How This Works

I wrote this guide to make the client interaction process as clean and simple as possible. If there is anything here that you’re uncertain about, please ask me at grademour@gmail.com.

  1. Book a Free Consultation

A consultation is a chance to tell me about your project - what you are trying to achieve with the colour grade, the cost of the grade, and the post-production timeline for the project. This appointment will be conducted over MS Teams, and will last an hour or less.

After the Appointment, a contract will be drawn up noting my obligations, the deadlines, portfolio usage, and the agreed upon payment. I advise that you read the contract in its entirity before signing, and let me know if there are amendments you want to make.

2. Preparing the Locked Picture Cut

Send these instructions to your editor.

2A. Finalise the Edit

In order for me to grade something, the footage all needs to be in its final place. My job can be done at the same time as the sound designer and composer. If the edit is moved around after this point, it will cause chaos during the conforming process.

2B. Back-Up the Project Files

Save the project files somewhere else on your drive (preferably in multiple places), as you WILL need a version to go back to. Do NOT skip this step.

2C. Remove Overlays

Go through the edit, and remove all overlays - this includes Text, VFX and Infographics. Transitions can stay. This ensures that the text and overlays are not affected by the grade.

NOTE: Credits and Titles without video in the background DO NOT need to be removed. These are important as they hold the pacing together.

2D. Render

Render the stripped-down edit in the highest, most lossless codec you can. This render setting will depend on what your editing software is - if you don’t know what this setting is, search it up.

Don’t worry about file size, I would rather a huge file size than a loss in quality.

2E. Upload it to my Google Drive Folder

I will be in contact to send you the link, please let me know your e-mail address so I can authorize you to make the upload.

3. Providing Feedback

At this point, I will be working on the grade, but during this time, I will send you Google Drive links to the work on your project that I have done so far. Please reply as soon as possible with a list of timestamps followed by feedback. Don’t be afraid to be picky.

e.g: “22:04 - This shot is a bit too dark. I want to be able to see her performance more clearly.”

I would advise watching the footage on your computer screen or on your TV to have the most accurate representation of what it would look like on a larger screen.

When you are happy with the results, I will render a high quality version, and send your editor the download link for conforming.

4. Conforming the Film

Send these instructions to your editor.

When you have recieved the final grade from me, and all the other components from other artists (VFX Shots, Sound Design audio track, Score Audio track etc.), you can begin reconstructing the film.

You will need to load a back-up of the finalised edit, and replace the shots with the Graded video track - if nothing has been changed as instructed, then the overlays should line back up with the grade.

Then, lay down the Sound Design and Score tracks in the same way, and line up VFX shots as instructed by the other creatives.

Watch the conformed project all the way through to ensure that everything lines up. Make adjustments where necessary. Then render, and send to your director,

5. Invoice

After my work is complete, I will send you an invoice for the contractually agreed upon payment. I ask that you pay this invoice within 30 days from the invoice date through bank transfer. I will send you my bank details at this point.