Did you know that it wasn’t until the 1950s that color cinematography replaced black and white film? Before then, filmmakers used light and shadow to help tell their stories. But once color made its big debut, artists had a whole new way to enhance their storytelling.

Because color does so much more than the obvious (add color). It evokes emotion, draws focus to details, sets the tone, and shows changes in the story. And most of the time, it does all of these things without us even realizing it. 

We may not be box office movie makers, but we do use color grading when editing wedding films. A whole lot more goes into making wedding films than just shooting footage and adding music. A whole lot! But today, we’re only talking about one aspect: color grading.   

So what exactly is it? And why is it important to you?

What is color grading?

Color grading is the process of stylizing the color of your film by “painting” on top of the footage. This is where your film really comes to life. 

We use editing software to style the footage during this process, making it look more cinematic. It’s both a technical and creative way to make changes. Through artistic touches, we can create an atmosphere and drive emotion.

This is because there’s actually a psychology behind color. It’s been shown that red raises blood pressure while blue creates a calming effect. So depending on how it’s used and where it’s placed, red could represent passion and sensuality just as easily as it could express fear and dread. 

Next time you’re watching a movie or TV show, notice the color scheme. Sometimes it’s used to convey a certain point in time, where the color is slightly different in the past than it is in the present.

And think about how color grading is used in movies like The Wizard of Oz. The first part of the film is entirely black and white. But when Dorothy’s house touches down after the tornado, and she opens the door to Oz, the film bursts with technicolor – and the mood shifts. 

Color grading is not color correction.

Color grading is not to be confused with color correcting. Color correction is more of a technical process that happens before grading and is used to adjust colors, contrast, and exposure in the footage. (See example above)

This ensures that the film looks natural and the way it’s intended to look to the human eye. It’s also used to correct technical color errors, like lighting issues, so that everything appears consistent. And color correction can optimize footage so that when any visual effects are added, they blend in as seamlessly as possible.

Basically, it’s preparing the canvas for color grading.

Why color grading matters to you.

Color grading is what makes our films visually beautiful. It adds consistency, emotion, vibrance, warmth, and style. Our main objective is to keep your film timeless while still giving it a high-quality and original look.

If we were to just deliver you the raw footage out of the camera without color grading, it would be gray, flat, and lifeless. 

It’s important because it affects the mood and feel of a piece of footage, which ultimately affects how you interpret the final film. 

Think of it like an author’s voice or a painter’s signature style. We are known for the color grading in our films. In fact, Jenn spends, on average, 1 hour per minute of film on color grading alone. This attention to detail is one of the things that really sets our films apart from other wedding films.

And just as an author would not deliver an unfinished draft to the public, we wouldn’t think of giving you a wedding film without color grading. Without it, you just have a film lacking the artistic style that you see in the rest of our films.

We create our films using many techniques. Storytelling, curated music, and color grading is just some of what we weave together in post-production to give you the meaningful final footage.

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Now that you know a little bit more about how we create our wedding films, why not contact us, and let’s talk about yours!

Can’t wait to color your film!
Nick & Jenn