frequently asked questions
Why bother hiring a colorist?
You wouldn't buy a lamborghini and then not put premium gas in it at the pump. So why would you spend money on the best cameras, the best locations, the best actors, spend time writing the best script, only to drop the ball at the very last stage of post-production? in the hands of an experienced colorist, your red komodo, or arri alexa, or canon c200 footage won't look like it was shot on a cell-phone. your audience won't know what it was, but if it wasn't color graded properly, they'll walk away from the theater saying, "i dunno, it felt low budget." working with a tight budget, and looking low budget are two completely different things.
how long will it take to grade?
generally, anywhere from 4 hours to 10 days. runtime doesn't matter. what matters is the complexity of your edit. for example, a music video that has a gazillion cuts and set changes during the 4 min song, will take much longer to grade than a 45-minute interview that only has two camera angles. there is also the added time to conform that may or may not be needed, and also the time needed to send and receive the footage.
what is conforming?
The process of getting your sequence to be frame accurate inside of davinci resolve (if not already edited in that program). think of it this way: have you ever opened a microsoft word document inside of google docs? they are both word processing programs, but if you spent time formatting in one program, you will notice that when you open it in the other, the margins may have shifted, or the font didn't take, or maybe the superscripts are no longer the same size... similarly, for an edit, sometimes the in and out points get shifted, pans and zooms need to be recreated, so on and so forth... little things that add up. we plan at most to spend a day or less conforming a thirty minute timeline; assuming no surprises.how much will it cost?
Commonly, our quotes have ranged from $2,000 for a single sequence, to $24,000 for a series (multiple episodes). every edit is unique and every quote is different, which is why we meet with you to discuss your project in detail; and to tell you what is possible with the budget you have and the level of complexity your project brings.