Color Notes

This is the color grading notes document I delivered to the colorist on Desires of the Heart. Three pages of timecoded corrections covering sky, skin, highlights, shadows, contrast, and the specific moments where the supernatural Woman in Red needs to pop against the frame.

What this captures is the visual logic of a film that crosses two continents. Savannah blues and South Georgia greens on one side. Indian sunsets, sandstorms, and ritual fire on the other. The color grade has to reconcile those palettes without flattening them. Throughout these notes you'll see the same refrains. Add blue to washed-out skies. Bring down the highlights, which are too hot and not broadcast safe. Warm up the image as we transition into India.

Pay attention to the note at 00:23:07. The Woman in Red is meant to flash into the frame as a color event, but in the assembly cut she was so muted a first-time viewer wouldn't catch her. Pumping the reds on her costume across the garden rain scene is the entire reason that supernatural beat works. If she doesn't pop, the audience doesn't track her as a recurring figure, and the ending falls apart.

The dream sequence note at 00:44:38 is the other key one. The colorist had drifted across that sequence, some shots saturated, others not. I told them to pick a lane. Either fully desaturate it for a dreamlike quality or commit to saturation, but find a specific consistency. Inconsistency in a dream is what makes it look like a mistake instead of a dream.

For colorists and DPs reading this, the lesson is that color notes are not just technical. They're storytelling.