How to Prepare A Film Trailer For Color Correction

Day 3: 20 Insights in 20 Days Holiday Marathon

Prepping a Film Trailer for Color Correction

As I kick off this series of color correction tutorials – featuring the newest tools in DaVinci Resolve 10 – it’s very tempting to dive directly into color correcting! After all, that’s why you’re here at MixingLight.com, right? Right.

Well, I’m here to say, “Not so fast, laddie!” If you want a smooth color correction experience – especially if you have clients sitting with you – then I have some advice to offer:

One of the most important parts of color grading any project is assessing the edit and collaborating with the director or producer to highlight any major issues or challenged with the project. In this Insight I cover the issues and notes from the director on my fake trailer.

Are you working with mixed codecs or frame rates ?

Once critical aspect of evaluating a project is to determine the makeup of the source material. As I run through this fake film trailer you’ll notice the varied mix of codecs and cameras we’re using. I quickly realize, one of the critical steps I need to take is to prepare my Red Dragon footage for a more responsive color correction session. If I don’t do this with my RED footage, my color grading session is likely to become an exercise in frustration. And if I have a client sitting in with me, my frustration will show – and they’ll get upset as well.

Check out the video to find out more about evaluating projects BEFORE color correction begins!

– Dan