Colour, Grade & Finishing for Delivery

Assessment 1 — Short Film + Production Portfolio

Independently or in a small team, produce a 3–4 minute short film with a full production portfolio. The reflective report focuses on the role(s) you undertook, the collaborative and creative decisions, and how health and safety was integrated throughout.

Weeks 11–14

• Risk assessment
• Script
• Storyboard
• Shot list
• Final film (3–4 minutes)
• 750-word reflective report

• Adhere to H&S protocols throughout
• Harvard referencing in the reflective report
• File upload by Week 14, Sun 23:59

• LO2 — Grade a scene for consistency and mood.
• LO2 — Deliver to a technical spec (codec, colour space, LUT).
• LO3 — Sign off a master with a QC report.

• Log vs Rec.709, LUTs and colour space transforms
• Primary correction: lift, gamma, gain, offset
• Secondary: qualifiers, power windows, tracking
• Matching shots across coverage
• Delivery: codec, container, loudness, subtitle burn-in

1. 01

   Colour-managed setup

   Set project to DaVinci Wide Gamut / Intermediate. Apply input transform per camera.

2. 02

   Primary pass

   Balance every clip on the vectorscope and waveform. Skin tones on the line, blacks at 0, whites at 100 IRE unless intentional.

3. 03

   Match cuts

   A/B every consecutive cut. Fix mismatched exposure and colour cast before creative grading.

4. 04

   Creative pass

   Build a scene look. Apply consistently. Save as a preset for the whole film.

5. 05

   Deliver + QC

   Export to spec (H.264 4K UHD, Rec.709, −16 LUFS integrated). Watch the master end-to-end. Fill a one-page QC report.

• Grading before match-cutting — you polish inconsistency.
• Trusting an uncalibrated laptop screen for final grade.
• Exporting to the wrong colour space and delivering a washed-out master.

The exported master from this workshop is the exact format your Assessment 1 submission must be in. Keep the project file for review.