The amount of high-end television and film on display in recent years is unparalleled. One show that got a lot of attention is the drama mystery, DARK after it was added to Netflix. Its acting and plot are both brilliant, but the cinematography is utterly superb.
When I say cinematography, I'm using the word as an all-encompassing term. What I mean is that DARK has incredible camera work, audio, lighting, color grading, visual storytelling, and so on. In this video, Waqas Qazi, a professional colorist, goes through a breakdown of how DARK's look was achieved, what it is comprised of, and using DaVinci Resolve 16, how you can mimic it.
The first step with deconstructing any look is to break down the colors in the shadows, midtones, and highlights, as well as to look at the color palette over a series of frames from throughout the picture. However, color is only one part of the story, and however big it is, there are a lot of elements you still need to adjust. Watching Qazi deconstruct DARK gave me a far fuller appreciation for just how deep and nuanced a commercial colorists' job is. The eye for detail you need to be able to identify each component of a look is impressive.
Whether you're just starting out with an interest in color grading or you've graded videos for a while, this sort of expert analysis is valuable.
