In this article, I will try to explain the color grading process, definitions and the most important technical details about color grading and why it matters. Color grading is one of the final post-production stages, during which the colors of the film are enhanced and adjusted. Having a talented colorist for your film, commercial or music video can be an absolute game-changer for your final result. Back when movies were shot on film, color grading was called “color timing”.

If you have to care about all the stages of the filmmaking, from script to final deliveries, I can imagine, that putting time into understanding the video formats, might seem like the dullest task imaginable. You can just forward the list of deliveries from the agent to the post-production studio and get everything taken care of. But what to do, if there is no agent yet and you need to start thinking about the post-production budget? What files will you need? What master shou