Color Grading Advice

[bki122689]

Can anyone give me a ballpark figure on how much it would cost to grade a 9 minute short film w/ an experienced colorist using Apple color?

Lets say I shot on HDV, 1440x1080 resolution, with lots of edits, in the Detroit, MI area.

Any info would be greatly appreciated,
S.

 

[AnimaLeo]

If you shot your own 9 minuet short film, surely you can do the colour correction. How about trying it yourself? =)

 

[AeroBar]

If you shot your own 9 minuet short film, surely you can do the colour correction. How about trying it yourself? =)

that post does not help the OP.

 

[bigbossbmb]

It really depends on how much correction you need and how in-depth you want to the colorist to get... we charge by the hour. I also charge a different amount to my friends that bring me a bunch of small projects than I would with an independent project.

I'll send you a PM.

 

[LethalWolfe]

that post does not help the OP.

It helps more than your post.

Color is not very widely used and I'll venture a guess and say many of the people that do use only do so because it came 'free' w/Final Cut so they really aren't equipped, in more ways than one, to properly do color correction. That's not to say there aren't any talented people using Color because there are. Why not just call around to some of the post facilities in the Detroit area and find out what their hourly rate is? Besides the time spent color correcting you'll also have to consider how long it takes to properly prep your timeline for the process.

If you find out you don't have the money to pay a professional you could always toss an ad out on Craigslist or Mandy.com and maybe get lucky but if you just end up w/someone that's just going to CC on their computer monitor and hasn't used Color much you're not much better off than just trying to do it yourself.


Lethal

 

[TH3D4RKKN1GH7]

I know of a lot of people using Color for commercial work mostly. I myself do my own color grading with the Magic Bullet Suite. Stu's a standup guy and he's made some great software that guys like me can use and trust me I'm no grading expert but the system is so intuitive and understandable I know how to go about getting the looks I want. If you can't find someone to do the grading you can use that as a last resort. Wish you the best of luck man.

 

[bki122689]

Thanks for the responses guys. I'll will probably try to find a freelancer around my area.

 

[Denarius]

It helps more than your post.

Color is not very widely used and I'll venture a guess and say many of the people that do use only do so because it came 'free' w/Final Cut so they really aren't equipped, in more ways than one, to properly do color correction. That's not to say there aren't any talented people using Color because there are.

I find this statement a little bit ambiguous wrt Color. I agree that it's quite likely that FCS users may already have it without necessarily having the right reference hardware or knowledge and experience to use it to its full extent. Is that all you're saying or does the product itself fall short in some way?

 

[bigbossbmb]

yes, most FCS users that have Color just aren't equipped to use it properly... The app itself is great.

 

[AeroBar]

It helps more than your post.

No it doesn't. I could not answer the OP's question, but I helped by pointing out that that kind of silly post does not help.

"Why not do it yourself??" was not helpful because it is is clearly obvious from the post that (for whatever reason) the OP does not want to. It is is irrelevant why the OP is looking for someone to do this, it is only relevant that the OP is.

 

[Denarius]

No it doesn't. I could not answer the OP's question, but I helped by pointing out that that kind of silly post does not help.

"Why not do it yourself??" was not helpful because it is is clearly obvious from the post that (for whatever reason) the OP does not want to. It is is irrelevant why the OP is looking for someone to do this, it is only relevant that the OP is.

Oh I don't know, I've been scared of Color for ages. If it wasn't for the fact that I went to an exhibition where they were demoing FCS 3 and I hadn't sat in on the demo of Color I probably still would be. Now I'm actually playing with it I needn't have worried, although granted I shelled out over £500 for a decent quality AV I/O device as a consequence. "Why not?" is a perfectly reasonable question, if he'd just said 'Do it yourself!' I'd be in agreement though.

 

[LethalWolfe]

I find this statement a little bit ambiguous wrt Color. I agree that it's quite likely that FCS users may already have it without necessarily having the right reference hardware or knowledge and experience to use it to its full extent. Is that all you're saying or does the product itself fall short in some way?

Color is a powerful app, w/some flaws mind you, but my point was that the vast majority of FC Studio owners lack the knowledge and gear to properly utilize it. Just from a technical stand point, as the actual process of color correcting/grading is a discipline in and of itself, Color has a fairly demanding workflow and fairly demanding hardware requirements to be done correctly, IMO.


Lethal