Grade 1:
I struggled highly with the grading process as prior to grading I'd found out I was Colour blind, to be exact 'Protanomaly' which is apparently were red, orange and yellow appear greener and colours aren't as bright. This later proved to be quite an issue for me later on down the line.
Nathan helped me grade Conor's interview first and then I edited the others myself. Nathan showed explained about first bringing the black down so they're actual black and the highlights down if it's too exposed. Nathan also showed me how to select an area so he used Conor and brought down the exposure around Conor and blurred the background very slightly as this brings all the focus onto Conor.
Ungraded:
Graded:
Once being shown this I did the same with other interviews, Amy and Tanya blurring the background very slightly as it brings all the focus onto the subject. With Tanya, she has a very harsh key light on her face
I key'd out Tanya's face to try and get the skin tone right, using the vertorscope I found there was more red in the clip so I tried to bring this down also also counter the right in the gamma and highlights by adding in more blue/cyan but this didn't help balance the skin tones, it brought the colour right but I could balance the high lights due to the lighting within the shot.
The main footage I was looking at for the grade is the footage of Conor in his house due to how orange it is:
This footage is what stands out the most in the film. I changed the temperature first to try and remove the orange which did change the tone, I then added a new node and then changed the midtones to more towards blue to counter the orange which helped slightly but I still had some orange in the background.
Grade 2:
Victoria and Jemma explained the edit isn't working as Amy and Tanya's skin tones are different for the interview cuts, this became an issue as 3 of Tanya's interviews have different lighting due to the lights battery dying during the filming (I'm only aware of this due to being the DOP during Production) so matching Tanya's interviews are very difficult.
Amy's Skin tone became difficult so I key'd off her face and adjusted it. The waveform showed me there was more red/pink in her face and highlights were quite high.
Conor's footage in his house was still orange but the feedback from Jemma and Victoria said that there was a blue tint in the footage and in the blacks so this needed to be fixed. I tried to remove the blue tint by bringing the shadows down and moved away the blues in the midtones to add in some more colour again.
With the live events I simply brought the blacks down for the events are Nathan had recommended that's all we needed to do. With the interviews with Conor I had the issue again of the orange footage due to the lighting in the dressing room at Folkestone.
Ungraded:
Graded:
With this I tried bringing out the detail around them and also the skin tones but again this proved very difficult due to the orange lighting. But I brought out the shadows and contrast as well as moving the colours away from the orange and I feel it's worked getting the colour back into the footage.
Grade 3:
Victoria and Jemma's feedback was that the entire documentary is too contrasted, this needs bringing down but that the grade isn't consistent through the interviews, Conor's footage in the house is still too blue and the performances are all too dark so I need to bring up the blacks.
With Conor's footage I tried bringing up the exposure and then removing the blue tint:
I can't seem to find the balance between this footage. The more orange I remove the more blue comes in and if I balance the blue and orange I still get this blue tint on the footage but when I bring the blacks down it crushes the blacks and makes the footage very harsh to watch.
As Conor's interview was graded with the help of Nathan and his skin tone is right here I used it as a reference to try and match the interviews between him and Tanya so I could see if these worked together. I split screen the edit and brought the contrast down and brought the entire clip with Tanya down in temperature and then worked on the skin tone, I brought it down the warmth in the skin tone and adjusted the highlights slightly. The offset is what helped get this to a more realistic skin colour.
Jemma and Victoria discussed the issue with the grade and that I clearly can't get it to be consistent. I'm clearly struggling with the grade and it was decided Jemma would colour correct the ungraded version as we're getting too close to the deadline and I'm really struggling to get this grade done. Jemma is happy with the quality of the footage in the ungraded version and said the main clips that need correction is Conor's house footage and the opening shot of Tanya and her Father in the kitchen.
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