Production Blog: Experimenting with Color Grading

 On this editing day, I prioritized in getting the color right for these clips, and made sure that they look united in terms of aesthetic. From my research, I knew I wanted to incorporate color theory to convey an ominous tone to my film just like other horror movies. Particularly in the movie, The Ring, their coloring is what I wanted to take as inspiration. Although, I made my own adjustments to add my personal style. The Ring's distinctive look is containing very cool and muted colors, primarily using teal and blue to create a monochromatic look. When I was playing around with the color grading, such as curves, contrast, etc. on DaVinci Resolve (I was relatively new to the advanced program), I found that I liked the look of teal shadows and warm highlights. Going off from that, I adjusted the curves of the file (particularly the blue channel and red channel) and manipulated the shades to be a teal/ green color, while the tint would be an orange peachy color.  It definitely negating away from The Ring's distinctive look, however, I was satisfied with what I produced. Thus creating this look:

Before

After

When I was color grading the other clips that I had filmed, I found it extremely difficult to have all the clips look united, as if it was part of the same movie. The problems I can traced back to this shortcoming was my lack of editing skills and the lighting in each clip. With practice throughout this project, hopefully I can improve in making the film look more united in color. In terms of lighting, I may just improvise to be frank. The lighting throughout the film changes a lot, and in my house, I can only control so much. To be frank, this is my first major film project, so I'm not expecting myself to completely fit the vision I wanted to. Throughout this class, I'm beginning to learn that the visions we created doesn't necessarily translate to media; so, I'll work with what I have and learn to adapt to the challenges ahead.