Irfan Post 18c - The last one on Colour Correction...

...And not before time. The stuff bores me silly, but it is, well, essential to making the pic as beautiful as possible.

Here is a shot from the last scene to be shot. And that scene is normally the director's nightmare. The last scene that is shot is normally the most rushed, the one when the cast and crew is at its most rushed and fatigued. And if it is outdoors, the one where the sunlight level is constantly changing as the sun sets in the sky.

Yeah, note to self, the next time I shoot a final scene, make sure it is indoors...

So this was the scene where I am having the most difficulty in correcting the colours. I knew it when editing, this would be the scene that would stump me. Take a look at the original shot:



Time. When the sun goes down, you are racing against time, and it is humanly impossible to work against the sunlight levels, no matter how much goodwill is on set.

Right, so as you can see, the scene looks really bleached out, and a little red. So first things first, I got rid of the red and slightly darkened the clips in this scene:



Next, I moved onto the secondary corrections and managed to enhance Irfan's face as well as bump up the colour of the car. I also removed some of the light from the fence in the background, so as not to distract from the character's emotion onscreen.



It is Christmas, so I am on the computer? Hell yeah! One of the best day's to start the rendering, but that is another blog post - number 19 - the one that the cast and crew will be almost looking forward to (well, they are waiting for post number 20).

Merry Christmas everyone!

Irfan Post 18c - The last one on Colour Correction...

...And not before time. The stuff bores me silly, but it is, well, essential to making the pic as beautiful as possible.

Here is a shot from the last scene to be shot. And that scene is normally the director's nightmare. The last scene that is shot is normally the most rushed, the one when the cast and crew is at its most rushed and fatigued. And if it is outdoors, the one where the sunlight level is constantly changing as the sun sets in the sky.

Yeah, note to self, the next time I shoot a final scene, make sure it is indoors...

So this was the scene where I am having the most difficulty in correcting the colours. I knew it when editing, this would be the scene that would stump me. Take a look at the original shot:



Time. When the sun goes down, you are racing against time, and it is humanly impossible to work against the sunlight levels, no matter how much goodwill is on set.

Right, so as you can see, the scene looks really bleached out, and a little red. So first things first, I got rid of the red and slightly darkened the clips in this scene:



Next, I moved onto the secondary corrections and managed to enhance Irfan's face as well as bump up the colour of the car. I also removed some of the light from the fence in the background, so as not to distract from the character's emotion onscreen.



It is Christmas, so I am on the computer? Hell yeah! One of the best day's to start the rendering, but that is another blog post - number 19 - the one that the cast and crew will be almost looking forward to (well, they are waiting for post number 20).

Merry Christmas everyone!

Irfan Post 17 - Colouring the Picture!

The good news is that if I am colour correcting, it means that the editing of Irfan is done. Really, it is complete. At 17mins and 54secs (not including credits) it is the longest film I have done in a fair old while. But thankfully, it is not technically the most complex. That honour goes to my last short film, Caution Wet Paint. The difference this time with Irfan has been the length, which has meant it has taken a lot longer to finish. Plus the fact that I basically had the whole of August written off, as I was at the film festivals on the continent.

One thing I have to add is that during the Sound Editing, I was always tweaking Irfan. Taking bits and pieces off the edges. When I sent the first draft to Nick for musical inspiration, the film was 22 minutes long. So you can see that in the meantime, it has been whittled down a considerable amount. While my main concentration has been the sound, you cannot help but fiddle with the lengths. However, a seventh of the film is much more than a fiddle. Yes, unfortunately I have dropped the feather scene (the cast and crew will know exactly what I am talking about) and a hell of a lot of lines are gone. There are really only two bits in the film where I have any real dialogue between the characters. The rest is purely visual.

And before I delve into the sticky and sweet world of colour correction, let me say that there were also a couple of moment shots that I also removed from the film. What felt moving in my mind was tedious on the screen. Interestingly, a couple of the ad-libs off the set have made it into the movie. The thinking on your feet, on-the-day stuff turned out to be damn useful!

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All right, as colour correction is actually a really dull exercise, I will show you some fun things that I do while sitting at my computer.

(My life at this moment in time is utterly sad. You will see below.)

This is an original sot from the movie, uncorrected.



And this is the shot when I have finished with it!



Look, the car is now green! isn't that amazing! Wow, I like, sooo love computers and all! Mummy, can you make your car turn green?!?!?!

All right, I am only mucking about, this is the shot, wuth the blue colour of the car bumped up, so looking a lot more vibrant than in the original (first pic):



(You can see why I have no life. I am excited at turning something blue into something green. Ugh...I despise colour correction!)

More next week on the process! I will be doing a lot of this, not just on the inanimate objects, but also bumping up people's skin tones, clothing and even eye colour. Do not underestimate the detail ;)