Grading

We graded our shots in Adobe Premiere Pro, predominantly using the tools ProcAmp and Three-Way Colour Corrector

ProcAmp interface, along with other minor grading tools

Three-Way Colour Corrector interface

The grading of our shots proved to be more difficult than I initially thought it would be. Many of the studio shots were fairly easy to grade, with some needing barely any grading to look good. For example:

Before Grading

After grading

With these shots, we really only had to decrease the brightness, increase the contrast to deepen the boldness of the black on white increase the saturation to get a more comfortable aesthetic.

Left of center is graded, right of center is not graded

Surprisingly, VHS shots proved to be quite easy to grade, with little changes in saturation, brightness or contrast required. The majority of the time, grading was barely noticeable on VHS shots.

Before Grading

After Grading

The long winded issues arose when dealing with shots that were filmed with the camera set to a high exposure level. The grading tools on Adobe Premiere Pro were rendered useless for this, as they couldn't isolate colours very well. This resulted in a situation where whenever the subject was graded well, it will disrupt the background and make it look odd and vice versa.

In order to tackle this problem we took to After Effects which has a more advanced colour isolation system. Within After Effects, we used the plugin Colour Finesse. Although the software appeared very complex, it was quite easy to learn as a lot of it functioned by using the recognisable colour sliders.

As you can see below, the shot appears completely different after being grading on After Effects. It appears much bolder and less painfully bright. Although the grade from Premiere Pro looked usable, in comparison to our other shots, it was far too bright. So, using After Effects was extremely useful.

Graded on Premiere Pro

Graded on After Effects