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Surviving (And Finishing) A 1000 Shot Project In 2 Days Or Less

September 22, 2017

Coloring long form projects with very quick turn arounds can be very challenging. In this article, learn techniques for surviving & finishing big projects


Simple Strategies Can Have Big Payoffs

3631

Three thousand six hundred and thirty-one.  That’s how many shots I’ve graded over the past 9 days.  That’s over 4-hour long broadcast shows averaging about 900 shots each, and with about 2 days to work on each show – plus handle reviews, outputs, etc.  On average I have about 60-90 seconds (at most) to color each shot!

While I do grade some short form, over the years long-form grading has really become my thing and most weeks I’m grading one or two shows.

Thousand shot shows that need to be graded in 2 days or less have become so regular for me that I forgot how much they can suck!

Recently one of our members, Michelle, wrote asking for some help:

‘I’m struggling with high-shot count projects that used to have 4 or 5-day grading schedules that are now often condensed to 2 days!  Is there any advice you could provide for how to handle projects like this? I feel like I’m getting crushed!’

The fact is – this is a common thing in long form grading – project lengths and shot counts are pretty much the same, but clients are expecting color correction to happen faster (and usually at the same price!)

In this Insight, I’d like to share some strategies and things to think about when it comes to tackling (and surviving) high shot count projects with short schedules.

Keep in mind, this is just my perspective so if you have something to add to the conversation that could be helpful for other members please use the comments at the end of the article!

The Focus Battle

Facebook, Twitter, email, Spotify, coffee, clients talking – there are hundreds of things in a color suite that are competing for your attention. In my opinion, one’s ability to complete a 1000+ shot show is largely based on one’s ability to focus.

5 min on Facebook, 7 min responding to some emails, 10 min talking to some coworkers might not seem like a lot of time in the grand scheme of things, but when you have a high-shot count project with a tight schedule every minute counts.  Depending on the project, you may only have a minute (or less) per shot, so if you spent 30 min of your day not focusing on the show that’s 30 less shots you’ll have done.  While that seems like you can easily make up that time 30min is probably a gross underestimation of how much time each of us probably wastes per day!

To get through a high-shot count project you have to focus by any means necessary.  4 years ago in one of our early Insights,  I wrote about several apps that can help you stay focused.  The one I still use daily is Freedom .

To get high-shot count projects done focus is a must. Avoid distractions in any way possible

Freedom is a highly configurable productivity app.  One use is to block websites & services that might be distracting you.

Another use is to simply kill the Internet!  That’s right! You can totally turn off outside traffic (while still maintaining connectivity to your local network).  Here’s the thing – Freedom can even be configured so that the only way to turn it off is to restart your computer!  If you’re jonzing that much for Facebook to restart your rig – you may have a problem!

Freedom is available for many different platforms and I can’t recommend it enough as it has really helped me stay focused on many long projects.

Another approach that I’ve been forced to do with some projects I’ve been working on is to completely take my workstation off the Internet by actually pulling the cable!  Seems a little extreme, but this is a requirement by the company I’m working for that no machine with their material on it can be attached to the Internet.  This forceful approach has actually been pretty liberating and reminds me of my early days on a hardware color correction system where the Internet was simply not a thing you’d ever use on a workstation.

Finally, as I have attempted to do at home, when I get to the office I’m leaving my phone, laptop, etc., out of the suite.  This helps me not ‘cheat’ by not having those devices accessible.

Regardless of your solution, focus is THE key component of getting high-shot count projects done within very tight schedules.

Grading Strategies Part 1

Before I get into some technical approaches to banging through 1000 shot + timelines in just a few days, in this section, I’d like to spend some time discussing some of the ‘softer’ approaches to managing a lot of short period of time.  This shouldn’t come as a surprise, but getting through a long project in short amount of time is partly about technical skill, but it’s also in large part about focus (mentioned earlier) and discipline in your approach.

We all have off days, but the more you can build discipline into your day to day, the more you can get done.  Let’s take a look at a few approaches:

Live In 5 Minute Chunks (Just Get To The End!)

Thinking about getting started a long project can be intimidating.  Especially if the project is just wall to wall shots.

It’s demoralizing to look at the screen and realize you’re on shot 400 and only 7min into the project!

I have two coping mechanisms for this problem:

First up, is grading in 5 min batches.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean 5 min of your time.  I mean 5 min of show time.

If you can learn to tackle 5 min chunks of a project before you head back over to social media or you’re checking your email you’ll quickly finish any project

A typical broadcast hour that I work on is about 52min or about 10.5 five minute blocks.  If I have two days to grade a show, thinking about finishing five, five-minute blocks per day is easier to get my head around.

From a focus point of view, these five-minute blocks of time are also how I time my day.  I’m not going to check Facebook, write emails, etc., until I complete a 5 min chunk of project time.  I’ve found that breaking a project down into 5 min of chunks makes even the longest projects seem doable.

Any timeline can be divided into chunks. For high-shot count projects, I have found 5 min blocks to work well.

Next, when pressed for time, all that really matters is simply getting to the end of the timeline!  As I’ll discuss in a moment, you can always come back and re-touch problematic shots, or even do a full second (or third) pass, but the most important thing is that you touch every shot in the timeline at least once.  By doing so you add a tremendous amount of value to the project and for your client. I constantly remind myself when I’m not happy with a correction on shot, that I’ve improved it, and I will come back to it and force myself to move on.

Sounds easy right?  For those of us who suffer err…are blessed with OCD, moving on can be hard but its something you have to do – just get to the end and remember that every project doesn’t have to be art.

The Benefit Of Passes

I often joke with Patrick and Dan that one reason I don’t do a whole lot of grade breakdown videos is that I’m never on a shot long enough to think about all that!

In long-form grading, when you’re pressed for time and because I’m simply trying to get to the end of the show, I rarely focus on a single shot for more than 45 seconds and seldom have the luxury of dozens of nodes.

But how can you get the shot looking great you might be thinking….

Passes.  

Grading in passes lets you improve a shot everytime you touch it. Remember everytime you touch a shot you add value to the project. It’s a gif please excuse the banding!

If getting to the end of a project and touching every single shot is the most important thing for any given project, the next most important thing is the second pass.

It’s on the second pass that the groundwork has already been laid and you’re making tweaks – shot matching, secondaries and so on.  I make sure before a client ever sees the project I have done the second pass and most of the time, I try to do this second pass at the start of the day when I have fresh eyes.

But I don’t limit myself to just a second pass. The client review is my opportunity for a 3rd pass – which is extremely helpful as the client is usually sitting with me. And a fourth pass is often possible after the review, and right before final output.

Standardize

There are a lot of ways to approach grading a project – Curves, Lift, Gamma, Gain, Offsets, etc., and even more combination of nodes to use those tools!

On a tight project, it doesn’t really matter which toolset you use or even how many nodes you use –  but if you want to work fast, try to standardize on your base grade.

So how do you do that?

  • Have a go-to approach – For me, this usually means a 4 node structure.  Base Grade on Node 1, Window on Node 2, Outside on Node 3 and a blank Node on 4 or I’ll use that node for noise reduction.  In my Powergrade toolkit (discussed later) I’ll have additional nodes I can layer in without having to create them from scratch.  Depending on the project, I’ll usually have an alternate standard grade ready to go.
  • The results of look setting – while many standard broadcast shows won’t have time or budget for a look setting session, many films will at least have a few hours.  Often, I build my base grade based on that work.
  • Incorporate fixes/style –  whatever ever your base grade try to incorporate the problematic issues in the project.  This could be a master curve role off, a shadow lift, etc.
  • Don’t get locked in – I know! It could be tempting to create a very specific look/feel as your base grade – don’t. Using LUTs and heavy-handed approaches are tempting but they’ll ultimately lock you into an approach. While you want a framework for your base grade you don’t want something that paints you into a corner.
A standardized approach to your base grade – both in terms of node structure and tools used is a must for being fast and efficient.

One more point about standardization – figuring out what tool(s) will work for the project is vital.  While there is a ton of overlap in terms of color correction tools, the look that they impart is slightly different and because of that, I think it’s important to stick to (as much as you can) to one toolset in your base grade.

So, if I determine that Contrast and Pivot work best for my base grade, I’m going to stick to that rather then using curves on one shot, and Lift, Gamma, Gain on a another shot. While this might sound limiting, I’ve found that it provides the most consistency in terms of look/feel for my base grades.

A Control Surface Helps (Duh!)

If you’re a member of this site, you’re no stranger to how emphatically we endorse the use of a control surface to work faster.

Resolve specific or 3rd party control surface can all speed up your work tremendously.

While smaller control surfaces can help you with basic functionality -lift, gamma, gain and things like saturation.  To be most efficient, the control surfaces you use need to be able to let you effectively manage all the controls you regularly access.  Here are some things to think about with the control gear you use.

  • Quick access to common controls – instead of menu choices or hard to remember keyboard shortcuts, a control surface allows you to access all manner of controls quickly. Depending on how many knobs and buttons the control surface has, this could mean a significant speed increase.
  • Copy grades in various ways – true you can do this with keyboard shortcuts, but it’s often more intuitive to do so with dedicated hard keys on a control surface. This includes saving stills, memories, etc.
  • Simultaneous moves – with a mouse something like a simple contrast correction might be 3 or 4 click/drags.  With a control surface, you can drastically reduce your dependence on multiple clicks/drags.
  • Save stills & memories – Larger panels will have tools to load and save stills and memories, which allow for quick comparisons that are helpful in shot matching and consistency checking.

In addition, to dedicated control surfaces, a niche industry of devices mainly intended for gamers has sprung up to provide control panel functionality on a smaller, more affordable scale.  Popular devices like the xKeys units, Logitech G13,  MidiGrade and my new favorite the El Gato Stream Deck provide programmable functionality that is very customizable.

No matter your choice in control surface device, there is no faster way to speed up your work.

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Comments

Homepage Forums Surviving (And Finishing) A 1000 Shot Project In 2 Days Or Less


  • Marc Wielage
    Member

    Many, many good tips here. It takes YEARS to come up with a methodology like this. I would add three more: 1) pace yourself and figure out how many shots you need to get done in a day. I’ll set alarms every 2-3 hours and make sure I’m moving along at the right pace. 1000 shots in 2 days is totally doable unless the material is heinous. 2) Use a Fixed Node Structure that puts the same type of correction (like a base grade or a vignette) in the same place, even if they’re bypassed. This can be useful in longform projects. I have several different node structures for different kinds of projects; Powergrades for looks are crucial. 3) Consume lots of caffeine and keep the lunch breaks short. BTW, note that pretty much every hour-long network drama has a 2-day schedule, so this is pretty much the drill for American TV.

  • Many good workflow habits here indeed. Thanks Robbie.
    This insight reminds me of Patrick’s series “Budgeting Time for Color Correction”, with many overlapping ideas. Anyone interested to read more on the topic will find part I here : https://mixinglight.com/color-tutorial/estimate-time-for-a-color-correction-session/


  • Luke Ross
    Member

    I had no idea about Memories in Resolve! Very good to know, cheers.


  • Scott Stacy
    Member

    Great insight, Robbie! For those of us who have never worked in a high-end post-house, to learn from the top down, insights like this are invaluable.


  • Robert A
    Guest

    I’m surprised you don’t mention Remote grades. They are totally saving me on a long-form narrative project right now….


  • Robbie Carman
    Guest

    ahhh great point and often a much easier alternative to groups especially in an conformed workflow I think the reason that I always forget about remote grades option is that in many of the long form broadcast shows I work on are a flat file workflow so everything is the same source clip.

    I’ll update the article though, as I think remote grades are def. a big workflow tool in a lot of situations.

    thanks for the comment!


  • Jon Howard
    Member

    Great work on his Robbie, I had no idea about Timeline C Mode which is ace. Really appreciate this breakdown, sometimes I have to do 1000 shots in 8 hours, so this will help.


  • Remco Hekker
    Member

    Hi Robbie,
    Love your article. I know I have a lot to learn about speed. Especially, since most projects I’m doing don’t have that much time pressure. It allows me to grow slow.

    My favorite tip about this article: (alltough, I’m pretty ashamed to say it.) The ordening of your powergrades.
    You don’t know how un-organized my PG’s are. I’ll be implementing that very simple folder structure first thing monday morning. And I’ll pretend it has been there forever.

    Thanks.

  • Thank you Robbie for the Powergrade toolkit structure, that alone is helpful. I know I would pay to download a dpx/drx based Powergrade toolkit for windows, keys, people, noise etc. Some of your power grades are probably “top secret”, but the basic setups would be a great resource for emerging colorists trying to get their business going. A basic kit would help me be faster and more competitive. I think purchasing power grades that I can tweak to make my own is more valuable than 100 LUTS! Let me know if that’s possible. Either way, thank you for your article.

  • Even better, you could do a tutorial series on how to make the basic powergrade kit plus some of your favorite advanced items that you feel comfortable sharing. That way we can put some sweat equity into it. 🙂


  • Marc Wielage
    Member

    I have 2 Powergrades I’ve been using all the time: one is the GRID, which I’ve customized to help level product shots and center logos, and the other are some custom settings for FX Sharpening (very similar to BCC Magic Sharp), which I use instead of the normal Blur/Sharpen control. Both of these help speed the session along because I’m not fumbling with controls — I’m starting with settings that I know will work in advance. And I have a couple of NR Powergrades from mild to extreme for problematic footage. All of these are just designed to help get me through the shots faster.

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