Santanu Pal

A LOOKS COLLECTION BY ERIC ESCOBAR

The inspiration of this collection is, American Independent Filmmaking, specifically films made in the last decade. The last ten years of indie filmmaking in America has been dominated by both the quirky, “heart-felt” comedy and the serious, “heart-felt” drama. A personal, emotional search for authenticity has been the zeitgeist. 

In the movie-tech realm, itʼs been a decade that has seen the transition from film to digital HD video for image acquisition, as well as the end of the traditional lab “color timing” to the rise of the DI (digital intermediate) process of computer based color manipulation.

It has been a weird time for cameras and coloring. Film purists have been afraid to letgo of how things have been done; while newbies shoot badly lit video and drop pixel smashing plug-ins on their movies. Everyone is still kind of freaked out about it all. 

Color grading in Magic Bullet Looks by Red Giant is a process of artful destruction. The more processes you pile on to your image, the less of your original image remains. But thatʼs a fine thing to do. Coloring, to me, is about deciding what parts of your imagesʼ tonal and color range are essential, and what parts are superfluous. 

Color is visceral. I think of coloring as editing the hue and tone of the raw image to reveal the emotion of the frame. My goal has been to balance that emotion while minimizing process - preserving what the story needs. Each family of Looks helps tell a common story that you will make unique when you add it to your image. Some of these looks are complicated, some are really simple. Please use them as a jumping off point to create your own.

She will be your leading lady for this guide.

In the download package youʼll find source footage starring Annie Pautsch, our actress/ model extraordinaire. Use this footage as you experiment with the Looks. I lit it, shot it and color balanced it nice and evenly so that you can have a chance to play around with what the Looks are doing to the footage without having to worry about doing a primary color pass on it all. 

My basic philosophy is that color grading and look creation begin with the script andend in Magic Bullet. Despite the name, no plug-in can actually do “magic” with badly lit,poorly shot footage. Youʼll get out what you put in, so remember when youʼre shooting,“feed the plug-ins!” 

This first set of Looks are for Exterior Day footage. This doesnʼt mean you canʼt run them on all types of footage, but they are designed for material that is brightly lit and can smoosh (www.smoosh.com) you under-lit interior.  Just a warning.

01.

Why is it ironic? Because the sun never shines in your urban existence. Thereʼre two speeds in your relationship drama - hooking up and breaking up. This is as happy as it gets. 

02.

Gratuitous use of the Swing-Tilt effect -- a nice way to let everyone know that this isnʼt happening right now, rather itʼs from way back in your past of three months ago.

Wouldnʼt it be great to just shoot this thing through coffee grounds, and then run it, one frame at a time, through a late 90ʼs color copy machine? Process is art.

05.

Super punchy and saturated. Cool in the shadows, warm in the highlights, a little touch of blue-green in the mid. It was so awesome for Fuji to donate stock to your grad school film program, too bad it was only 400 feet.

06.

Sooner or later youʼre going to have to move there. And yes, in this Look called “Los Angeles” there is a smoggy colored gradient, and smoggy colored diffusion on the highlights. While not every day is smoggy, many days are.

07.

In the central nervous system, serotonin plays an important role as a neurotransmitter in the modulation of anger, aggression, body temperature, mood,sleep, human sexuality, appetite, and metabolism, as well as stimulating vomiting.

I know we all under-light our interiors, not because we mean to, but because we donʼt have the cash for a genny, and weʼre really worried about popping circuits in our friendʼs apartment building. Weʼd so lose our location if anyone catches us shooting in here.

Thatʼs why I came up with these Looks for all of you auto-gain maniacs. Check out the sample footage, and my how-to videos on lighting with a single light and practicals. I mean, you do need some light, right?

Open the blinds for crying out loud!

01.

According to some film theorists, the color red is short hand for caution, or danger.  It could also just mean your print has been sitting around for a few decades. 

03.

Movies about drug addicts are boring. So you better do all kinds of camera trickery to keep everyoneʼs attention away from the inevitable and predictable ending of your meth-tastic epic.

04.

At least you can get two bedrooms for the price you paid for that studio in Brooklyn, right? But everything is so far away in LA. At least we can use this place as a free location!

05.

Itʼs amazing, youʼve been here two months and youʼre already practically bestfriendʼs with an actress that was on that prime time TV show for a 3 episode arc! Funny, she looks so different in person.  Good thing you have this grade to make her look amazing. 

“Iʼve seen your picture on a hundred dollar bill.” Your lead actress is about to make the most important speech in your short film, itʼll make or break your career, better use the edge defocus on the her. 

07.

For close-ups, use this as-is. For wides and mediums disable the swing-tilt.Moody, preserves skin tones, but pushes blues into the bloom around your light sources. Itʼll make you want to back light every shot with a window. 

Then there are those times when youʼre shooting everything in your parentʼs basement that youʼve made into a “set”. Which means no sources of natural light, just practicals(aka a desk lamp stolen from your momʼs office) and a small light kit borrowed from a friend. Donʼt despair! 

Here are some looks to add some flavor to your bare bones production package. 

We can get through this together.

01.

You decide to take that trip up highway 5 to San Francisco.  Then your car breaks down and you have to check into that little motel in the San Joaquin Valley.  This could be the start of a bad genre film, or a great character drama, or both.

02.

Who says you canʼt make a film by computer design? Developers can do anything. Take your time, measure the light, plan it down to a science and shoot it on 16mm reversal, one take per shot. No mistakes.

03.