Color Grading #28

Hi there! 

Welcome back to another blog. For today’s blog we’ll be discussing what color grading is and how I implemented color grading in our film. While researching, I discovered the many impacts a simple color can have on the audiences perception on the film. 

So what’s color grading exactly? 

Color grading is the post-production process of adjusting colors and tones in video or film to achieve a specific aesthetic or emotional effect, which can significantly impact how an audience perceives the context and story. With this comes many techniques: Color balance is used to adjust the balance of colors to create a natural look, Saturation is used to increase/ decrease the intensity of colors, Contrast is used to adjust the difference between light and dark areas, Hue is used for changing the color itself and lastly,  Lighting is used for adjusting the overall brightness and shadows. 

How it affects the audience? 

Color grading evokes specific emotions and creates strong emotional connection with the audience. For example, desaturated colors can create a sense of unease or coldness while warm colors can evoke feelings of comfort or joy. Not to mention, color grading helps to establish the overall tone and atmosphere of a film or video. For example, a horror film would typically use dark, desaturated colors to create a sense of dread while fantasy film would typically use vibrant, saturated colors to elevate the sense of happiness. 

Where we implemented color grading: 

During this shot of Ethan the audience can visually see a darker room and depict that he may be going through deep, dark feelings of sadness. That was our goal! We wanted the slim light of the phone to reflect the lack of happiness Ethans experiencing. 

Red is often times associated with addiction (symbolizing the intensity of cravings, withdrawal, and the cycle of addiction), pain (it can evoke emotional or physical suffering, including the self-destructive nature of addiction) and temptation (mirroring how substances can lure people in with short-term relief/ distraction) which are all in correlation with substance abuse. With more saturated colors we were able to showcase the realities a teen with a strong addiction to substance abuse. 

Overall, I hope with all that I know now about color grading I will be able to showcase a film that’ll captivate and move the audience using a variety of colors to emotionally appeal to them.