The Seven Levels of Color Grading transcript

Seven levels of color grading explained in this video. It's very important for us to understand which level certain things sit at because nothing will build your taste buds faster than this. 16 17 years of color grading experience, right? [music] And when I started, you just don't know. So, it's almost like you start from the from level one. It it is kind of true. And once I take you through each level and talk about it, it's going to connect with a lot of people.

Things like that will always be subjective. I think we can have a very fun debate about it in the comment section instead of just like jumping on each other. But this is just my take in my humble opinion of doing this craft and loving it so much. went to school for cinematography and editing and I ended up picking this because this just feels second nature to me. So, my goal from this video is for you to walk away knowing this is where I'm at or this is where I want to go.

It's either where you are skill-wise or when you are given a project where it belongs. So, there's a lot of different aspects that you can take from this particular video. There's about half of you guys that are not subscribed to the channel. We do all kinds of stuff when it comes to color grading. Whether you're a filmmaker or a colorist, this is the place to be. So, just make sure to smash the like button, subscribe to the channel, hit the bell icon so you can be notified about our next video.

We try to put out at least one video a week, sometimes more, and we do bunch of shorts throughout the week. So, let's jump right in. For those that don't know me, my name is Kazzy. work with brands like Adidas, Amazon Prime, Universal Studios, and I make no straightforward [music] color grading tutorials so you can work with your dream clients. First level is what I'm calling the cliche. This is like that juvenile, like just the starting off point.

This is very much on the nose. This is when you think of movies like Transformers, when you think of movies like Bad Boys, when you think of movies like The Expandables, the Hollywood blockbuster, Teal and Orange. If you ever bought like a LUT pack, probably the first LUT pack ever that you purchased was called something like cinematic Hollywood looks or something like that and it did just that. It's very much on the nose.

My editor is going to be pulling up some some shots from Transformers right now. But if we look at this, right, all of these shots, I mean, it's pretty, but we know that this is not real, right? Like nobody looks this orange in real life. We just know that. highlights are just blown out. So if you look through these shots, that thing when you first thought of color grading, the first thing that came to your mind is like, well, this is a very cool look.

This would be cool to create. But again, this is where it starts and ends. And the cliche level one doesn't really age well over time. Which leads us to level two, which is the non-look. It's almost the opposite to level one. And the non-look is the most pretentious genre of color grading, a level of color grading, if you will. Think of movies like Nomad Land. I'm not trying to hate on [music] the actual film, but color grading, get out of here, right?

It's supposed to be like mundane or boring, but it actually ended up looking so boring that you just do not care. You don't remember. You can think of another movie that the subject matter is very slow, like Power of the Dog. I think that's what it's called. It is so beautiful. Even if the movie wanted to just pull my teeth out, the color was so beautiful and it was not distracting. It went with the thing. F1 the movie.

What happened? It's just not good enough. I don't care if somebody's just like they're going for realism, blah blah blah. I'm not buying any of it. It's just nothing. It's very pretentious Hollywood trying to like stay clean and it's like, dude, it's it's just just it's Rex 79. Like, I mean, it's just there's barely anything to it. like a cinematographer shot it well and that's the end of that which leads us to our level three which is cinematography first and this is the place where color grading takes the back seat and it lets cinematography do the talking I like that this is very mature but you need to have really good cinematography and that's why the first example here is think of like all of these shots that you're seeing on your screen just silky smooth so beautiful look at this night sequence it was one of one saw it for the first time.

I'm just doing this. I'm squinting my eyes. It's way better executed than Game of Thrones season 8 episode 3, right? Like everybody complained about it. It became a freaking meme. Like, you know, it was the talk of the internet. Not in a good way. That's not what happened with Sakario. Just done right. Like that dark scene. And when they put on like the night vision, you needed that. At that point, you're just going, "Give me that night vision." And it came on and you're like, "Whoa." Like chef's kiss.

And just overall, if you're looking at these scopes, I'm pretty sure my editor is showing you some scopes on these shots. Look at how everything is living in the middle. Because when you're shooting in log and somebody like Roger Deakons, he wants to protect things. He doesn't want to give away. That's why he started liking shooting on digital because he said, "Wow, there's just so much more detail that we can protect." And he's exercising that here.

And it's beautiful. It's perfectly [music] done. Now, think about the movie like The Hateful Eight. Robert Richardson loves shooting on film. Tarantino loves everything shot on film and then you just get this very authentic, very true to what it should look like. And again, colorist is taking a backseat. This is that doesn't mean the colorist is not doing anything, but they're just letting the cinematography lead the frame.

And I love it. I think it's very, very cool. This category is sick. Now, think about the movie like The Revenant. Same thing, right? legendary cinematographer Emanuel just absolutely crushed it. So what are you going to do to it? Just just let it happen. Just sit back and be the supporting character in this entire journey and just make sure that you don't drop the ball. That is your job in that case when somebody's just heavy hitter is coming in.

All these three three guys in this category, you know, everybody knows them. Okay? If you're in the industry even remotely, you've heard these names. You know these people, they're the best of the best. Which leads us to our next category, which I'm calling the signature. Again, it's the opposite of cinematography first. Think of this category as grading first in a good way. It's not getting in the way of like what's being told, but it has like its own personality.

It's the movies like 300. It's the movies like Mad Max Fury Road. It's the movies like even Joker. You see, like I'm not even looking at the screen. I just know these by heart because where else will they belong? Look at these beautiful shots from the movie 300. Wow, what a painting. I wouldn't have it any other way. Whether they're showing the cold scenes or they're showing these warm daylight scenes, just gobs of personality.

Think of like Joker and you can just feel the emotion or what Arthur is going through. His mental state is basically painted on screen. And that's how I feel when I watched it. It's the movies like The Matrix. It's too far. It's too crazy. It doesn't belong in the cliche. The Matrix serves to its master, which is the story. And that's why the look is what the look is. Transformers, it just looks cool. Bad boys, teal and orange, that thing looks cool.

Let's just do it. Split toning, it looks cool. Here, it serves its purpose. And it would have been harder to create that all in camera. So then grading just did that nudge, pushed it to that level. My personal favorite in this category is Children of Men. Immaculately shot. One of the best looking movies. And I'm talking about the heart. Not just like beautiful pans and and and tilts. Like I'm actually talking about like that scene like where the door gets stuck on the side of the road or like into a tree branch or something and it just like clips off and it's like the camera is inside the car and they created a 360 rig and it's like moving around and it was like revolutionary at the time because it was such a small car and what what is happening right and even then the color basically took the front and center seat.

If you think about it, obviously we're playing it right now. You're seeing it how the color was like, I'm not going to take the back seat here. Yes, we have all those other things going on. That's great. I'm going to be front and center and I'm happy for it. It's great. Speaking of building these epic looks, how amazing would it be if we can just basically flip a switch and pick some of these inspired looks, not these exact looks.

The concoction will never be the same. Everybody has their own formula. That's the beauty of like the field that we picked. But I'm going to show you this tool, Rapid Grade, that you can just drop it on, go under inspired by, pick all these different movie looks, or you can just pick a category, the type of work that you do, and just go through the looks that I've created. This is after working with hundreds of different tier one companies, and it distilled into these specific looks.

They're 100% customizable and the best part, they take full advantage of your hardware. You're working in Da Vinci wide gamut, which is the most amount of dynamic range and color fidelity you can give to your image. So, you are futurep proofing everything that you're working on. Best part, it comes with a 7-day money back guarantee. And just look at the results that people are getting. So, proof will always be in the pudding.

You guys should definitely try it out. I'm actually also going to have a link to a free trial in the description below. So just check it out and the link also has a limited time love only for our YouTube fam. So check it out. Let's get back to the video. Which leads us to our level five which I'm calling the dance. Kind of self-explanatory, right? This is where cinematography and color grading meet right in the middle and they just dance together.

Knives Out. I mean come on. There's like a billion videos on YouTube about the Knives Out. People are creating plugins and selling plugins talking about I'm working with the Knives Out guy, right? It just goes. It just sells. It's like the Knives Out is that thing. Yedlin is him. I love it. I love it. Somebody that just gets technical and nails it and can translate it through the image. Cuz a lot of people get technical, but the work doesn't hold up.

A lot of technical people, they're very good in their head. They can't really put that on a on a piece of paper. He can't really translate that, right? Yedlin can do that. He's really good, very smart, and then he can translate that and we can see it like I'm watching. I mean, anytime I'm getting a new screen, doesn't matter. $30,000 monitor, $8,000, 85 in like Sony Bravia, like whatever I'm getting, I'm putting knives [music] out on it.

I end up watching like half of it every time that happens. It's just so Oh my god. Like I'm I'm just I'm drooling right now. I think Succession made me feel that way. When I watched Succession, I was like, "This is amazing cinematography." And wow, the colors are unreal, bro. Salt burn. Think about it. Look at these images. What? It just gets in there and it just holds. It just holds. It gets in there. Cinematography matches it.

And again, it's that dance. Nobody's taking a backseat. Nobody's a freaking passenger princess here. Think about the Wolf of Wall Street. felt the same exact thing. So beautiful. I genuinely feel like one of Martin Scorsesi's best looking films because served the story, made everything looked yummy. Perfect acting, perfect direction, perfect everything. Served its purpose. That's the dance. Which leads us to level six.

This is where things start to get very serious. And I'm calling it peak cinema. If I just say that word to you and if you pause the video, what would you comment right now? Three, two, one. Chris Nolan. That's exactly what you're gonna say. It's going to be Christopher Nolan. Period. So, I wanted to just like litter this with like all Nolan films, [music] but out of the three that I picked for this category, I did [music] find a different film in there.

So, Oppenheimer has to go in there. Oppenheimer story-wise, like the actual movie, I wasn't a big fan of. It could be a 6.57 for me. Just me. Maybe I have a small brain. Whatever. It's just not his best film in terms of like entertainment. In terms of the way it looks, might be a 10 out of 10. Might be his best film. And this is where I just feel like his obsession just kept growing and growing with like IMAX 70 mm this and 70 mm that.

And I just like no compromises. Everybody's writing him a blank check. and he's just now stepping into that in his own league. There is no competition. He gets to make the rules. He gets to do what he [music] wants to do. And I feel like Oenheimer was the first time I watched a film and just went when it comes to doing it practically [music] doing it on set. I don't know how it can just get prettier than this. Every single choice, every single frame could be blown up and just put in a like, you know, in a in an art gallery.

It's just perfection, you know. Another thing that reminds me of that exact thing, but almost like attacked very differently, is the movie Poor Things. What it just it gives you like a almost like a the heart and soul of that film, the way it's done, especially through cinematography and color, is like it's an indie film. It's like they just took crazy liberties. They just went everywhere and it served the story like the ultimate again the main master was like how are we going to tell it in the most interesting way.

This is peak cinema where the creativity is alltime high and they pull it off. That's very different. Sometimes you're very creative but it's here you can't really project it. Sometimes it's too out there. These are the examples where it's just like, "Oh my god." Like my jaw is on the floor for [music] the entire time looking at every single frame and going, "What? [music] How does somebody do that?" That genuinely makes me go, I don't want AI.

I'm usually pretty AI forward in in many things, but here I just go, "Let these people do what they do. Oh my god, this is like witnessing a freaking miracle. It's beautiful and I don't want it to stop. Which leads us to our third example in Peak Cinema, The Odyssey. Just watched it a few days ago. Didn't even get a chance to watch it in IMAX because I want to I want to pay $500 to go see it in IMAX. It's just sold out.

And I want to see it in my IMAX by my house, which is one of 40 in the entire world, which is like 16 story tall. Plays the film on IMAX, 70 mm film, 15 PF. That's the way to experience it. I want to see it there. I can't go and see it. Tickets are just sold out. And I ended up seeing it in RPX, which is like Regal Premium Experience, their version of the IMAX. And I got to say, even on that screen, my brain was absolutely exploded.

The experience was just like genuinely, it's like a roller coaster. Like this is where I mean, I don't know, it speaks cinema. It it makes you want to believe in spending $30, $40 to go see a movie in the theater because it's worth it. That's the only way to experience it. Like what? Like what a golden age. And how crazy that movies like the uh Obsession, movies like Back Rooms, and then movies like The Odyssey, they're coming out and they're making us a believer.

We're all going to the theaters and watching movies there because even those movies that I just mentioned, I don't know if color grading wise they belong here, but it's Peak Cinema. It's just bringing it back on a level that you're just like you're dying. You're you're buying off somebody to go take their ticket and go see the film before them because it's getting that good and it's getting that grassroots and like just that perfect.

I mean, the Odyssey wouldn't be grassroots from that perspective, but I feel like Nolan will always approach everything from that guy that made the following, right? his first film where it's like he's just coming in and wants to do everything on set, wants to do everything as real as possible. Try to keep everything on camera and then obviously there are things that you just cannot so you have to do it outside of that.

But what I'm saying is like I felt it. I felt it in my soul when I saw it. It was just so large like everything felt so massive. Peak cinema. Okay, which now leads us to our the final boss. The reason why this category is even above peak cinema is for a simple reason. I'm going to explain that to you. At the end of the day, this video is about color grading levels, okay? It's not about storytelling. It's not about cinematography.

It is about color grading at the end of the day. And I personally feel like the movies that I picked here and why I picked them makes sense because the final boss is where these movies have a very different setting. whether it's a period piece or it's a futuristic film, but it's a different sort of world. It's a diff like they're taking us somewhere and these guys, these directors are just like, "We're going to we're all out.

We're we're crazy. We're going to create something very insane." And I'm just going to throw some images so you guys can see. Let's just go with Dune. Deniv is saying, "I'm going to build this world straight out of the pages of a novel, and this is what it's going to look like, and that's how crazy it's going to be." And then he doesn't stop with what they're filming. Greg Frasier absolutely just mastermind when it comes to using the modern-day tech but creating something that genuinely feels like finally we're ready to move on from Lawrence of Arabia days.

Like we're ready to move on into this because wow when done right I don't know how you beat that. So we're seeing Dune these images that you're seeing on the screen. Think about the color grading. Promise you Rex 709 does not look like that. So now we're just going 19 out of 10 on everything. We're going to build a crazy world. Every single pixel is going to be perfect from art direction, from cinematography, from color grading, and then this is how it's going to be finished.

Now, I'm going to put up images from one of my all-time favorite looking film, Bladeunner 2049. You take Roger Deakons, you take Den Elaniv, this is what you end up with. Put these cyberpunk screen savers in my life everywhere for the next 70 years and I'm not going to feel like I need to change it. I'm bored. It's just it's everything. Checks every single box again for the next 50 years. It's just absolutely perfection how it's done.

Nothing can transform you than when you're watching the Vegas scene in Bladeunner. And genuinely, I don't know a single person that can't be impressed by that. You're just looking at it and you're just drawn in a way that you don't even know. It's a visceral reaction when you're watching it. And that's when it's not just a simple dance between cinematography and color grading. It's like something that just transforms you, takes you somewhere else.

Genuinely, you just traveled to that place. And now I'm going to throw you a curveball and say I put Chernobyl, the HBO miniseries Chernobyl, in this exact category. It's a period piece. Nothing in my entire life has taken me into that seat, into that room like Chernobyl. You just go there and the craziest thing about it is that you feel every particle. It is so nuanced. I've never seen a piece of content where I can't find a single frame that makes me go, "Oh, they dropped the ball here." Trust me, the grading jiu-jitsu is just next level.

Like, where they're keeping the contrast, where they're keeping the skin tones, how they're creating that meticulously, that color palette that you have, it has to check so many boxes. Radiation, nuclear plant, period piece, and the feeling of lifelessness. So, we can't have a lot of color. Yet, it is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my entire life. Everything was just so carefully well-kept through and through every single shot.

But it didn't feel like it's neutered. It's not giving it its all. It It gave everything, yet it kept everything. I don't know how else to explain it but to say I'm very happy to finish this video on Chernobyl because it's genuinely one of the best pieces of content. I was watching it last night. It's one of those shows that I go to sleep to. I'm sick like that. It's like it's almost like it's not so much of the subject matter and I'm going to sleep watching something so heavy.

It is just so stunning to me that I study it. I like it's almost like I want to watch it 1,000 times. So maybe I can just as a second nature can start moving like that when it comes to color grading. So here are the seven levels from my perspective. But this is just my take in my humble opinion of doing this craft and loving it so much. Went to school for cinematography and editing and I ended up picking this because this just feels second nature to me.

And the things that we should do in life. I think this will be a good conclusion. The things that we should do in life should not feel like work. And it's not about like, oh, you got lucky because blah blah blah blah blah. No, I mean, why don't you get lucky? Nobody gets lucky. When we see Messi being so good on the ball and when people call him gifted, I think that's an insult. Somebody worked really hard to get there and they make it feel like it's a gift.

They make it feel like it's nothing. They just they can just do it. They're natural at it. And I just feel like color grading for me is that thing. It's effortless. Like if I'm bored, I would color grade. And that's how you know that you found the right thing in your life. Let me know your guys's thoughts in the comment section below. So there you have it. Do not forget to check out the links to Rapid Grade in the description below.

Best look development tool for Da Vinci Resolve. And we are super bullish. We put out new updates pretty much every other week. So try it, check it out. And on that note, I'll see you in the next video. Much love, peace, fam. [music] >> [music]