How we got the colors right for VUS Aliens

A sharing by Eunice

One of the perks of working as an in-house colorist is how early on/how much you can be involved in the creative process. Sometimes, directors come to me with color references that are far from the material they shot, hoping for some magic or to change it to something drastically different. Truth is, the set, lighting and production design all play a part in how the scene looks and is eventually graded.

For VUS "The Aliens", the director involved me during pre-production to come up with a mood board, sticking to the brief that the film is for the young contemporary audience. And that went into his director's treatment to be presented to the clients.

With this mood board, it also guided how locations were chosen during recce, and when we couldn't get an ideal location, there was time for me to research alternative color treatments for the new locations that ventured out of what we planned.

Another perk is if you work in-house, you build a relationship with your director and work together as a creative team. The conversation becomes two-way as we share multiple references across to each other. Initially, Kang Li wanted something that was quite cold, sci-fi and desaturated; but i thought it wasn't energetic enough to capture the target audience (young people like myself LOL). He also trusted me enough to let me reach into my own pocket of "color-grade wish list" to find material that would fit the film. And that creative autonomy is empowering and a motivating force for me to do my best for the film.

I read through the script and did a breakdown of the locations and here's the final color treatment we came up with (screen-grabbed from the actual PPM deck!):

Moody and mysterious to carry the suspense of the story, yet colorful and energetic to arrest the attention of 18-40 year olds

And because I was brought into the project early on, I even had time to test the grade on some other footage we had shot around the city to see if they would work which was *chef's kiss*

This gives us assurance and a confidence boost before client presentation cos your girl hates overpromising on things.

As you can see, the house's treatment veers far from the reference. And it happens - sometimes art and/or the gaffer decides to take it one direction and you just go with the flow. The important thing is you keep the same vibe and contrast.

We could not find a location for the library that was similar to our reference so I used the color treatment for the co-working space instead. And while we tried to make our library scenes (pictured below) look like the reference, it was a classic case of trying too hard to fit a scene to a reference at the expense of the picture, and ruining the look. The library location had a lot of wooden furniture and brown tones that ends up looking very unnatural if you try to make the scene too cool/teal.

Here's how the color for other locations were broken down and how it looked in the final film.

And for the extra scenes, i just did what i felt suited the film. A little gritty, futuristic and contemporary colors that i've been digging (I was binge-watching euphoria the tv show at this point).

And here are the references alongside our final product:

Pretty close and absolutely satisfying to look at!

And it's important to acknowledge the privilege of time and trust I had on this project. i don't always get enough time to prep and research beforehand, and not many clients in Vietnam are this trusting when it comes to creative direction. If you know, you will know the Vietnam landscape is still hot for the clean bright safe look #iykyk. Lucky for me, I rode on the coattails of the strong (and crazy) creatives leading this film.

I mean…

In fact, based on my experience working in the Vietnamese TVC industry, not many directors also care enough to get the input of the colorist and DP on the look of the film early during conceptualization but I think research really pays off. And when I come across a director who cares and has reasonable expectations of time and the project's limitations I know it's going to be a joy working with that person.

People also forget it takes time to come up with a look for a project so if you are only having the conversation with your colorist the day they are supposed to start color-grading then... maybe relook at that process and feel free to start bouncing off ideas even before shoot. I do believe it will be beneficial and rewarding, especially if you are very clear and very set on how you want your final film to look.

As always, post people love it when you fix it in pre ;)

The full article is also on Eunice’s blog here.