The Craft of Color Grading II

Taught by Mike Matusek

Course Number:
GRD202
Software Version:
baselight 
Original Run Date:
April 2013 
Duration:
7 hours 15 minutes 
grading
The Craft of Color Grading II is our sequel to the most popular course ever at fxphd. Professor Mike Matusek leads this offering, and plans to bring his own unique perspective to the course. Matusek is one of the founders of Nolo Digital in Chicago, where he grades national and international commercials, television shows, and features.

Like the original offering, this course looks to explore the world of the colorist and the craft of grading from an application-agnostic approach. It is not the specific buttons you need to push in a specific application, but instead a look at the creative and story telling goals behind color grading. The course will tap Matusek's years of experience from both a creative standpoint as well as a practical standpoint. So we'll not only be covering how to make beautiful imagery, but also things such as how to deal with the often-conflicting viewpoints of dealing with divergent views from clients.

One key aspect of the course is our grading review sessions. During the term, Matusek will create two projects for members to test their skills and have their work reviewed by him. He'll provide creative goals for the projects, much like clients might provide. Members will then grade the high quality footage (hires R3D and DPX files) and submit it for review as part of the course. It's a great way to learn the craft and a fantastic opportunity to receive guidance from a successful colorist in the field.

This course has all-new footage, including scenes from a beautiful Coca-Cola piece that was produced by Variable (http://wearevariable.com) , clips from a Danko Jones video, directed by the Diamond Bros. (http://thediamondbros.com) , high quality underwater footage, and more scenes from the short film Moving Day (https://vimeo.com/31708121) .

Course members should be comfortable grading in their application of choice. This is not a course designed to teach the operation of software, but instead is about creating great looking imagery. The primary software used by Matusek will be Baselight, but is taught with the goal of showing techniques that can be used in any application.
 
The Craft of Color Grading II
Watch our overview of the course

Class Listing

Class 1

Diving into the system to set up a loose primary grade for the "hero" shot of an underwater sequence.

Class 2

Matching grades to the hero shot and using different techniques to do so. Introduction of the first color grading challenge.

Class 3

Pushing the look. Music videos present a unique opportunity for color grading, allowing for extremes that normal footage doesn't allow.

Class 4

Pushing the look, part 2.

Class 5

Reviews for the Coca Cola commercial submissions.

Class 6

Mike works through the Coca Cola sequence on his three versions of the course challenge.

Class 7

Skin tone. Correcting for proper skin tone using multiple film styles and formats, part 1.

Class 8

Skin tone. Correcting for proper skin tone using multiple film styles and formats, part 2.

Class 9

Correcting troubled footage and what exactly does Video vs. Filmic really mean?

Class 10

Challenge #2 review.