction - page 68

Fig. 2.38 A key that
was created in the Color
Secondary Room to
qualify the highlights of
the “brian_interview_over-
exposed” shot. The areas
defined in white would be
the only areas qualified for
the correction.
Thinking about the Budget
One consideration before you start to play with the Luma Range editing capabilities
is that—like most things—color correction is usually done on a deadline and with a
budget.
To stay on budget or deadline with your corrections, you should stick with the main
or primary color correction capabilities of your application. A sure way to kill that budget
is to define the specific Luma Range of every shot, or to add color effects or secondary
color correction to every shot. Secondary color corrections and Luma Range definition
are fantastic tools that help you accomplish specific tasks, but you need to consider
how long you have to grade the entire project and how much time you can devote to
each shot. Hopefully, you can make each shot of a longer form project look pretty good
in under a minute. I typically had about two days to grade a 600-shot, 48-minute docu-
mentary. That works out to about a minute and a half per shot or 20 minutes of color
correction work for each finished minute of programming. American dramatic primetime
shows are usually in the range of 1000 shots in a one-hour show and are usually graded
in 12 to 16 hours, averaging a bit better than a shot a minute. Reality shows are closer
to 1200 shots in an hour-long show and only usually budget for a single day, including
laying it off to tape, which works out to about 170 shots an hour or close to 3 shots a
minute. Color correction for digital intermediates can vary greatly, but can average about
20 minutes (about two reels) per day.
Neal Kassner, a colorist for CBS's 48 Hours estimates that he has about 16 hours
to color correct that show's 1200 to 1500 shots per episode. That's 75 to 90 shots an
hour. Other colorists I've spoken to have mentioned averages for a nationally telecast
documentary as 6 to 8 minutes to correct one minute of finished program time. On spots,