The Organic color grade

Sometimes you're too poor to buy the latest film emulation plugin for Resolve let alone own a computer that can run that plugin.

There is one simple solution however. Edit your film with no effects on and re-film your screen with your camera.

For this video clip for the band La Chose I tried to edit the original clips the traditional ways with the free tools in resolve but it led nowhere. At some point i decided I would just correct the log gamma of the original clips and then play the montage on my screen in a dark room and set up my old Canon 600D on a tripod. I set the sharpness to zero in camera (very important on this generation of DSLR) and added a diffusion filter on the lens. I framed the shot so that the edges of the 4:3 video were included in the shot and started to record.

The look completely changed after re-filming : not only did the oversharpened look of the original clips completely go away to give this dreamy soft blur, but the gamma curve was completely altered and the image popped all of a sudden. The same for the colors !

Anyway, I would recommend this technique. I liked being in the dark filming my screen. It's a different way to be involved in the process of post processing. I'm much more at ease this spontaneous method where you don't control everything. You induce something and if it's good, you keep it !