Apple Final Cut Express 4 - Manual (Page 701)

Chapter 46 Color Correction 701
IX
The Color Correction Process
As mentioned earlier, color correction has several goals. To outline the process of color
correction, this section focuses on two of those goals:
 Making the actors or key elements of your scene look the way they should
 Determining the overall look that you want for the scenes making up your movie
Every video project consists of a series of scenes. Although scenes may differ in color
and tone—one scene taking place at night, the next one happening in the midday
sun—all the shots within a given scene should match. The goal is to make sure that the
transitions from shot to shot within a scene are smooth. If one shot is brighter or
redder than the one next to it, the result can be similar to a jump cut, distracting the
viewer and making your project look unprofessional.
The overall process of color correcting different shots in a scene to match one another
involves five steps.
Step 1: Pick the master shot of a scene to use as the basis for color correction
If you’re color correcting a scene consisting of a single shot, your job is pretty easy. All
you need to do is find the settings that work best for that one shot. Most scenes,
however, cut between a variety of different shots, such as close-ups, medium shots, and
wide shots. In every scene, there is usually a single wide shot that encompasses the
entire scene, called a master shot. Traditionally, the master shot is the first shot that is
taken for a scene, and it is used as the basis for that scene. After the master shot, you’ll
typically use a series of medium shots and close-ups. These other shots are called
coverage, because they’re often used to cover different edits made in the scene.
When you color correct a scene, you begin with the master shot, because that’s usually
the establishing shot of your scene. Using the master shot as the basis, you can then
make the colors of the coverage shots match those of the master.
Step 2: Perform primary color correction
Primary color correction refers to two basic steps that you take using the Final Cut Express
Color Corrector filter. After you apply the Color Corrector filter, you’ll perform two steps:
 Adjust the blacks and whites to maximize the contrast of your clip.
Essentially, you’re mapping the blackest black in your clip to a value of 0 and the
whitest white to a value of 100. By doing this first, you widen the range that an
underexposed image covers, or bring down overly bright (or super-white) areas of
overexposed video into the range considered to be broadcast-safe.
 Use the color balance controls of the Color Corrector filter to make adjustments to
the balance of reds, greens, and blues in your shot.