Color grading is often seen as a second chance and the final step in bringing every shot to its full potential. and sure it can be that, but you really shouldn't treat it as just the last step. because the secret to cinematic colors, is not in a magical plugin or perfect amount of grain, actually... it starts before you even hit record. allright, remind me why am I here again?! to learn color grading? just like you asked! pretty sure I just asked if you have any cool LUT. yeah but this is way better! come on, just go inside! do I have to?! yeah... you kind of do. um... What is this place?! it's basically just a room... a very dusty room. but that.. doesn't really matter. you see that desk in front of you? yes. well, that actually matter. get a bit closer. These photos, they're from the movies that are widely considered to have a very cinematic look! cooooool! very touching. And what am I supposed to do with that?! okay, if you can spot these films, name them on the board, and you will discover the first secret behind Hollywood's color grading! fine... seven! okay, I'm done. Great! Okay, tell me what you found! that you're into printing stuff. really?! that's it?! yeah, that's all I got. Okay. If you take a closer look, You will see that none of these films forced their desired look through grading alone.. They crafted everything around the visual style they wanted! Ff the necessary elements are not already there in the frame, no amount of grading is going to save it! So... what can create a very strong foundation for the great?! Okay, that was cool! Thank you! Now if you want to truly understand, go check that laptop on your left. You can find countless example of this, but there's a movie called "Black Phone" which makes the connection between color grading and set design so undeniably clear. The filmmakers aimed for a warm retro look to match the 80s vibes, but in almost every single shot of this film, is a hint of blue! thoughtfully placed in both wardrobe and props to create a lot more contrast, without breaking the look! so even after a very warm grade, the image feels beautifully balanced! so basically they made the "orange and teal" look by putting blue stuff in the frame? exactly! It wasn't a last minute decision or forced it to the grade. it was already there. Interesting... wait, that was it?! there's another board... behind you. is this another puzzle? yes, sorry. Okay what am I looking at? - you tell me! What do you mean? Besides set and custom design.. there's one more thing you can use before grading that will make everything fall into place. And just like before it all comes down to contrast! I think I got it! it's the blue pins on the orange papers, and the orange pins on blue papers. That was we-don't-have-enough-time-to-explain-the-how fast! Okay, enlighten me. With pleasure! open the last folder. you will see hundreds of images where mixing warm and cool color temperatures, had a huge impact on the look and the contrast! the effect really pops when your two lights are around 2,000 to 3,000 Kelvin apart. like 2900 and 6,500? yes, this may be considered a lighting trick but it has a noticeable impact in the color grading process! it can work in both ways. yeah, but you mean for every single scene? the lights needs to be motivated by something, but no not for every scene. check the second laptop on your right. there are plenty of great looking shots that use just one-tone. I mean it still depends on your story, location and lighting motivations! but pulling off a good one tone image is a lot harder. and when you watch them side by side you probably get what I'm saying. I mean... you're not wrong! taking care of these things will make your grading process easier and more powerful. Now, ready to start the actual grading?! thought you would never ask. how about we do this my way?! well I was thinking that maybe... - Perfect!! first step, converting slog3 or any other Log format to Davinci Wide Gamut and then to REC709, so that will be our first and last node. Ask me why? why? to get the maximum dynamic range! then I'll create four more nodes in between starting with contrast and... exposure? exactly! I usually start with just Gamma and Gain, but still keeping an eye on the vectorscope and I try to keep the shadows above zero and highlights under 900, and sometimes lowering the contrast and Mid-Details will create a more cinematic look! especially with mirrorless cameras.. the next node is White Balance and The Look. - the most important one. Right... and sometimes... I try to steal from the ones I love! I've noticed that I like the films that have a bluish or desaturated look, and most Sony cameras have lots of unnecessary reds in the shadows, so I reduce the reds using Lift, Gamma and Gain, but it's better to do most of the work with just Gamma and Gain. Then I'll create a parallel node to bring back a bit of yellows and reds to the midtonones. Don't you want to add something? I do... There's a plugin called Dehancer... That's always been my final touch. Okay, where should I get it? You can download it from their website, it's a really accurate Film Emulation plugin with lots of film stocks, but it's not free... yeah i'm trying to buy... 500 bucks??? Bold of you to think I would actually buy that. Well, you can use mine if you want! Yeah! Let's do that! okay, drag the Dehancer to the next node after white balance and change the source to DWR intermediates, and reduce the gain to 0.600, then choose a film stock. okay which one? any one you like! I use Kodak Aerocolor for most of the night scenes and Kodak Vision3 for most daytime scenes then I would enable the grain, halation and bloom... and it's done! so all these steps were necessary, huh? none of them are necessary.. but planning and putting time and effort into your work always makes a difference! for example everything you went through today, was planned 30 days ago. What?! Everything started when I was trying to make a color grading video without just recording my screen. so I headed over to Milanote the best place for planning and organizing and tried to gather all of my ideas in one place the first part was writing the script after finishing the first draft I transferred everything to Milanotes adding some visual references and organized it into five chapters next step set design i put together a mood board in Milanote with all the things I thought would suit the place like a library with vintage books and bunch of brown furnitures this story is supposed to have a few puzzles so I wrote down everything that came to my mind in Milanote and then choose the one with a better chance of actually working it's always better to have all of your ideas in one place then it was time to make a shot list so I grabbed the shot list template from Milanote and started writing the shot types and frame sizes for each scene and pair them with at least two visual references for each one they can work both as inspiration and as a backup plan the next step was making a gear list and fortunately Milanote has a template for that too i chose the DZOFilm Arles primes and paired them with Sony's ZV-E1 these are definitely the best lenses I ever used now the only remaining part was music i dragged all the songs that I like into the soundtrack board and try to match each one to a specific moment in the video then after four weeks of planning and huge help of Milanote everything was ready to roll Milanote is available for free with no time limits. so you can sign up for free using the link in the description. so yeah.. like I was saying, all the time you put in our work really pays off at the end. I mean... everything you did today was worth it, right? ...right? yeah yeah totally! hahaaa I knew it! So, ready to discover a new secret?! Oh I'm sure you're ready, go check the books on the library on your left and you will discover the biggest trick about color grad... YOU'RE WELCOME. you hang with us boom start it up turn it up roll the drop hang with us start it up i go on and on