Apple Final Cut Pro 5 - Manual (Page 1202)

Chapter 20 Color Correcting Clips 415
II
The goals of color correction at this stage depend on the length of the project.
 Short projects, commercials, spots, and very short videos may get a detailed color
correction pass right away. The colorist will first calibrate the telecine’s own color
corrector to balance the whites, blacks, and color perfectly. Then the colorist, in
consultation with the cinematographer, director, or producer, will work shot by shot
to determine the look of each clip according to the needs of the project. As a result,
the editor will be working with footage that has already been corrected.
 Long-form projects such as feature-length films and longer television programs
probably won’t get a detailed color correction pass right away. Instead, the footage
that is run through the telecine will be balanced to have the best blacks, whites, and
color possible, and left at that.
In both cases, the transferred tapes are then edited the same as any other project.
Once editing has been finished and the picture is locked, a list of selected shots called
a cut list or pull list is created that details exactly which shots were used during the edit.
(The shots used during editorial are matched with the original shots using edge-coding
numbers that are transferred along with the video.)
Using the cut list, the postproduction supervisor has the option of pulling only the film
negative that was actually used. Since this is usually a minority of the footage that was
shot, the colorist now has the time to perform a more detailed color correction pass
only on the selected footage. This is accomplished during a second telecine pass.
Although this might seem redundant, performing color correction directly from the
film negative has distinct advantages. Since film has greater latitude from black to
white than video has, a colorist working straight off the telecine has greater control of
color and exposure than one working only with videotape.
After the second color correction pass, the color-corrected selects are reassembled to
match the original edit, and the project is mastered to tape.
Initial
correction pass
Edit Color correction
pass of cut list
Reassemble
color-corrected clips