Using this footage

- Before we get started, let's talk about the footage we'll be using in this training, the project, how we'll be using this footage, and if you should be color correcting along with me. Now this footage is from a feature length documentary I was hired to color correct. It's titled Tanzania: A Journey Within. It was brought to me by Emmy Award-winning director Sylvia Caminer. I graded a few of her feature films and this is her passion project. It's a film designed to help save lives. Now, the running time is 102 minutes but when it comes to color correction and budgeting your time, more important than running length is the number of shots in the timeline, the shot count.

Except for a few edge cases, the shot count gives us almost all the information we need to know to figure out is the time we have to color correct this realistic? Now on this film, I had 1159 shots to color correct. The budget allowed for five days of work. I generally need at least a half day to prep a feature length timeline and then a half day for rendering, checking the renders, fixing the problem, and delivering it onto the client's hard drive.

Also on a feature project, I reserve at least a half day for final review and last minute revisions. This leaves me three and a half days for the actual color correct itself. 1200 shots in three and a half days. That's 345 shots a day. If you do the math, I have less than two minutes to spend on each shot in a nine hour day with no bathroom breaks. Yes, we're moving quickly. Here's the thing. While it might seem that every single shot is a brand new experience, to me, I see the same kind of shots over and over every day.

Yeah, the exact content of a shot is new to me. The challenges though? They repeat themselves. There are about a dozen common challenges you're liking to face. Master the solution to those challenges and 1200 shots start looking like 20 shots, repeated over and over. And this documentary contains a good number of those common challenges. That's why I've selected this film to use in this series. And the shots I've pulled together will help us master DaVinci Resolve 12 while also illustrating these common problems we face on documentaries, corporate videos, feature films, shorts, even commercials and music videos.

Just keep in mind. This is an actual documentary. Because the filmmakers, they want to get their message out, they've agreed to allow me to license this footage and share it with you for your personal education while working through this training series. Please, respect their copyright and don't share it. If you want to find out more about Tanzania: A Journey Within and how it's saving lives in Africa, be sure to watch the movie at the end of this series and really, feel free to thank Sylvia and her team on Twitter at TanzaniaTheMovie.

One last thing. Do I think you should be color correcting this footage with me? If you have access to the exercise files, absolutely yes. If you truly want to ingrain the concept I'm teaching here, it's not enough to watch. You need to do. You need to develop the muscle memory that informs your eye. What's happening to this footage when I take this slider and move it that way? Your eye will get the feedback of your muscles performing an action and it vastly improves your retention, recall, and understanding.

Now, it doesn't really matter if you're using this footage or your own footage. It just so happens these shots have been handpicked to demonstrate what I need. Just use footage. Absolutely. Practice what I'm doing as I do it to truly learn how to use DaVinci Resolve 12.