I recently worked on the color grade for the feature film The Runaways. There were a few areas where changes were discussed with the client that went beyond your typical color grading tasks and fall more in the realm of visual effects. I had the opportunity to work with advanced VFX software to work out fixes for three of these.

Some cameras and external recorders use older versions of filesystems which have file size limitations that are a bit out of data for todays content. To work around that, they split a clip into what is sometimes a huge number of subclips. One that I regularly use is the Odyssey 7Q+ in combination with the Sony FS7 camera in 4K mode. At that resolution it can only store 40s of footage per file before it has to create a new subclip.

Note that DCTL scripts require the studio version of Resolve.

I was just involved in a discussion on creating IDTs for color grading in ACES cct in Resolve 14 when there is no built-in IDT. Or if the existing IDT isn't ideal.

Here's the process that I worked out: 

I've been using the Odyssey 7Q+ as an external recorder for quite some time and with much success. The reasons for using it are a separate conversation for another time.

There was a good debate on the SIC FB group about Sony FS7 RAW, recording with the Odyssey 7Q+, the issue of getting 14 stops of dynamic range into 12 bit linear RAW output, and banding in the shadows. As I recently upgraded from the Sony F3 to the FS7 and using it with the XDCA RAW extension and the Odyssey 7Q+ in RAW mode most of the time, I thought it would be good to get to the bottom of it and make sure I use the ideal settings.

A recent conversation on cinematography.net inspired me to work out a better technique for calibrating footage with the Color Checker Video Passport. I previously hadn't taken the time to fully understand the arrangement of the individual color chips until Adam Wilt's explanation made it click.

Here's a quick and dirty clip recorded on my Sony F3 in s-log in mixed lighting conditions:

A basic end crawl can be done with built-in title generators in Resolve or Premiere. 

But formatting a complex and good looking end crawl can be an exercise in frustration. After several different attempts I settled on designing it in Illustrator and animating it in Fusion.

On a recent grade I was faced with sizeable number of clips who had blown out sky and that needed to be made look good. If the sky is just peaking through in a few places, bringing down exposure and adding some color may be enough. But if the sky is prominent in the shot the lack of any texture will be glaring.

For one clip in I went down a more complicated path and it was worth it because it was one clip the client upon review called out as being beautiful.

This is the final clip, nicely highlighting the parrot in full color: