create-a-color-grading-plan

name	create-a-color-grading-plan
category	media
description	Create a color-grading plan with managed transforms, camera matching, visual intent, accessibility, review conditions, and delivery checks. Use when footage from one or more sources needs controlled color finishing.

create-a-color-grading-plan

Separate technical normalization from creative intent.

When to use

• Use before grading narrative, documentary, commercial, event, or mixed-camera media.
• Preserve original camera files and metadata; do not bake an uncertain transform into the only master.

Procedure

1. Inventory camera, profile, gamut, transfer, bit depth, white balance, exposure, proxies, graphics, archive, and delivery spaces.
2. Define input transforms, working space, monitoring transform, output transforms, and version owner.
3. Calibrate or profile the review environment and control ambient conditions.
4. Choose hero references and establish exposure, neutral balance, skin, saturation, contrast, black, and highlight intent.
5. Match shots and cameras before applying scene look.
6. Plan selective work for keys, windows, noise, texture, sky, product, archival, and mixed lighting without falsifying factual content.
7. Protect readable graphics, captions, status colors, dark detail, and viewers with color-vision differences.
8. Review on reference display and representative consumer outputs.
9. Define QC for gamut, clipping, banding, compression, flicker, transitions, captions, stills, and alternate formats.

Failure plan

• If source color metadata conflicts, test controlled interpretations and document the chosen transform.
• If one output cannot preserve intent, create a managed alternate grade rather than relying on uncontrolled conversion.

Done

• A grading plan records sources, transforms, working and output spaces, references, intent, monitoring, shots, and version rules
• Technical and visual tests verify camera match, gamut, clipping, graphics, accessibility, transitions, and target deliveries