Digital Filmmaking Part 2 - Color Correction

Digital Filmmaking Part 2 - Color Correction

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Making Your Video Look Like Film advanced find
by Paulo de Andrade

Page 1 of 7

In the next few installments of

our Digital Filmmaking series
we will discuss several
techniques to make your
video footage look like it was
shot on film. They can be very
useful if you are shooting a
feature on digital video and
want give it the same look as
a film shot on celluloid, if you
are shooting a music video
and need it to meet the
required industry standards, if
you need to match video
footage to film footage or
even if all you want is to give
your video projects a much
Nothing Real Shake is an awesome high-end compositor with lots of color- higher perceived production
related functions. Highlighted is the Color Match tool. value.

It wasn’t too long ago that only high-end digital post-production facilities had the
capability to make video look like film. I first used such conversion process on a four-
minute music video that I produced for a Seattle artist and had to ship the master to
another state to get it done. After some negotiation I was able to drive the price down to
$750, which was a real bargain compared to the cost of actually shooting the whole
thing on film. I shipped the master next-day delivery to the facility and 4 days later had in
my hands a processed master that looked great. Even an experienced cinematographer
I showed the video to was fooled into thinking it had been shot on film. One of the Classifieds
reasons for the excellent results was that I was already familiar with shooting video ● Employment
utilizing film production techniques. This was probably why the owner of the facility ● Job Seekers
called to say that it was some of the best looking footage he had ever received for that ● For Sale
type of processing. ● Services

Specialized high-end facilities offer a great service and often use experienced colorists,
who know very well what film should look like, to color correct each shot. They are also
able to process the footage in real time once all the programming is done. However,
there are a few disadvantages to using such facilities including a certain lack of control
from the part of the producer (unless he/she is able to be physically there during the
process) and the time it takes to get the master to and from the facility. Fortunately,
these days we can get the same results by using inexpensive personal computers and
workstations plus readily available software.

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Digital Filmmaking Part 2 - Color Correction

Video Look Versus Film Look

The preference for a film look

over a video look seems to be
a cultural one. In many
countries, including Japan, a
very well produced and crispy
looking video is considered
better then film for projects
that will be ultimately shown
on television or video. The
reason is simple: modern
television cameras are
capable of producing great
looking images, far cleaner
looking on television that
telecined film. Video doesn’t
have the graininess of film
plus it plays back at 60 fields
Apple's Final Cut Pro comes with several color correction tools. per second instead of 24
frames per second, resulting
in smoother motion. Film’s superior contrast ratio and color purity – the formats’ biggest
advantages - are also leveled down when transferred to video and can be matched by
good television cameras. Therefore, cultures that appreciate the ultimate in image
quality tend to appreciate great looking video. Maybe because they have higher respect
for the electronic acquisition format, they tend to apply more demanding production
techniques to video production, similar to those used in film production.

In other parts of the world, including America, people tend to prefer the look of film.
There are many factors that influence this taste and I believe that perceived production
value is the main one, since we tend to associate film with higher budgets and video
with lower standards. We are also a society that loves cinema. We’ve grown up so used
to the dreamlike look of film, with its organic grains and slower-than-life 24 frames per
second speed, that basically anything produced in the format tends to assume greater
than life proportions and grab our attention more effectively. This is one of the many

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Digital Filmmaking Part 2 - Color Correction

reasons why a number of television series and commercials are shot on film instead of
video.

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Digital Filmmaking Part 2 - Color Correction

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.

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
Image color corrected with Final Cut Pro's Color Balance filter.
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 Classifieds
celluloid can now be used to improve all aspects of production. Even motion picture
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giants like George Lucas are turning to electronic acquisition for feature production.
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My goal with this series is to empower you, the independent digital filmmaker, so that ● For Sale

your productions look more professional and can be better accepted by your audiences. ● Services
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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Digital Filmmaking Part 2 - Color Correction

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.

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
Final Cut Pro's Tint in action.
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

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Digital Filmmaking Part 2 - Color Correction

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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Digital Filmmaking Part 2 - Color Correction

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Digital Filmmaking Part 2 - Color Correction

Digital Filmmaking Part 2 - Color Correction

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Understanding Color

Those used to video acquisition,

but not so familiar with film, make
take for granted the ability of video
cameras to be adjusted so that
they can perceive any light source
as being white. This is called white
balance and it helps to give video
a very characteristic look. Film, on
the other hand, is balanced for a
specific color temperature and will
mercilessly record any variances.
A film balanced for the 3,200
degrees Kelvin color temperature
of studio lights, for example, will
show outside light as being very
blue. Even a small discrepancy in
color temperature will be
noticeable. For instance, if
conventional light bulbs are used
as light sources, they will appear to
FCP's Tint with different settings.
be on the orange side due to their
lower color temperature. Any adjustments in color temperature, if not taken care off at the
time of shooting through the use of color correction filters and gels, must be made in the lab.

It’s a little hard to understand the effect that different color temperatures have on film
because our own vision works pretty much like a video camera with the automatic white
balance circuitry always on. Our brain is constantly adjusting the color temperature of light Classifieds
sources for us so that they are always perceived as white. In fact, this is why we can tolerate
the awful green light that certain fluorescent bulbs emit. Experienced cinematographers have ● Employment
learned what different light sources look like on film and they can think in terms of different ● Job Seekers
colors. But it’s actually a very abstract process because their eyes insist on seeing the light ● For Sale

sources as white. A very simple exercise to help understand how film sees different color ● Services
temperatures is to get close to a window on a bright, sunny day, and turn on the light bulbs
inside the room. If you focus your attention outside for a few minutes and then look at the
lights inside, they will look very orange. After a few seconds, your eyes will adjust to the color
temperature of these lights and you’ll start to perceive them as white. Now look outside and
the sunlight will appear very blue. As you can see, your brain will try to always give you the
impression that almost any light source is white. All it takes is some time for adjustment.

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Digital Filmmaking Part 2 - Color Correction

Now that you can visualize how

film, not being able to
automatically adjust to different
light sources, captures their
distinct differences in color
temperature, you can better
understand the importance of color
tonality in motion pictures. Your
ultimate goal as a filmmaker is to
invoke the desired emotions in
your audience. So keep in mind
that, while the brain adjusts color
temperatures towards white, it is
fully aware of each light source’s
true color. This can be used to
your advantage because you can
After Effects' Color Balance offers three color channels per luminance
really enrich the overall mood of a
level. scene merely by adjusting its
overall color tone to match our
brain’s perceptions. As a very basic example, we know that fire has a much lower color
temperature than the moonlight. As a result, a shot illuminated by fire would tend to have a
reddish tone while a shot illuminated by the moon would tend to have a bluish tone if no color
correction was to be applied. Because the brain associates the reddish light of the fire to its
warmth and the bluish light of the moon to the cooler night temperatures, it’s easy to realize
that a shot with an overall reddish tint will feel warm while the same shot with an overall
bluish tint will feel cold. If you watch the movie Body Heat, you’ll notice that the filmmakers
utilized this psychological color effect to better convey the illusion of unbearable heat by
applying an exaggerated reddish tint to the desired scenes.

As you can see, color timing is a very important part of feature film postproduction. This is
when the director and the lab work together to give each scene an overall color tonality that
not only makes the image more visually attractive but also adds to the intended mood. The
equivalent process in video is called color correction and it’s used in a variety of ways.

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Digital Filmmaking Part 2 - Color Correction

Digital Filmmaking Part 2 - Color Correction

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Electronic Color Correction

The color correction process in video was probably born to fix footage that had been
incorrectly shot. For instance, when the camera wasn’t properly white balanced or when
the wrong color temperature filter was used. It was also frequently used to match the
color characteristics of footage coming from multiple-camera shoots. But artistic types
soon realized that the color corrector could also be used creatively in the post process.

As film scanners became

more sophisticated and the
ability to convert film to video
straight from the negative was
made possible, the color
corrector became and
essential tool to recreate the
color timing process used by
film labs. Skilled professionals
called colorists started
applying color correction to
each shot not only to achieve
the correct color balance but
AE's Curves can be used for color correction or the creation of wild also to add to the mood of a
effects.. scene.

In order to make video footage look more like film, we’ll apply color correction to each
scene in a similar way that a colorist does. The first goal is to completely do away with
perfectly white balanced shots because they are a dead giveaway that the footage came
from a video camera. Since lights are seldom perfectly white on film, we must avoid that
on video. The second goal is to play with the overall mood of the scene by the use of an
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and orange will give you a sense of warmth while using cool colors such as blue and ● Employment
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Digital Filmmaking Part 2 - Color Correction

Color correction may be

applied directly within an
editing application or it may
be applied in a compositing
program. The choice is
basically yours and it depends
mostly on how complex you
want your color correction to
be and how deep into the film-
look simulation process you
want to get. If you intend on
going all the way and adjust
the gamma, convert the
speed to 24 fps and apply
grain, than you should
probably do it in a
compositing program. Same if
you want ultimate control over
the color manipulation
process or if you wish to take
advantage of the many plug-
ins designed specifically for
AE's Hue/Saturation effect with Colorize turned on.. this task. On the other hand, if
you are going to ultimately
transfer your movie to film, that color correcting inside your editing application may be all
you need. The advantage of using some editing programs for color correction is that it
can be done in real time, without rendering. This is the case with more expensive
systems as well as less expensive ones. The upcoming version 3.0 of Final Cut Pro, for
instance, will support real time color correction.

Each editing application has its own commands and features and because there are so
many of them, I can’t be specific to all. I’ll use Final Cut Pro for our editing program color
balancing routine, but you can use your favorite program’s equivalent tools.

Start by selecting the scene that you want to process. If the scene involves several cuts,

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Digital Filmmaking Part 2 - Color Correction

apply the same setting to all of them unless you must make individual adjustments to
better match multiple takes. Open the Effects window in Final Cut Pro and select the
Image Control folder. There you’ll find three tools that you can use for color correction:
Color Balance, Proc Amp and Tint. Color Balance lets you adjust the individual color
tonality for the highlights, midtones and shadows by means of RGB sliders. I does a
very good job at altering the overall color tonality of a shot, specially if you must control
elements such as shadows separately from the highlights.

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Digital Filmmaking Part 2 - Color Correction

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The Proc Amp tool works

more like the TBC controls on
a typical VTR. It lets you
adjust setup, video and
chroma levels plus the
chroma phase. It’s more
useful for correcting
improperly balanced shots
than for adding an overall
tonality to a scene. But if
minor hue adjustments are all
you need, it may do the job.
The chroma level part of it is
AE's Set Channels let's you replace selected color channels. very useful, though. You can
add the Proc Amp after other
color correction tools only to use the chroma control to adjust the overall color level of
the shot. By the way, setting the chroma control to zero makes your image black and
white. If you add the Tint control after that you can give your image an overall pure color
tint.

The Tint control lets you pick any specific color and use it to give an overall tint to your
scene. The Amount slider lets you control how intense the tint effect is. This is a less
sophisticated color-balancing tool but it can produce decent results very quickly.

Another way to manipulate colors in FCP is through the use of the Levels control. In this
case, you only have access to one of the three basic color channels at a time. So if you
want to focus on correcting the reds, for example, you can use Levels. You can also
stack more than one of these tools, setting each one to adjust a different color channel.
This method produces slightly different results but it’s a little bit more complicated to Classifieds
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Digital Filmmaking Part 2 - Color Correction

Using Compositing Applications

Any compositing program

such as Softimage Digital
Studio, Discreet effect, Eeyon
Digital Fusion, Nothing Real
Shake or Adobe After Effects
can be used for color
correction. The main
advantage of using such
applications is the increased
complexity of control that you
are given as a user. Because
the traditional compositing
process for film involves a lot
of color matching between
Boris AE's Correct Selected Color was used to alter the color of the leaves layers and elements, the color
on the right side of the image so that this summer shot looks more like fall. control tools must be more
complex in order to ensure
perfect results. Another excellent reason to use compositing programs for color
correction is the availability of great plug-ins for this purpose.

Nothing Real Shake is a good

example of how versatile a
high-end application can be in
terms of color manipulation.
Not only does it offer a
multitude of color tools but
also the ability to combine
them with masks and other
effects in a very visual and
powerful hierarchical chain.
Many of the available color
tools are very specialized and

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Digital Filmmaking Part 2 - Color Correction

can take care of specific Shake's extensive color toolset.

situations. One tool that I find
very interesting is ColorMatch. It allows you to apply colors already present in the shot to
high, mid and low ranges, matching them. It pretty much lets you create a color palette
just like you do when painting with oils or other traditional media. The results are very
natural looking and pleasant. You can also use different images as sources for your
colors, if you want.

Due to its popularity, I am going to use Adobe After Effects 5.0 and its plug-ins for the
rest of the examples. But you can apply the same techniques using the equivalent tools
available in your favorite composite program.

To start, bring your footage in

as one layer. Open Effect >
Image Control > Color
Balance. Notice that you have
individual controls for red,
green and blue channels each
for shadows, midtones and
highlights. That gives you a
lot of tweaking room, which
can be very nice. It would let
you, for example, keep your
blacks intact while adding a
desired tint to the rest of the
image. Another very powerful
color manipulation tool can be
found under Effect > Adjust >
Channel Mixer. Notice that
Composite Suite's Paste Color plug-in for Adobe After Effects. you can adjust all of the
available color channels just
like you mix audio channels using a mixer. A monochrome button turns your image to
black and white but still lets you tweak the color channels, letting you create interesting
effects such as an infrared look.

Still under Effect > Image Control you can find the Curves tool. It lets you adjust the
overall image or individual color channels by using curves or by drawing your own color
profiles. Use it as a traditional color correction tool or to create unusual color effects. Still
in the same folder is the Hue/Saturation tool. The name says it all but the colorize button
also stripes the color from your image and then adds an overall tint, making it great to
create effects such as an old sepia look.

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Digital Filmmaking Part 2 - Color Correction

Digital Filmmaking Part 2 - Color Correction

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You can use other After Effects tools to manipulate color. Even the ones that are not so
readily clear. Levels is a good example. While at first glance it may seem like a tool to
adjust global image characteristics such as gamma, by changing the channel box from
RGB to any other color channel you can perform very fine adjustments.

For some pretty bizarre

effects you can go to Effect >
Channel > Set Channel. With
this tool you can replace any
color channel with another
from the same layer or a
different one. If you wish you
can use this for not-so-bizarre
effects, too, such as
transferring the color
channels from one shot to the
other. To do this, place the
donor shot in the layer
underneath the one you want
Composite Suite's Selective Color lets you tweak a single color without to tweak so that it doesn’t
affecting the rest of the image. Here the green paint on William's face was show up and select that layer
changed to purple. as the source for each
channel.

Another advantage of compositing applications is that you can use your program’s
keyframing capabilities to make fine adjustments to any portion of the scene. This really
comes in handy if, for any reason, color changes occur during a shot. Such would be the
case if you shot very late in the afternoon, right before sunset, when the color
temperature changes with each passing minute. Classifieds
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Digital Filmmaking Part 2 - Color Correction

If your work is going to be broadcast it is a good idea to use the Effect > Video >
Broadcast Colors tool after your color correction just to play it safe and make sure that
levels are legal. And to make sure that your color correction efforts will look just right,
there’s nothing better than seeing your changes on a video monitor as you make them.
After Effects 5.0 lets you output your work to certain video devices by selecting Edit >
Preferences > Video Preview. I use the Matrox RTMac with my G4, so all I had to do
was set the Output Device to Matrox RTMac Video Out Component and the Output
Mode to Matrox RTMac. I left the Update Desktop During Video Playback and Show
Output During RAM Preview boxes unchecked to increase performance and I checked
the others so that every change that I make shows up immediately on the video monitor.

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Digital Filmmaking Part 2 - Color Correction

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to choo...

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Digital Filmmaking Part 2 - Color Correction

Digital Filmmaking Part 2 - Color Correction

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Plug-ins To The Rescue

While you can obtain great results with your compositing software alone, truly outstanding
results may be obtained through the use of specialized plug-ins. The most useful in terms of
film-look simulation are CineLook and CineMotion by DigiEffects. They are definitely a must-
have if you are serious about the whole process.

CineLook comes with a very large

number of presets matching a
variety of commonly used film
stock and may be even utilized to
match video footage to actual film
footage. It takes care of color
matching and correction plus other
processes such as adding grain
and changing the gamma. Besides
using the presets, you can tweak
CineLook as much as you want to
create custom looks. As a bonus,
CineLook comes with
FilmDamage, a very complex plug-
Composite Suite's Selective Soft Focus softens WIlliam's face while in that simulates aged film by
keeping his hair intact. introducing all the problems that
people try to avoid. It’s great for
music videos, promos, opening sequences, commercials, etc. A very large number of
parameters is offered in 13 categories, letting you add grain, flicker, scratches, hair in the film
itself, hair trapped in the projector, dust, dirt, tint, stains, uneven focus, and frame jitter
caused by damaged sprocket holes and bad registration. Best of all, it looks totally realistic.
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CineMotion is a collection of more specialized plug-ins that can be invaluable for digital
filmmakers. Interlace Aliasing Reducer, for example, is great for those planning on converting ● Employment
their footage to film or progressive scanning on DVD. Plus is smoothes out interlacing ● Job Seekers
artifacts when converting 30 fps to 24 fps. Banding reducer is another great tool to remove ● For Sale
banding that sometimes occurs with DV. The other plug-ins will be discussed in installments ● Services
to come because they are specific to motion and grain.

Another very useful set of plug-ins for the digital filmmaker using After Effects is Boris AE.
Besides a whole bunch of cool effects, it comes with very good color manipulation tools such
as Color Correction and Color Balance. Correct Selected Color is a plug-in that lets you pick
a specific color range and change it. I used it in the example to give a fall look to the
background trees without altering the rest of the image.

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Digital Filmmaking Part 2 - Color Correction

Digital Film Tools Composite Suite is another great collection of plug-ins, especially for those
serious about compositing. Their tools have been created during actual production and work
extremely well. Of particular interest to digital filmmakers are their grain, focus and color
correction tools. Because we’ll cover some of those tools later in this series, let’s focus on
Color Correction, Paste Color and Selective Color Correct.

Color Correct gives you control over the master, shadows, midtones and highlights regions,
each with individual red, green and blue channels. What I really like about this plug in is that
the thresholds have been extremely well designed and tweaking the highlights, for example,
has absolutely no effect on the midtones or shadows. This is not the case with tools from
most other manufacturers, which have a lot of bleed through. If you want absolute precision,
this is the tool to get.

Paste Color is kind of misleading because it does a lot more than the name suggests.
Basically it lets you paste an overall color over an image like an instant, easy to use color
corrector. But this plug-in does a lot more if you want. It can reference one or two layers. If
you use a single layer, it lets you apply gamma and color correction, grain, blurs, etc. If you
use a second layer, it does a quick composite based on the luminance and you can apply
individual manipulations to both layers independently.

Selective Color Correct does a great job at selecting and tweaking a specific color or range.
What’s unique about it is that you select a sampling coordinate for the affected color so as
not to influence any other color on the shot. As you can see in the example, I changed the
color of William’s facial paint without altering anything else. Took no more than 10 seconds.

I must mention one of my favorite Composite Suite plug-ins, even if it doesn’t relate directly to
color correction. Selective Soft Focus lets you soften parts of the image while leaving other
parts intact. It can be used to give a dream-like effect to your image in the most extreme
cases or it can be used to soften an actor’s face without altering the hair, for example. It can
also be used to defocus a background. The effect is applied to a mask that can be
automatically extracted from the luminance, hue, saturation, average, red, green, blue, alpha,
cyan, yellow or magenta channels. Very cool stuff!

Conclusion

Now that you have been introduced to the concept of color correction related to digital
filmmaking, feel free to experiment as much as you want. Do your color correction on a scene-
by-scene basis, making sure that the overall tonality contributed to that particular scene’s
mood. Color correction may be used very subtly just to avoid the typical video “perfect white”

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Digital Filmmaking Part 2 - Color Correction

or more aggressively to convey strong emotions. You may also go to extremes and use color
correction as a special effect or even to set a style for your whole movie. In the Japanese film
Avalon, for example, color correction was used very creatively to identify two different
realities.

For more information on the products mentioned in this article, please visit the following web
sites:

Apple (Final Cut Pro, G4 Workstation): www.apple.com

Nothing Real (Shake): www.nothingreal.com
Adobe (After Effects): www.adobe.com
Matrox (RTMac): www.matrox.com
DigiEffects (CineLook, CineMotion): www.digieffects.com
Boris (Boris AE): www.borisfx.com
Digital Film Tools (Composite Suite): www.digitalfilmtools.com

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Related sites: • AV Video • Creative Mac • Digital Post Production • Digital Producer • Digital
Video Editing • DV Format • DVD Creation • Film and Video Magazine • The WWUG
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Guarantee, Free Web Mail, Plans from $4.95/mo! With a proven track record of
excellence, uplinkeart...

Color Printing from any digital file

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LOWER Prices.

RAID, Data Storage and Backup Specialists

H. A. Storage Systems specializes in data backup and storage products including custom
external disk storage, RAID, tape drives, tape libraries, SAN and NAS.

Royalty Free Music - SOPERSOUND MUSIC LIBRARY

Superb, cutting edge music --- outstanding value. Search and preview cuts from the entire
library on our website. Royalty free/buyout licensing. Many styles and genres to choo...

Buy a Link Now!

© 2002, Digital Media Online, All Rights Reserved

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Digital Filmmaking Part 2 - Color Correction

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