fxpodcast: The Art of Grading Harry Potter – Peter Doyle

To finish off Potter week at fxguide (and part of a new series talking to the world’s greatest colorists), Mike Seymour has a frank discussion with Peter Doyle, Senior Supervising Colorist, about Harry Potter 7: Part 2. Mike had spoken to Peter in 2009 about his work on the Potter series, and it was one of our most popular fxpodcasts. This time Peter explains how he creatively created key looks.

Peter Doyle is an amazing colorist, this is his sixth Potter film in a row, but he also lead the grading team on all three Lord of the Rings films, King Kong, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and many more.

Mike and Peter discuss several beautiful sequences, made remarkable not by visual effects but by the lighting, grading and beautiful color palettes that were used: such as this scene below which occurs half way through the film, right before the battle.

Here is a link to the 2009 podcast with Peter Doyle mentioned earlier and in the podcast intro.

 

6 thoughts on “fxpodcast: The Art of Grading Harry Potter – Peter Doyle”

  1. Having seen the heavily manipulated and monochromatic look of the movie, aren’t these photos pre- color grading? They look naturally colored. There’s not a moment in the last 3 or 4 Harry Potter movies that has natural colors and without an overlaid type of painterly glowing softness.

  2. Mike, you asked in the fxphdod if we wanted to see more of this and what we thought about it. Seriously, I’m blown away! So freakin’ amazing podcast that anyone remotely interested in grading have to listen to it. Aaaaaaawesome! =) Can’t wait for the next one in this “series”.

    Cheers

  3. The images attached to this story are so you know the shots and understand the set we are talking about. That is why I have included them. I thought they would be helpful. Some people have complained about them – which surprises me… but anyway.. please download and review them if it helps understand the conversation.
    I offer them simply to expand on the discussion but they are just a few stills – the conversation stands separately from them.

    Mike

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