Color Grading needs its own job category

Color Grading needs its own job category. Colorists don’t know where to put their credits, they’re currently hidden under editorial or vfx, neither of those are accurate. Such an important job really deserves its own category. Who can I contact about this?

Responses

MykolaYeriomin

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4K Messages

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244.1K Points

6 years ago

Hello, Dave.

Separating a separate department is a very difficult operation which often requires a lot of time.

Also, why do you think that "editorial department" is a wrong place for colorists? Most of the digital color grading is done in the same software as editing and in a tight collaboration with editors. I admit that it might be more sufficient to rename editorial department into "post-production" because many jobs there are not editing-related per se... But I seldom see colorists having that problem, actually.

dave_muscat

6 Messages

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260 Points

6 years ago

Hey Nikolay,

Thanks for the response. Here are my thoughts.

Changing Editorial Dept to Post Production sounds like a reasonable solution but keeping Color Grading under Editorial is very inaccurate.

I see Colorists with credits in Visual Effects, Misc Crew and Editorial Dept, currently it is a mess. With Color Grading having such a huge impact of the final look of the film or episode it is such a disservice to the craft.

Being an Online Editor for 14 years and now a Colorist for the last few, I can tell you first hand that those 2 jobs couldn’t be more different.

Yes, frequently they use the same software but that is the only similarity. Color Grading is a highly creative and subjective art form, where Colorist’s collaborate with Directors and DP’s to craft the look and feel of a film.

Online Editing is a purely technical procedure of rebuilding the Offline Editors cut from the Camera Raw Files.

Most Colorists never go into the Edit Page of the software and don’t know how to use it, most Online Editors have a basic knowledge of the Color tools but do not have the many years experience required to create a beautiful image and match hundreds of shots to looks exactly the same nor is that part of their job.

I personally don’t know any Colorists that think Editorial Dept is the proper place for Color Grading credits.

Thanks again :-)

MykolaYeriomin

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It's hard to argue these points and they sound very reasonable. I guess it might be a legacy of film as medium: on film color timers perhaps do work as closely with editors as they do with DP in order to process the film in the most sufficient way. The fact that colorists are credited in other crew and visual effects is a huge problem and, unless specified visual effects crew or something like that was in place, some merger should be done.

I am usually affiliated with smaller, no budget productions on which I often fulfill both color grading and editing at the same time (including my feature film in works), often working on one scene in succession firstly as editor and then as colorist. While these jobs do have certain aspects which cross with each other it's safe to say that they're best done a bit separately, as editing is more about the rhythm and color grading is more about the overall finished look.

6 years ago

dave_muscat

6 Messages

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260 Points

Hey Nikolay, wondering if you had any thoughts on what my next steps could be to pursue changing Editorial Dept to Post Production?

6 years ago

MykolaYeriomin

Champion

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4K Messages

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244.1K Points

Hello, Dave.

Well, you have already submitted idea. For now it will take some time for IMDb staff to look at it and consider it although, as I've said, creating new departments is a hard thing to do due to website's engine and might take years even if considered.

6 years ago

jamesmmm

245 Messages

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7.3K Points

Hi Dave,

I have often thought that some of the sound job roles shuld be listed in the diting section, such as the sound editor. The sound editor does not work with the sound recordist but they have always been listed in the same section.

For s guide, I think it is worth looking to see where job roles are lsited in a film's credits. I just went to see where your credits were listed as a "dailies operator" on both Driven (2001) and Serendipity (2001) vut could not find them. Where are they in the credits? Can you help me find them? Who is listed just above you and who is lsited just below you in each one?

6 years ago

jamesmmm

245 Messages

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7.3K Points

Hi Dave,

I have often thought that some of the sound job roles should be listed in the editing section, such as the sound editor. The sound editor does not work with the sound recordist but they have always been listed in the same section.

For a guide, I think it is worth looking to see where job roles are lsited in a film's credits. I just went to see where your credits were listed as a "dailies operator" on both Driven (2001) and Serendipity (2001) but could not find them. Where are they in the credits? Can you help me find them? Who is listed just above you and who is listed just below you in each one?

6 years ago

eboy

2.5K Messages

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69.2K Points

Truth to be told, people don’t really have to ”physically” work with someone to share the same category. Sound editor probably edits material also recorded by the sound recordist (among the other material).

6 years ago

MykolaYeriomin

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4K Messages

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244.1K Points

Adding to what Eboy said, same goes for Art Department.

6 years ago

kevin_shaw_k7ryfsp8wh8j0

11 Messages

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3.3K Points

Please continue this thread with the petition - Could we please have a separate "Colorist Department on this platform. https://community-imdb.sprinklr.com/conversations/data-issues-policy-discussions/could-we-please-have-a-separate-colorist-department/5f4a7a328815453dba9d9d1a

We have over 300 supporting votes and 49 comments on why it is not just a good idea but really necessary.

And @nikolay_yeriomin Your statement is totally incorrect and the reason that we need to have a color department to make it clear it is incorrect. Color grading is not done by editors and not done in editing software.

4 years ago

MykolaYeriomin

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4K Messages

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244.1K Points

@kevin_shaw_k7ryfsp8wh8j0 I might be wrong, especially since I rarely encounter professional coloring workflows, but isn't the most common software right now is DaVinci Resolve, which is for both editing and color correction?

That and I believe you're referring mostly to the US sitation. Abroad the lines are a tad more blurred and many editors also at least dabble in color grading. In fact when people hire editor in some places they fully expect him to have knowledge of basic color correction (usually with aforementioned DaVinci) and colorists are usually hired for finishing touches, if they are hired. At least that is the situation in Ukraine.

(edited)

4 years ago

kevin_shaw_k7ryfsp8wh8j0

11 Messages

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3.3K Points

@nikolay_yeriomin. The most common software is DaVinci Resolve, which does editing, VFX, sound and color grading. but that does not mean that one person does all these things. It may be common in corporate and indie markets for the editor to do some color correction, and these days yes I expect everyone to have a knowledge of basic color management. But all the big projects, features, television and commercials are graded by a professional colorist who specialises in just color grading.

I am based in europe, and have worked in asia and australasia as well as the Us. I can assure you it is no different anywhere else. Color grading is a completely different discipline with very different skills to editing.

For a more complete overview of the role of the colorist please see this https://coloristsociety.com/role-of-the-colorist

4 years ago

MykolaYeriomin

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@kevin_shaw_k7ryfsp8wh8j0 Great thanks for explaining and additional information on the subject!

On extremely low-to-no budget productions the lines in post are very blurred, so many people dabble in all of that, especially since modern software allows. Since those form most of my background so far, I've seen plenty of people doing color in the edit, at times simultaneously. It indeed makes infinitely more sense for colorist to collaborate with DOP.

4 years ago

dave_muscat

Color Grading needs its own job category

MykolaYeriomin

dave_muscat

MykolaYeriomin

dave_muscat

MykolaYeriomin

jamesmmm

jamesmmm

eboy

MykolaYeriomin

kevin_shaw_k7ryfsp8wh8j0

MykolaYeriomin

kevin_shaw_k7ryfsp8wh8j0

MykolaYeriomin

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