Docu-Drama

Role: Colorist

Synopsis:
Why is Gen Z the most depressed, anxious, and overly medicated generation in America? Detached and lonely, millions of young people are plunging into the void of escapism and social media addiction, only to find themselves more isolated and alone.

PragerU’s short documentary offers some solutions to Gen Z and their families for overcoming this mental health crisis by taking on responsibilities and finding purpose.

Director: Daniel Myers
DP: Andrew Smith
Colorist: John-Clay Burnett

Watch the finished film below and keep scrolling to read the case study!

Watch the FILM

THE VOID – CASE STUDY

As a docu-drama, there are of course interviews in the film. The three interviews were filmed individually against greenscreens that were later replaced with simple monochrome backgrounds.

In the opening party scene there are strong colors flashing and pulsing throughout scene. I worked to tweak and adjust the hues to bring them closer in line with the DP’s vision of blue/pink and less green/yellow…while maintaining normal-ish looking skin tones throughout.

The first “park bench scene” in the film was filmed at the end of a day as the sun was setting. Naturally, there was a bit of work to match the changing colors and exposures together to form a cohesive scene. The director was also was looking to tame down the warm tones in favor of a cooler feel, in order to better match the mood of the story.

For these night scenes in the kitchen we wanted to continue pushing the color contrast between the warm “sodium vapor” light coming through the window and the cooler lights inside the house.

BEFORE

AFTER

In the hospital scenes, we wanted to keep a defined color contrast, but lean more into the clinical colder blue hues to match the mood of the story.

An important part of these outdoor scenes was to warm up the skin tones while cooling off the green trees and grass…BUT without turning the yellows in the trees too much into fall/autumn colors.

For these interior scenes in the main character’s room, the focus was on clean colors and warm light, and then matching the scene together.

This party scene is a direct contrast from the opening party scene. Dark night vs bright evening, indoors vs outdoors, and wild colors vs natural earth tones. 

We added an overall film look to all the “cinematic scenes” in the film (excluding the interview footage). This image from the 2nd “park bench scene” in the film is a good example of how the film look included halation in the highlights and a decently strong film grain…especially in the highlights of the image.

THANKS FOR READING!

STILL IMAGES