Should I pay people in post production if they do not deliver what I ask?

They chose sections of the takes, from those few shots, taken from the other camera that did not match.
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Film making by committee. Oh well done. At least you have others to blame for screwing it up, right?

Everything can take a viewer out of a film. Non-matching shots, poor acting, bad sound, plot holes and so on. Every time you do something wrong, you take the risk of it happening. The more often you do it, the worse you end up.

Lucky for you, you're not the director. Or at least the real director.

It wasn't like that in edit.
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The way you double back after you finally answer some simple questions, I think it's safe to say you're full of it.

Anyway, I think I'm seriously over you. I've used every method in my book to help. So many memes to describe you:

Edit: Images not working... A shame really.
 
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I didn't say I was blaming them for my screw ups, I am just saying that the reason why I chose those takes, was that they said they were the best takes, and I wanted other input. I'm glad that helped choose what they think are the best takes. How is that blaming? You asked me why I chose those shots, and that's the reason.
 
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Let me be clear. YOU ARE BEYOND MY HELP.

You've successfully dragged me down to your level of idiocy and beat me with your experience.

Do whatever you please. Askholes always do.
 
I think it's ridiculous there is all this talking and h44 can't even be bothered to upload a couple screen shots.
 
Sorry I have had problems getting screenshots out of his latest draft. I think there might be some sort of protection on it, which is understandable, since he is not done the final yet. Or it's just the format he gave me. I am devoting my free time to helping him through it though, and he really wants to get it right.

Basically here's the problem. When I shot the movie I only used two cameras for one scene. If those cannot be matched, that's fine. However, all the other scenes do not match, cause the contrast is higher and lower from shot to shot. Here's an example. A scene with two close ups cutting back and forth. Actor A and Actor B. Actor A has a lot of contrast in his shots. Actor B, has the contrast sucked out of her shots. Then it cuts back and forth between both of their shots, and thereby cutting back forth between contrasty shots, and shots with the contrast taken out too much.

When I shot the movie, I did not change the contrast in camera, and left it were it was the whole shoot. Not just that one scene example, but every scene. I left the contrast at the same place, in camera. So why is it that the colorist, would color so many shots, where the contrast is at different levels? Shouldn't he all do it the same level, so the movie has the same consistent look?

I realize I probably did something that is my fault, that would cause him to do that, but what could it have been since the contrast, was in the same in the camera originally?

He said he is having trouble with the contrast, and that the reason why in shots with too much contrast added, where you black jackets and black hair show up pitch black, the problem is, is that I shot with a Canon T2i which is H.264, and not RAW, so I loose detail. It's for this reason that the contrast has to be different from shot to shot, to preserve detail, depending on the shot.

But I do not get why the contrast has to be different from shot to shot. Couldn't he just pick a happy medium level of contrast that work for the whole movie, that is the same level throughout, rather than shots where it is sucked out, intercutting with shots, where it's too black? Is the Canon T2i's codec really so bad, that shots have to be so mismatched like that after grading? I realize it is my fault, I just didn't realize the footage had to be butchered after, just because of the codec, especially when it was shot with the same settings throughout originally.
 
If you can open it in Premiere you can make a screenshot.
If not: try your print screen button.
If that doesn't work:
Bandicam is a screenrecorder. You can use that to take a picture of what is on your screen.

Don't blame the codec. Lots of people get good results with it.

It's not only contrast settings, it's also under or overexposure that creates differences.

F*ck detail in the shadows. You need it to look like 1 coherent movie.

Now post those screenshots!
Preferably before and after grading of the same frames. That's the only way anyone in here can really say something about it.
 
I think there might be some sort of protection on it
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Yep, it's called, the operator is an idiot. You're either failing miserably at trying to be funny or you're as dumb as the dog s**t in my back yard.

My advice: Give up on the project. If you're incapable of taking a simple screenshot, you're NOT capable of handling the nuances of making a film. You're definitely the wrong person to manage it. Never ever take up a role where you're in a supervisory of managerial capacity.

TLDR: Stop, just stop. You haven't figured out the basics of anything in the first 5000 posts, you aren't going to figure it out. You should just give up.
 
When I clock 'insert image' on this forum, it asks for the URL. But I don't want to give a URL, I just want to upload a screen shot from my computer directly. How do I do that?

Also, one thing that makes the movie hard to judge, when he sends me the color correction samples, is that the color looks very different if I play it on windows media player, compared to say, VLC, even though I adjusted the settings to the same levels, according to the settings provided by each player. What do you guy, when different media players make it look different, or how do you judge?
 
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Okay thanks. The colorist wants me to go through the problems shot by shot and make a list of what the problems are, but it's very difficult for me to communicate the problems, when I cannot tell. The color is off and mismatching more than it was before, especially with the contrast, but so far the list goes on and on, and I can't even figure out how much contrast to add, since I do not know how much was taken out, etc.

What if I told the colorist that we are going to work on this over the phone, live, so we can work on it together. I cannot communicate the problem in emails, since I do not know what it is. I just see that there is problems. I am not the colorist, so I cannot tell him what's wrong, but it would be better to work over the phone. What if I told him that in order for him to get payed that I will only work with him live. I mean the reason why most directors work with their post production people live, and together, is because communication is better and you can see what the problem is.

So I feel like telling him, that if he wants to finish the job, he will have to work with me live, or forget it. Do you think this is a good way, cause he's not very understanding in the emails, and I don't even know what's wrong, since I cannot see what he is doing on his system. I am still willing to pay up, and offered to pay and be done with it, but he keeps insisting me wants to do a re-touch for free to get it right, but nothing is getting through, so far, and I still haven't got the movie back.
 
That's what I want to do but he's avoiding it. He just wants me to email him a shot by shot list of all the problems with the shots. But since I do not know what the problem is, I cannot tell him how to fix it and need more info from him on what he did. When it comes to adding contrast, it looks really good in the brighter scenes, but makes scenes shot in darker settings, too dark. If I have make the contrast the same for the whole movie, does that mean the brighter scenes will just have to suffer, since the darker scenes cannot handle it, without looking too black?
 
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is that the color looks very different if I play it on windows media player, compared to say, VLC
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You don't say Sherlock?

he's not very understanding in the emails
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Oh really? Maybe he understands English instead of random gibberish. Have you tried using English?

I can't even figure out how much contrast to add, since I do not know how much was taken out, etc.
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Why would that matter? You work from the image in front of you.

does that mean the brighter scenes will just have to suffer, since the darker scenes cannot handle it, without looking too black?
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How the F are we going to tell without knowing the material. You've been told this multiple times but you're too dense to understand. Come over to my house. I want to ram your head into a brick wall until I knock some sense into you. (I think I need to copy and paste this into all your threads)

The problem you're having is probably garbage in - garbage out. It probably has more to do with what you're instructing him to do than anything. I assume you're using an uncalibrated monitor, in an unsuitable viewing environment on a program that isn't designed for what you're doing. You might as well review the material with your eyes closed. Well not quite, but close.

I'd even hazard a bet that you're watching on a laptop on a train and complaining about scenes that are too dark when you're in a tunnel and then too washed out when the sun is behind you. If you don't even understand that it would be a bigger problem than your non-matching footage, then you need to end this now.

By the way, in this case, color grading over the phone is MORONIC at best. It's something YOU should do in person. Get on a plane, fly over and finish this. You're too dumb to effectively work with the grader remotely.
 
For sure. Next time I will just use one, or make sure they both have the same picture style activated.

Apparently high contrast looks good in brightly lit scenes, such as scenes outdoors, but when you have darkly lit scenes, such as lit street corner at light, low contrast looks best. However, if I am to have one look for the whole movie, so it all matches, how do you decide between high contrast and low, when it all depends on style of lighting as to what looks good, on a scene by scene basis?

My friends told me that the viewer will not notice if you go from a sunny high contrast look to a low contrast look at night, but I think they will as you cut from one scene to the next, but maybe it's just me cause I am studying the color. Do movies do this naturally and no one notices? This is not the only problem with the colorist's drafts but it was one that he commented on, saying the same look will not work for the whole thing.

I watched a tutorial before and they said if you want to shoot at night under street lamps, shoot with no contrast. But if that's true, that you cannot have high contrast at night, does that mean that the whole movie cannot have much contrast, daylight scenes and all? Cause without any contrast, it can look pretty flat. What's better, seeing more detail with a flat look, or less detail with a more a more contrasty look? If the colorist is right, and each shot has to be graded differently depending on the lighting, then how do you get the audience not to notice the difference in color changes?
 
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So you want both bright and dark scenes to both match and have the same contrast between all those scenes? You're a f'ing moron. Its like saying you want to travel at both 20mph and 100mph at the same time. I'll repeat, You're a f'ing moron. There's nothing more to say on that topic.

If you're trying to accomplish stupid, you've succeeded. On top of that, you don't know what you're talking about.

Also, how can night scenes with lights (not lighting) not have a very wide contrast?

If the colorist is right, and each shot has to be graded differently depending on the lighting
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Each scene can and often should be different. It depends on the scene and the story/meaning of the scene. There are many other factors but it seems like you've been a complete idiot who has little to no understanding of the work that you're supervising. This is exactly why you are the wrong person for the job. You're a point in case for the blind leading the blind.

ANSWER THIS: Did you read a single book or take a single course (proper course, not one of those youtube for idiots videos) before you decided to supervise and deliver instructions on how a grader does his work?
 
No, I did not take any proper courses, but I will now. Well I showed it to the other filmmakers who made it and they are not pleased either. They said that even if different scenes are allowed to be colored differently, the movie is hard on their eyes because it's inconsistent. For example, when a character walks out of one room, with a lot of contrast added in post, then walks into a different room, with all the contrast taken down, you can see a huge change in the picture, and it's distracting. This happens several times, from scene to scene.

They said that the original version is much better, because at least the color is consistent from shot to shot, and we should just use the original and not the colorists. We will still credit the colorist, but we need a version that has a consistent look and is not hard on the eyes for switching levels of contrast added in post, from shot to shot.
 
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