Color Grading and Compositing for Sienna Burning

All one light color grading of CinemaDNG RAW footage was done in DaVinci Resolve and output to ProRes for editing in FCP X. Various film LUTs were used but most of them were variations of Kodak Vision Color 2383 film stock. The two I use most commonly are Impulz VisionColor from Color Grading Central and Koji Color, developed (no pun intended) by color timer Dale Grahn.

Most of the secondary color grading was done in FCP X.

There was a fair amount of VFX employed in post, mostly in the final sequence of the young twins to turn their natural, light brown hair, to red hair. It was a tedious and pains taking process to rotoscope those shots. As an editor and colorist, it pushed my abilities into a new area. I had done rotoscoping in corporate projects in the past but not to this extent. Even though I have a number of powerful digital tools at hand, such as Mocha planar tracking and DaVinci Resolve, it still comes down to editing frame by frame some times.

Click images for larger view.

Other VFX included adding face lighting to some shots and tracking it with the actor’s movement, brand removal from the MRI head cage, and cleaning up shadows from the wall below the stairway in Suzanne’s home.

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Our overall color grading scheme was to have all of the shots in “Scene 1”, everything before the flashback, have a sterile, cool, and sharp look. “Scene 2”, the flashback, used muted, darker tones to underscore painful memories. “Scene 3” we go back to the sterility of the hospital but transition into warmer, more vibrant color as the twin sisters meet in the lobby.

Read More

• For full cast, crew, and production info, visit the IMDB page.
• Sienna Burning Production Notes and Production Stills.
• Visit the Facebook page, and keep up to date on Twitter.

In The News

• For more about the film and how it came together, read about it in the Arts and Extras section in the Roanoke Times.
• Read about the partnership between the film’s producers and the Roanoke Rescue Mission.