The look as one gentle LUT

One LUT for the whole film, gentle enough to unify and never strong enough to rebuild.

Build the look as one LUT, a gentle unifier [official guidance]: a 33-point .cube (the common LUT file format), Rec.709 in and Rec.709 out (Rec.709 is the standard colour space of HD video), from the treatment's light and colour decisions and the brand book's grade values (white point, skin, product and brand colours, contrast, saturation). Generated footage is already display-referred Rec.709, so there is no log conversion.

It never rebuilds what the prompts didn't deliver [proven]: most of the grade is already inside the generated images. A look that tries to create the film's colour in finishing breaks shots that were right.

How to make it. Grade the look and export it as the .cube (steps below). Version every look (LOOK_v1.cube, LOOK_v2.cube) and keep the old ones.

Show it on stills first. The look goes on the colour bible, with and without it, and touches the film only once you have approved it there.

The grade never repairs content (decided). A wrong product colour, wrong skin or a wrong brand colour goes back to generation. Regrading a product to the right colour is a pixel fix, and pixel fixes are never made, by hand or by software (see Planning, budgets and takes → Fixing a failed take). Higgsfield's Color Palette and Video Relight are not ways to grade: they make new pixels.

Do it yourself

Export the look as a .cube (Premiere, DaVinci Resolve)

1. In Premiere: grade the look in Lumetri Color, then use the panel menu's Export .cube.

2. In DaVinci Resolve: right-click the graded clip's thumbnail on the Color page and choose Generate LUT, 33 Point Cube.

Sources

• Adobe's Lumetri documentation (the look on an adjustment layer).

• Tom Poole (Televisual) (one custom LUT per show, no go-to LUT).

• Gossip Goblin via PJ Accetturo (newsletter).

• Siggy Ferstl (LBB) (heavy-handedness as the trap).