Coloring ‘The Dead’
It’s a huge understatement, of course, but there’s so many steps in making a movie, and it all takes so incredible long.
Almost two years into “The Dead Can’t Dance” (which is nothing in filmmaking time), I’m beyond thrilled to be in the latter stages of post-production. But I’m still laboring over some color-correction issues. I’m using Red Giant Software to give the film a dated film look using its aptly named Looks filters software.
It is an indie digital filmmaker’s dream. You apply the software to the clip on your Final Cut Pro timeline, and a palette of different “looks” pops up. Depending on the visual feel you want for your film, you click on a “look” and it applies all the settings for you (manipulating color curves, saturation, effects, etc). Pretty amazing.
Beyond that (or in lieu of it if you don’t want to change your raw video image that much), the Looks program comes with tools for color correction, letting you alter the exposure, contrast, saturation, or add a color gradient (to make a sky bluer, for instance) or do 3-point color correction and more. It really is a phenomenal tool, and will probably only be improved in updates. I highly recommend it.
While this process is (somewhat) fun in its own right, color correction is also a laborious, time-consuming process. As I mentioned in earlier posts, I already added film “scratches” and “dust” to give the movie a pulpy, B-movie feel — enough to give it texture but not be distracting.
I’m also going for a color-reversal film-stock look for the exterior scenes. It gives the beginning of the film a very dreamy, surreal look, and when the action moves to indoors and nighttime, I let the lighting that Jerod designed set the visual mood.
But, really, it’s all going well, which is fantastic ’cause this Saturday we’ll be ONE MONTH AWAY from our screening. Awesome!
There should be posters all over town now, and we’re getting a second batch made this week so we can hang more. A lot of people are asking if they can buy tickets in advance, which is cool that they’re asking, but it’s not possible. Only at the door.
Here’s to living — or dead — color,
-r.
