How can colour grading create emotion and time in short film?

A big afternoon in the edit suite on Alien Echo, working on colour grading and the finished edit.

This process is difficult and slow going, but it is always worth it.

Alien Echo has two key colour schemes that I wanted to bring to life, and our brilliant cinematographer, David, worked incredibly hard on the shoot days to make sure we captured everything in the right way so we could achieve this in post production.

For the flashback scenes with the father and young Lola, I wanted an old school feel, very much like a Kodak 1990s colour palette. Rich browns and earthy reds and greens, something that feels warm and textured and grounded in that era where the story sits.

Then in the modern day, I wanted the opposite. Cold blues and a more modern, slightly clinical feel that reflects the science fiction world Lola is now living in.

It is not a futuristic film in an extreme sense, but it still needed that tonal shift to separate her present from her past.

Those were the colour schemes I was aiming for, and it is really satisfying to be in the edit suite now and see them coming together.

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