Colour Correction and Grading in Action Filmmaking: Practical Tips

Following the success of our previous article on Colour Grading, we're diving deeper into the practical aspects of Color Correction, Balancing and Grading.

This article aims to guide you through the process of utilising Colour Correction to balancing all the footage in your sequence before and adding a final grade to your film, with a focus on how different colours can really affect your faint film and impact audiences emotionally. 

"The colourist acts as a translator between the filmmakers and their audience, to make sure no message is lost"
- Jet Omoshebi (Source: Filmsupply Blog)

Getting Started...
Start small. Keep it simple. You've shot some footage. Its a few different camera angles. Maybe some Interior and Exterior. Could be some ambient lighting has caused a colour cast (Sunlight, halogen, LED, they all have different colour temperatures and will impart a colour cast to your raw footage).

So put it all on a timeline and let's get busy with the basics, colour correction and balancing... then we can apply a final grade once everything is consistent!

Understanding the Basics: Exposure, Brightness, and Contrast
Before we get into colour balancing, it's crucial to understand the difference between exposure, brightness, and contrast, as they are often misunderstood or used interchangeably.

• Exposure: Refers to the amount of light that hits the camera sensor. It affects the entire image uniformly.
• Brightness: Affects the luminance of the image but doesn't impact the blacks and whites in the same way exposure does.
• Contrast: The difference between the darkest and lightest parts of the image. Increasing contrast makes the darks darker and the lights lighter.

Colour Balancing: Levels and RGB Settings
Colour balancing is the process of neutralizing any color casts and ensuring that white appears as true white. You can adjust the levels and RGB settings to achieve this. Levels help you set the black point, white point, and mid-tones, while RGB settings allow you to individually adjust the red, green, and blue channels.

​See the end of this article for a quick "How to" guide for Adobe Premiere Pro users

The Art of Adding a Grade
Once your footage is colour-balanced, you can proceed to add a 'Grade'. This is where you can get creative and use adjustment layers and colours to evoke specific emotions or moods. For example, using a teal and orange colour scheme can make your characters stand out against the background, a technique commonly used in Action Films.

• Teal and Orange: A blockbuster favorite, this technique uses teal for shadows and orange for highlights, creating a pleasing contrast.
• Monochromes: These are striking images built around dominant primary colours.
• Bleach Bypass: This desaturated look is often used to reflect desperate, hopeless worlds.

The Ansel Adams Effect: Adjust your Black Levels for maximum impact
Ansel Adams, a pioneer in photography, was known for his mastery in exposing for shadows. In filmmaking, manipulating black levels by either pulling up the blacks or crushing them can create a dramatic effect. Pulling up the blacks adds a faded, vintage look, while crushing them adds depth and richness to the image.

The Role of a Colorist
In the world of filmmaking, the Colourist / Colourist is often the unsung hero who brings a director's vision to life. Armed with an in-depth understanding of color theory, psychology, and storytelling, a Colourist meticulously adjusts hues, tones, and shades to evoke specific emotions or highlight critical moments in the film.

As Jet Omoshebi aptly puts it, the colorist acts as "a translator between the filmmakers and their audience — to make sure no message is lost" (Filmsupply Blog).

Colour Theory in Filmmaking
Understanding colour theory is crucial in film production, as it allows filmmakers to create a specific mood or emotion through the use of colour. This useful article by FILMD gives some good insights - colours like red can evoke emotions like love, passion, and danger, while blues can evoke feelings of calmness and sadness.

Filmmakers will often use color schemes like monochromatic, analogous, and complementary to create a specific mood or tone. Try it on your footage and discover the difference each makes. 

The Wrap Up
So what have we learned here?

1. Colour Correction / Balancing and Colour Grading are different but essential steps and far more than just a technical processes; they're an art form that can significantly impact how your audience perceives your film.
2. By understanding these basics and applying just a tiny bit of additional work to correct and enhance colour and harness the power of colour theory, you can really transform your clips, sequences and storytelling to engage your audience on an entirely deeper emotional level.
3. Try it and see! With this step-by-step guide you can try this today and discover the big difference it has vs assembling uncorrected footage and putting that out. As with our articles on Sound Design, Colour Work is an essential step in making Action come to life!

To learn more about these techniques Join The ISA. Our Diploma Course, amongst all the stunts and action acting, also dives deep into Film Making and Editing for Action Sequences.   


Quick Guide: How to Colour Correct and Balance in Adobe Premiere Pro (Mac) Before diving into creative colour grading, it's essential to colour correct and balance your footage. This guide will help you navigate the process in Adobe Premiere Pro on a Mac, focusing on three different types of clips: interior, exterior, and night-time.

Step 1: Import Your Clips into the Timeline

• Open Adobe Premiere Pro and drag your clips into the timeline. Arrange them as follows: interior, exterior, and nighttime.

Step 2: Open the Lumetri Color Panel

• Navigate to Window > Lumetri Colour to open the Lumetri Colour panel.

Step 3: Correcting Exposure, Brightness, and Contrast

• Click on the interior clip to select it. In the Lumetri Colour panel, adjust the Exposure, Contrast, and Brightness sliders.
  • Exposure: Controls the overall brightness.
  • Brightness: Focuses on the mid-tones.
  • Contrast: Modifies the difference between dark and light areas.

Step 4: Colour Temperature and Balance

• Use the Temperature and Tint sliders to correct the colour temperature.
  • For the interior clip, you might need to add some blue to offset the warm indoor lighting.
  • For the exterior clip, consider adding a bit of warmth.
  • For the night-time clip, adjust for the bluish tint often found in low-light conditions.

Step 5: Repeat for Other Clips

• Repeat Steps 3 and 4 for the exterior and night-time clips.

Step 6: Using Levels and RGB Settings

• In the Lumetri Colour panel, open the Curves section.
• Adjust the RGB curves to fine-tune the colours in your clips.

Step 7: Black Levels

• Use the Blacks slider to adjust the black levels.
  • Lifting the blacks can give a faded, vintage look.
  • Crushing the blacks can add contrast to the image.

Step 8: Apply your Grade

• Once all clips are balanced and corrected, you can apply a creative grade across them for a cohesive look.​
  
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About the Author

Gavin Martin is Principal of The International Stunt Academy and a recognised authority in stunts, film, and human performance. With a scientific approach to dissecting techniques and enhancing performance, he's equally passionate about the art and psychology of Stunts, Acting, Performance and Film-making. Before joining The ISA, he worked globally as a Coach, Motivational Speaker, and Creative Director, collaborating with many of the world's leading brands and innovating in digital film and production techniques. Known for his targeted coaching philosophy, Gavin is an agent for rapid, effective change. He values progress over accolades and pushes hard for the rapid and effective changes that moves us all forwards.