Color Grading from Scratch – Technique and Narrative by Cassiana Umetsu

Ever shot something that looks fine but feels flat? This course fixes that. Cassiana shows you how to use color grading and DaVinci Resolve to clean up mismatched clips, lock a consistent look, and actually tell the story with color.

🎯 What you’ll learn

• Understand what a colorist does and how grading shapes narrative
• Set up DaVinci Resolve and choose the right tools and monitoring
• Find and organize visual references and practice footage
• Prep a project correctly with conforming and timeline setup
• Apply primary correction for contrast, balance, and saturation
• Work with color space, LUTs, and RAW footage
• Export with the right codecs and formats for web and cinema

✅ Requirements

• Skills: Basic familiarity with any image or video editing software
• Tools: DaVinci Resolve installed on your computer, free version is enough
• Hardware: Computer capable of running DaVinci Resolve, calibrated monitor recommended

📝 Description

This is not theory for theory sake. Cassiana starts with where the colorist fits in the post pipeline, then gets you set up fast. You will look at DaVinci Resolve, other common tools, and what monitoring setup actually matters when you are starting out.

Then you learn how to think like a colorist. How to collect references, organize them, and read an image before you touch a slider. She breaks down conforming, color space, and LUTs in plain terms, and shows how a small shift in contrast or warmth can flip a scene from comedy to drama.

The bulk of the work is hands-on. You will fix exposure and white balance, balance shots against each other, and then push toward a look on purpose. Expect lots of work with primary correction, saturation control, and managing RAW footage without breaking it. She closes with the unglamorous but important part: export settings, codecs, and formats so your grade actually survives delivery.

🧑‍🎓 Who this course is for

• Video editors, filmmakers, and content creators who want consistent, cinematic color
• Audiovisual post-production enthusiasts starting with color from zero

🧑‍🏫 About the Author

Cassiana Umetsu is a colorist based in Brazil working in long-form and streaming. Her credits include productions for Netflix, Disney+, and Globo, grading everything from series to film pieces.

She came up through audiovisual post-production and now teaches the workflow she uses on real jobs. Her approach is practical and story-first: respect the director vision, keep skin tones honest, and use color contrast to support the narrative.

🏁 Final Result

• A color-graded sequence of clips of your choice, with consistent contrast, saturation, and a clear narrative look ready for your portfolio.