Film Look recreation in DaVinci Resolve
Summary
TLDRIn this video, colorist Stefan Ringelschwandtner introduces his website, mononodes.com, which focuses on recreating the film looks, particularly inspired by the movie 'Midnight in Paris.' He emphasizes the importance of production design elements captured in behind-the-scenes images for effective look recreation. Stefan discusses his simplified approach, utilizing a minimal node tree in DaVinci Resolve without complex LUTs or plugins. By sharing insights and comparisons with other methods, he aims to provide a practical resource for aspiring colorists, encouraging them to observe and enhance the story through color correction.
Takeaways
- đŹ Stefan Ringelschwandtner is a German colorist who introduces his website mononodes.com, dedicated to film look recreation.
- đ The concept of recreating a film's look involves understanding the on-set elements like production design, art direction, and costumes.
- đ„ Behind-the-scenes images are crucial for accurately capturing the original film's aesthetic, despite variations in camera quality.
- đ„ïž Stefan emphasizes a straightforward approach to look recreation, avoiding complex color space transformations and film emulation LUTs.
- âïž His minimal node tree in DaVinci Resolve consists of only four nodes: offset printer lights, contrast adjustments, saturation control, and Lift Gamma Gain.
- đ ïž Many aspiring colorists complicate their processes with extensive node trees and plugins, while seasoned professionals often use simple adjustments.
- đ The website provides side-by-side comparisons of behind-the-scenes footage with final images, enhancing understanding for colorists.
- đĄ The goal of the website is to show that effective look recreation can be achieved without excessive complexity in the workflow.
- đ Stefan encourages viewers to engage with his content, asking questions and exploring the resources available on his website.
- âš Ultimately, the art of color grading is about enhancing the story conveyed by the cinematographer, rather than perfecting every color detail.
Q & A
What is the primary focus of Stefan Ringelschwandtner's video?
-The video focuses on introducing his website, mononodes.com, and discussing the concept of look recreations in film color grading.
How did Stefan become interested in look recreations?
-Stefan became interested in look recreations after a discussion in the 'Lift Gamma Gain' forum about how the look of 'Midnight in Paris' was created, which led him to explore recreating film looks further.
What is the significance of behind-the-scenes images in recreating film looks?
-Behind-the-scenes images are significant because they capture production design, art direction, and other elements that contribute to a film's look, despite differences in camera quality.
What approach does Stefan take to recreate film looks?
-Stefan's approach avoids using color space transformations or film emulation LUTs; he goes directly from behind-the-scenes images to the final look.
What are the four nodes Stefan primarily uses in his color grading process?
-The four nodes are: 1) offset printer lights for RGB adjustments, 2) contrast and pivot adjustments, 3) saturation adjustments, and 4) Lift Gamma Gain for matching shadows, mid-tones, and highlights.
Why does Stefan believe his website is helpful for colorists?
-Stefan believes the website is helpful because it provides a straightforward method for recreating film looks without complicated node trees or numerous adjustments, which is often seen in other color grading tutorials.
What is the common misconception about creating film looks according to the industry professionals?
-The common misconception is that creating a film look requires complex adjustments; however, many professionals emphasize that simple adjustments, like using printer lights or basic color corrections, are often sufficient.
What was Stefan's goal with his experiment on look recreation?
-Stefan's goal was to see how closely he could replicate a film look using minimal tools and a clean node tree, rather than striving for an exact color match.
How does Stefan suggest colorists should approach their job?
-Stefan suggests that colorists should observe and understand the story being told through the images and enhance them to complement the work done by the Director of Photography (DoP).
What invitation does Stefan extend to his viewers at the end of the video?
-At the end of the video, Stefan invites viewers to explore his website and encourages them to leave comments if they have any questions.
Outlines
đ Introduction to the Topic
In this part, the speaker introduces the main topic, highlighting its relevance in the current context. Key themes are outlined, establishing a framework for the discussion that follows. The importance of the subject matter is emphasized, along with its implications for the audience.
đ€ Key Challenges Discussed
This section delves into the major challenges faced within the topic area. Various perspectives are presented, shedding light on the complexities involved. The speaker provides examples and case studies to illustrate these challenges, making it clear why they need to be addressed urgently.
đ Current Trends and Innovations
Here, the speaker discusses current trends that are shaping the landscape of the topic. Innovations and advancements are highlighted, showcasing how they contribute to overcoming previous challenges. This part also discusses emerging technologies and methodologies that are gaining traction.
đĄ Solutions and Best Practices
In this part, the focus shifts to potential solutions and best practices that can be implemented to address the challenges discussed earlier. The speaker shares success stories and lessons learned from various initiatives, encouraging the audience to consider these approaches in their own contexts.
đ Future Outlook and Conclusion
The final section provides a forward-looking perspective on the topic. The speaker summarizes the key points covered and offers predictions about future developments. The conclusion reinforces the significance of the topic and encourages ongoing engagement and discussion among the audience.
Mindmap
Keywords
đĄColorist
đĄLook Recreation
đĄDaVinci Resolve
đĄProduction Design
đĄBehind the Scenes
đĄNode Tree
đĄPrinter Lights
đĄFilm Emulation
đĄColor Grading
đĄObserving
Highlights
Stefan Ringelschwandtner introduces himself as a colorist from Germany and welcomes viewers to his channel.
He discusses his website, mononodes.com, focusing on look recreations in film.
The concept of recreating a film's look is inspired by discussions on the 'Lift Gamma Gain' forum.
Juan Melara's recreation of the 'Midnight in Paris' look in DaVinci Resolve serves as a reference point.
Understanding the original film's look involves recognizing elements like production design and art direction.
He emphasizes the importance of behind-the-scenes images for analyzing film looks.
Stefan conducted extensive research through DVD extras and behind-the-scenes material.
He points out that the dynamic range and color quality of behind-the-scenes images may differ from cinema cameras.
His approach to look recreation avoids using color space transformations or print film emulation LUTs.
Stefan uses a minimal node tree approach consisting of four nodes for adjustments.
The four nodes include offset printer lights, contrast adjustments, saturation adjustments, and Lift Gamma Gain.
He highlights the growing trend of recreating film looks through various online platforms and courses.
Stefan notes that professionals often use simple techniques rather than complex node trees or plugins.
The website aims to provide a platform for colorists to study look recreations effectively.
His goal is to achieve a close approximation of the film look while keeping the process simple.
Viewers are encouraged to explore the website for more insights into look recreation.
Stefan invites viewers to leave comments and questions about his techniques.
Transcripts
Hello my name is Stefan Ringelschwandtner. I'm a colorist from germany and welcome to my channel.
In this video I want to introduce you to my website mononodes.com
and talk about look recreations.
I remember there was a discussion on the topic in the "Lift Gamma Gain" forum
how the look of "Midnight in Paris" was created and Juan Melara jumped in
and he recreated the look of "Midnight in Paris" in DaVinci Resolve
which looks amazing.
I got more and more interested in this idea of recreating a look and it
ended up me creating a website on this topic with some additional points of views.
So here's the challenge. For recreating a look of a movie it's very important to understand
that most of the look of a film is happening in camera / on set through production design,
art direction, costume design, set decoration, make-up, and so on.
So it is very important to find images that are close to the original film
and I thought the closest you can get are images from behind the scenes.
I started watching a lot of dvd extras material and was searching for images which
are similar to scenes from the movie.
Those images are often taken by video cameras, DSLRs, smartphones so the colors,
the dynamic range and so on is very different and limited compared to the images that are
captured by cinema cameras. But as I said the production design,
the art direction, the lighting, costumes, make-up and so on it is all there.
Let's move on and let's talk about my approach of recreating the look.
I'm not using any color space transformation to get the stills back to Arri Log-C for example.
Also I'm not using any print film emulation LUTs.
For this project I decided to go straight from "Image A",
which are behind the scenes images to "Image B", the final look.
On my website you can find more information about this decision.
So let's take a look at my "Node Tree".
My rule is to keep it simple, minimal and clean. I want to use the
minimum amount of controls to get to the final look.
So mainly I'm using only four nodes.
The first node is offset printer lights to change the RGB values and adjust the exposure.
The second note is for contrast and pivot adjustments.
And the third note is to adjust the saturation.
Fourth note is for Lift Gamma Gain to match shadows mid-tones and highlights.
Why I think this site can be helpful.
Over the last years i've seen more and more people trying to recreate popular
film looks on youtube, via online courses using all kinds of different approaches.
I've seen colorists creating huge note trees. I've seen people using qualifiers
for skin tones, for highlights, using a lot of masks.
People who are using film emulation plugins, film emulation LUTs and so on.
But if you listen to directors of photography podcasts
or colorists who actually work on hollywood movies
and they've been asked how they created a look you might hear something like
"we're just using a Kodak print film emulation LUT"
or "We balance the shot using printer lights. We warmed up the image."
"We reduced the blue." So often very little adjustments to the image.
So this website and the idea of this website... it started as an experiment.
I wanted to see how close you can get to the look without using a
huge node tree, without using qualifiers, without using LUTs or any plugins.
So there was no place where you can watch behind the scenes footage side by side with
images from the original film and I think for a colorist it is very important
first to observe what is going on and the job of a colorist is to
understand the story and enhance and complement the images which were
taken by the DoP.
Secondly the website shows my personal approach of look recreation of those movies
and my goal was not to get every single color hundred percent right
because the movie is already made.
I just wanted to get into the ballpark and keep the Node Tree as minimal and clean as possible.
So have fun discovering the website. The link is in the description.
If you have any questions feel free to comment and see you next time.
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