YCU Colour Grading Classroom – the first episode of our series on colour grading, which takes you behind the scenes of the colour grading world, showing case studies of several of our past projects. In this episode, we discuss working on film stock from the viewpoint of the colourists, directors of photography, film directors and producers. We will show you the process of colouring two of our projects recorded on film.
There is something magical about analogue film – in this episode, you will learn about the things that make it unique and the artistic value it offers to creators. We will also discuss the characteristics of photosensitive material in production, which aspects you should pay attention to, and the differences between working with film and digital cameras. We will also show you the colour correction workflow for this type of projects
One of the projects we will use to illustrate this are the music video for Quebonafide’s song BUBBLETEA featuring Daria Zawiałow, directed by Daniel Jaroszek and with Michał Dąbal’s cinematography, which has almost 28 million views. Another project we will use for illustration purposes is a Papaya Young Directors competition project, a contender for the Grand Prix, directed by the duo of Helena Ganjalyan & Bartosz Szpak, with Maciej Ryter’s cinematography.
Enjoy!
The subject of the second episode of the YCU Colour Grading Classroom series is Remote Grading, which is becoming an increasingly popular way of working due to the pandemic. We will show you how to work remotely, what makes it different from traditional colour grading work, and why it is the future of colour correction.
There is something magical about analogue film – in this episode, you will learn about the things that make it unique and the artistic value it offers to creators. We will also discuss the characteristics of photosensitive material in production, which aspects you should pay attention to, and the differences between working with film and digital cameras. We will also show you the colour correction workflow for this type of projects
This time, we will take you to the grading room of three of our past projects.
“Escape Attempt” is a short Si-Fi film directed by Alex Topaller and Dan Shapiro, winners of numerous accolades and awards for their commercials and music videos created under the name Aggressive, with fantastic cinematography by Kajetan Plis. “A War Poem” is a British short film directed by Jordan Kalvin with Patrick Kino as the DoP, and “Choctaw Casino” is a commercial notable for its unusual visual intensity.
See what progress has been made in the field of grading.
The third episode is the most technical, but at the same time extremely important from the perspective of the entire grading process. We will discuss how to set up a colourist’s workstation, the monitor calibration process, and the proper preparation of colour correction materials. Successful completion of a project is impossible without doing all these things. We will also show you a case study involving two unorthodox grading projects!
There is something magical about analogue film – in this episode, you will learn about the things that make it unique and the artistic value it offers to creators. We will also discuss the characteristics of photosensitive material in production, which aspects you should pay attention to, and the differences between working with film and digital cameras. We will also show you the colour correction workflow for this type of projects
In this episode, we will show you two rather unusual projects. The first one is one of this year’s largest VR productions in the world, titled “Wiktoria 1920”, created by Tomasz Dobosz (director), Marcin Magiera (DoP) and Mariusz Laszuk (Technical Operator). The unusual thing about this project is that not just the picture is colourized, but the entire space. The second project, which will serve as our case study, is a commercial for the Jazz brand, directed by Michał Misiński, with Mateusz Dziekoński’s cinematography. It was made using LED panels, which are gaining popularity as an alternative to green/blue screens, and even the whole set design.
How important is the colour correction process? What are the qualities of a good colourist? What are the usual tasks of a colourist? How are specific colourists selected for a specific project? The fourth episode of the series is focused on the colourist’s job and the importance of colour correction in the filmmaking process, as illustrated by images from two interesting projects.
There is something magical about analogue film – in this episode, you will learn about the things that make it unique and the artistic value it offers to creators. We will also discuss the characteristics of photosensitive material in production, which aspects you should pay attention to, and the differences between working with film and digital cameras. We will also show you the colour correction workflow for this type of projects
This time, we will show you two projects – “Armando”, directed by Kuba Michalczuk, with cinematography by Maciej Ryter, is an engaging production, but a very demanding one from the technical point of view because of the low lighting conditions in which it was shot. The other is a commercial spot for “Baleen Eyewear” premium eyeglasses, by director Tadek Śliwa.
This episode also features a special guest – Wit Dąbal, one of the most experienced Polish cinematographers, who talks about what grading means to him.
The Havana Club spot was nominated for KTR 2020 awards in 3 categories, including Colour
Correction which was done by the YCU colourist Piotr Nowicki. The other nominations were for Cinematography by Mateusz Dziekoński, and for Edit by Kuba Tomaszewicz.
The Tyskie “JA” spot directed by the duo Helena Ganjalyan & Bartosz Szpak with photography by Maciej Ryter and grading by our colourist Piotr Nowicki won the Grand Prix award in the Papaya Young Directors contest.
There is something magical about analogue film – in this episode, you will learn about the things that make it unique and the artistic value it offers to creators. We will also discuss the characteristics of photosensitive material in production, which aspects you should pay attention to, and the differences between working with film and digital cameras. We will also show you the colour correction workflow for this type of projects
„Przede wszystkim bardzo, bardzo dziękujemy całej naszej ekipie. Maćkowi Ryterowi, który był z nami i zrobił wspaniałe zdjęcia , całej obsadzie, całej ekipie technicznej, wszystkim którzy przyszli w niedzielę do nas na plan i nam zaufali i pozwolili nam zrealizować nasze marzenie” – mówiła Helena Ganjalyan podczas odbierania nagrody.
