Digital Filmmaking Part 2 - Color Correction

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These days, however, with the reliability of digital video formats and the advent of HDTV, there is an increasing number of television series that appear to have been shot on film that are actually produced electronically and are processed to look like they were shot on celluloid. This decreases production costs considerably while still delivering the film look audiences like so much.

Image color corrected with Final Cut Pro's Color Balance filter.
In my opinion, the most exciting change in video production is not coming from the top, though. It’s happening at the bottom. It’s a revolution being brought by affordable digital video formats that enable storytellers to produce features entirely on video. The cost of celluloid has always been a big barrier for monetarily challenged independent producers and many good movies have never been produced because of the considerable expenses associated with film negative, lab expenses and distribution media. This is all changing because the cost of digital acquisition has become so negligible that it is no longer necessary to mortgage a house just to cover the cost of film stock. Instead, the money that used to go into celluloid can now be used to improve all aspects of production. Even motion picture giants like George Lucas are turning to electronic acquisition for feature production.

My goal with this series is to empower you, the independent digital filmmaker, so that your productions look more professional and can be better accepted by your audiences. Most of the techniques we’ll discuss can be used whether you plan on transferring your final product to film for widespread distribution or intend to have it presented electronically. In fact, as the number of theaters featuring digital projectors increases, the need to transfer your product to celluloid is also decreasing. In the not too distant future there’s a very good chance that celluloid will be as popular a distribution medium for motion pictures as vinyl has become for music.
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Preparing for Post

In order for the film-look simulation process to work, we must start with proper looking footage. Later in this series we’ll cover the proper videography techniques, as they can make a huge difference in how successful the whole process turns out. But because many of you have already shot your movies, I’ll continue focusing on the post process first. Besides, knowing what is possible in post will definitely be a big plus the next time you shoot.

Final Cut Pro's Tint in action.
Basically, there are four main characteristics to the look of film on video: Grain, 3:2 pulldown, gamma and overall color tone. If we properly apply these to the electronic footage, then we can make it look more like celluloid. In this second installment of the Digital Filmmaking series we’ll focus on color tone, one of the most important elements in making your digital video footage look like it was shot on film.

But before your start with the postproduction process I must warn you that, while it is a lot simpler to run the final edited program through the film-look simulation process in a single pass, certain things may degrade the final results if not done right. For instance, if your production involves DVE moves, those will look much better if applied to the previously processed footage and then edited into the final processed master. That’s because DVE moves look more natural at 60 fields per second than at 24 frames per second. By the way, we’ll discuss this speed conversion later in the series. It is also best to color correct each scene individually instead of applying a single color scheme to the whole production. Because of this, it’s best to perform transitions such as dissolves after the color is adjusted on the individual segments.


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