01 The Summer Blockbuster Colour Grading Tutorial from Juan Melara on Vimeo.

Introduction

I've received a lot of requests to share the techniques I use to achieve the various grades on this site and on Vimeo. But by far the biggest request has been to show how I create the cool/warm look. Otherwise known as the summer blockbuster look, the teal and orange look etc. The techniques I show you also form the foundation for most of the grades on this site. I hope to create a series of these tutorials (hence the 01 numbering) so stay tuned for more upcoming tutorials. I've already got a few ideas but If you have any suggestions, send me an email or contact me on twitter.

In this tutorial I assume you have some basic Resolve knowledge and you're able to setup up projects, import footage, apply LUTs and create nodes. I also assume you have a basic grasp of colour correction and colour correction best practices. If you're new to Resolve or colour correction/grading in general, I recommend you check out some of the resources at the bottom of this post.

Special thanks

Before I go any further I have to thank Toby Linden for kindly providing the footage of the gentleman with a gun. Toby is a talented cinematographer, check out more of his work at his website - dreamland-films.de and follow him on twitter - @TobiLinden.

Why Resolve?

Short answer: It's really good, it's free and it's very easy to use.

The only excuses you should have for not using Resolve is if your system doesn't have the specs to run it or you're already using something better. In both cases you'll still be able to get something out of the tutorial as the basic techniques should be applicable to whatever colour grading software you are using.