Color Grading Begins

Virtual Crew,

Remember as a child when it felt like centuries would pass before you’d finally wake up on Christmas morning to eat sweets and open presents?

That precise feeling now applies to me and this movie.

I’ll shout, “I see the light at the end of the tunnel!”

Only to realize the light isn’t the actual end of the tunnel, but a train heading my way that’s gonna knock me off the tracks and burn a few weeks of progress.

Speaking of trains, if you’ve never watched POLAR EXPRESS drop everything and watch it right now. If you’re at work, just quit. It’s worth losing your job over. The film is an unexpected gift in a sea of Hallmark pirates trying to steal your time during Christmas.

Back to RECKONING:

You’re my virtual crew. I’ve left you high and dry for 7 months.

Unacceptable. I’m sorry.

I do have good news:

Color Grading is COMPLETE!

Film Geek Moment: Color “grading” is a left over term from the film lab days. It means to color correct the film. Every movie from THE GREATEST SHOWMAN to THE MATRIX goes through extensive color grading. You’d be blown away at how things change.

EXAMPLE: Check this shot from RECKONING:

My actor, Lyle Matthis, is underexposed.

But if I brighten him, the background would be overexposed and blown out.

Fortunately, modern grading software has tools that save astronomical amounts of time. Below you can see Lyle highlighted with what’s called the MAGIC MASK tool:

Magic Mask tracks the subject frame by frame. You can then independently increase the brightness, adjust contrast, sharpness and more without effecting the background.

The final shot will look something like this:

Cool right?

Color grading is a shot-by-shot process of making the film look right.

Okay, enough with the grading already.

You’re probably wondering: If grading is done, what’s next?

Sound design.

If you think color grading sounds tedious, you should try dialogue editing.

That’s a screen shot from FAIRLIGHT which is the sound design tool I use. Dialogue editing is about voice isolation, EQ, fades and everything else that protects the story from audible distractions.

I’m about half way through my first pass of dialogue editing.

So that’s a wrap on this update.

Don’t forget to watch Polar Express.

Have an incredible CHRISTMAS. Sandi, Journey and I are loving watching baby Reverie steal presents and ornaments from the tree. She’s 15 months old! Very big, but still a baby.

Speaking of babies, I can’t sign off without saying this:

Sometimes religion and culture creates a convoluted image of who Jesus was and is. The Bible says Jesus didn’t come to condemn the world. He legit came to save us from the control of evil.

I love what Bono (U2) said: He talked about how the truth of Jesus is so different than every other religious view of God and eternity. In every other religion, you have to work to gain God’s love and favor. To secure eternity.

But Jesus did it all for us.

And as Charlie Brown would say: That’s what Christmas is really about.

Merry Christmas!

Kyler Boudreau

P.S. I will update you soon in the New Year to schedule a virtual crew private viewing of the movie! CAN’T WAIT.