How much do you charge? I offer a single, all-encompassing package that includes unlimited revisions, and charge a single one-time fee based on the length of your project. On rare occasions I might factor in any personalized additions you might need, such as detailed VFX work. The goal is to free both of us creatively and build a true creative partnership.

Does your reel include stock footage from sites like Artgrid.io or Rawfilm.com? No, my color grading reel and everything on my website only includes footage and images from actual paid work I did for real clients. Color grading shots downloaded from a website is very different from color grading an entire short or feature film.

Is it worth color grading a film that wasn’t shot Raw/Log, or was shot on a consumer-grade camera? Yes. While footage that’s Rec.709, 8-bit, and/or compressed might have certain limitations, there’s still a lot that can be done to make your movie look more expensive than it really was, while also creating a unique look. I’ve worked with a variety of footage and camera types, from the Arri Alexa Mini to the Panasonic Lumix G7, and everything in between. Even if your movie was shot on an iPhone and meant to look that way, audiences will have a hard time suspending disbelief and getting absorbed in your story if the movie doesn’t feel visually cohesive.

My movie isn’t stylized, it’s meant to be naturalistic. Can’t I just put a LUT on it? Most naturalistic films still have a look; it’s just more subtle. Before digital cameras existed, filmmakers had to choose from a variety of film stocks, which were designed by image scientists to create aesthetically pleasing images, with strict realism usually being of much less concern. Today, all digital camera sensors are incapable of measuring or recording color information. Instead, demosaicing algorithms are used to intelligently guess the color of each pixel. Different camera manufacturers each employ their own unique trademark algorithms, with some staying truer to our eyes than others. Choices are being made about how your film renders a naturalistic look no matter what, so it’s best that those choices be made consciously and creatively. There are also visual enhancements and corrections that can be made to increase the production value of your footage without drawing attention to the color grade. Shots need to be matched, distracting elements need to be dimmed, and the overall balance needs to be perfected by a specialist with a highly-accurate calibrated reference display.

How long does the process take? This varies depending on any unique challenges the project might present, and how many revisions are needed. It’s a good idea to expect a 10 minute short film to take a few days, and a 100 minute feature film to take about a month.

Why are you called that? My friends and I made short films starting at around 12 years old (obviously not good ones). At one point, there was for some reason an actual horned melon in someone’s kitchen. One of us decided to film the horned melon and say “Horned Melon Productions presents.” From then on, this was what we called ourselves, mainly as a joke. While I’ve definitely come a long way since then, I like to stay in touch with that naive creativity my friends and I had back in middle school.

I’d need thousands of viewers to make this worth my time. Is it really worth it for such a small film? The best way to get your next film made is to make this one count as much as possible. Growing an audience is a long process, and with so many films out there it’s important to always put your best foot forward.