Okay, it’s time for an update. Yes, I have been working on the color grading, and well… I think I need to discuss it. I have a feeling this new grade might be controversial.
So, I’ve taken Captain Faraday’s advice on the grade. I’ve lowered the brighter areas, I’ve raised the gamma up, and I’ve even decided to change to the orange look instead of the blue look (with a serious wound in my pride). Overall, I’m not sure about it. To understand why, I’m going to post a screencap of my opening crawl. It gives a picture of what the darkest parts of the image look like.
Here’s what the opening crawl looked like with my previous color grade:
Here’s the opening crawl with the progress I’ve made so far:
As you can see, this new grade has a slightly faded red look to it. I personally don’t think it looks bad. In fact, it reminds me of Puggo Grande’s 16mm preservations of the OT, which is a plus for what I’m aiming for. However, I’m not sure it works for a movie that was released in 2017. Seeing a movie like TLJ with this kind of look is a little… Different. I’m gonna work on getting some more screencaps, but I want to throw this post up as a foreshadowing of what to expect, and/or to ask if it’s really worth taking the color grading in this direction. What do you think? Wanna see more, or should I change it up fast?