Color timing is the art of enhancing the look of motion picture footage. Every frame of every movie you have ever seen has been meticulously tweaked by a color timer. Even such Hollywood notables as
Howard the Duck,
From Justin to Kelly and the perennial classic
Showgirls had the great color timer talents of
Dennis McNeill,
Bob Putynkowski and
Jim Schurmann, respectively. Money that was better spent than on the writers.
Color timing or grading is mostly a corrective measure. Continuity is lost when a sequence of poorly timed shots are edited together. Imagine beautiful park-like setting with saturated greens a blues. An attractive couple is having a picnic on red and white checked tablecloth. They are truly in love. Now imagine that every time there is a close-up of the hunky lead actor the image is desaturated with heavy, dark shadows. You've just turned a love story into a psychological thriller.
In typical productions, shots in the same sequence may have been captured hours, days, weeks or even months apart from each other. On exterior shoots sunlight can change minute by minute. Other factors that effect the look of a particular shot may include different lighting, exposure, lenses or even cameras. When color timing is done well, shots within an edit become seamless. Like they were literally shot one right after in real time.
The real skill of the color timer is using color treatments to develop a mood for a particular scene. Imagine
Pleasantville, Lord of the Rings or
Saving Private Ryan without it. With skillful color timing we, as moviegoers, are quite at home in a small black and white town in middle America, a cavern filled with Orcs or a Normandy battlefield.
Speaking of
Saving Private Ryan, Steven Spielberg's go-to color timer is
Dale Grahn. He created the subtle differences in the movie that intensified the battles and lifted the lighter scenes. His vast filmography is quite impressive and envious. Working on such notable films as
Valkyrie, Munich, Bug's Life and
The Nightmare Before Christmas. Dale is a giant in the film industry. Wouldn't it be great to intern with Dale for a few months to learn his secrets? His magic? We could turn our footage into visual gold.
Now we can. Dale, working with
CrumplePop, has recently developed a color timing tutorial application for the iPad that takes you through all of the tricks and artistry Dale has accumulated over his years in the industry. This app, titled
Dale Grahn Color, is available through iTunes and retails for $3.99.
Controls on the app are simple. RGB and CMY sliders and controls for adjusting saturation and density. No trackballs or control points on a response curve.
You learn directly by viewing the 20 video tutorials of Dale working with an image. You can also challenge your skills by matching a shot with a master. There is instant scoring of your tests to see how far you are from master. Pretty cool. You can also upload your own image and time it to your heart's desire then post it for your friends to see.
If you've always wanted to update your color timing skills and hadn't yet found an easier way, Dale Grahn Color is the way to go. It's as easy as pausing Words With Friends on your iPad.
