Importance of Colouring

A common thing for films to do is a colour correcting, which edits the shots post production and during the editing phase. Colour correcting is done in films like horror which is what our group has done, to make the screen darker, and more closed off than a lighter screen which ruins the tone of a film depending on the colour.
If a film was bright and colourful with its colouring, but the story was dark and sinister then the two would not fit, which is why some films do colour correcting, they also do this to fit how the actors look, for example film posters colours are changed to put the skin tone of the person on the poster opposite its colour to make it more visible and show clearer. Colorists take images and turn them into something better by adding depth and effects just with colour, films that have done this are the new 2016 Point Break, which had a green colouring and the Coen brothers film O Brother Where Art Thou? Graded shots help to put the colour right from under exposure or over exposure depending on the lighting used. You can change colours and filters of the images on screen, giving it the effect you want, like a "seventies cop show" look, with its blue and purple filter, or its "pure" look and clean world like the TV show 'Utopia', which has very blue skies as well as bright colour emphasis on objects.It makes the product looks much better if the colour correction looks good with the on screen images, like in a horror with a dark and lightless room. Depending on the colour of the scene, it could make a romance into a horror, and a horror into a romance. The colourist always adds value to a product that is being worked on, as they add effects like lens flares, the soft on screen blur, and set the tone or decide if the sky is night or day, and they can even change the colour of objects.

Faceless Editing: Colouring

Faceless Editing: Colouring

After showing the draft of our edited film opening to an audience we received feedback that the colouring in the garage was too bright and didn’t reflect a dark and sinister setting in which the killer’s lair should show. Whilst re-filming some parts, we experimented with lighting in order to create the effect we wanted. We first started off by turning all of the lights off and discovered it was too dark for the camera to see. Then we turned the lights on, there was no dimming them as they were either on or off. In the garage there was too lights, we decided it might be effective if we cover one of the lights up to make it darker. We covered it with black bin bags but despite it covering it up, the room was still too bright on the camera. Instead, it was suggested we manipulate the colouring in the editing process.

I used colour corrector to do this, having to select all the clips at once to colour all the clips all together to make the process quicker

I used a colour balance effect to manipulate the colouring from a yellow colour to more blue, to make it more sinister and dark.

In saturation, I put the saturation down half-way in order to make it look less bright, however I didn’t pull the saturation down all the way as this would have made it black and white instead, which is not the effect we were looking for.

The exposure allowed us to create a more darkening setting. I put this down as well, which pronounced the clip and made areas more blacker and darker, giving a small darkening around the edges, creating an eerie setting.

I had problems with one clip, as due to the lighting in the filming made the colour corrector appear differently on it to the others, making it not look naturalistic and as if we’d filmed it at two different points. In this clip, the image was more saturated than the others. To solve the problem I decreased saturation and increased exposure to make it more darker and fit in with the other clips of the opening.

Overall I’m happy with the colouring we’ve used as it is slightly blue and darker than the original and I achieved my aim of making it look like the garage is has a low lighting to create a scary atmosphere.