22nd November 2024
If you’ve never booked in a colour grade before, you might be wondering – how many days do I need to book or budget for?
This varies wildly depending on a few factors.It depends what you’re trying to achieve, who the intended audience is (ie. Instagram ad or Sydney Film Festival premiere?) and how much time and budget you have.
Longform content – how long do I need to grade?
If you have a big budget feature film drama you might get three months to grade! But many projects don’t have that sort of budget or schedule. These are the Australian industry standards of how long you can expect to grade, depending on the duration of your project:
- 25min TV drama or doco – 1 day grade
- 45min TV drama or doco – 2 days grade
- 60min TV drama or doco – 3 days grade
- 90min feature film documentary – 5-7 days grade
- 90min feature film drama – 7-10 days grade
Why does a feature drama usually take longer to grade than a documentary?
Often a feature drama will have quicker cuts and less repeated scenes – a documentary may cut back to the same or similar interview set-up multiple times, for example – and it’s quicker to copy that grade across those scenes with minimal tweaking. Feature dramas usually have more dramatic visual looks – if you are after a very stylistic look for your documentary it may take longer to grade then the estimates above. Feature dramas may require more beauty grade work and attention to detail in certain scenes as well. There may be VFX that needs to be graded separately in a feature drama.
Advertising and branded content – how long to grade?
Again – this depends a bit on the project. A skincare commercial for a big brand might include a lot of beauty work to make sure the talent is blemish-free or your big budget client may want extra time allowed for different departments to spend reviewing the grade. In general though – this is a great guide for how long you can expect your commercial grade to take:
- 30sec TV commercial – 1/2 day grade
- 60sec TV commercial – 1/2 day to 1 day grade
- Up to 3 mins advertising content – 1 day grade
Image from a Dermologica commercial, “Hold The Pose“, directed by Cybele Malinowski
Why does it take so much longer to grade 3 minutes of advertising content compared to longform content?
Each scene in an advertisement needs a high degree of attention to detail. The product must stand out and look inviting in every shot. Commercials are often quite stylistic and the creative team usually have a very clear idea of how they want every shot to look. There are lots of quick cuts and scenes are rarely repeated.
OK – I’ve worked out how long I need to grade my project – but how much do I pay per day?
Great! You can check out our pricing page for details on our Bite-Size and Superior Packages advertising packages and for our long form day rate. Peachy works on a flat project fee. We scrapped the traditional notion of an hourly fee.
We are 100% transparent with our packages, their inclusions and how much they cost. This way you can easily provide a quote in pre-production. You know what to expect, and there are no unexpected costs at the end.
Our goal is to be efficient and excellent. We want to work hard, blow you away, and then go home.
If your project is a different duration to what’s listed above or if you want a more exact estimate – please reach out to our studio producer for a bespoke quote – we’re always happy to answer your questions!
Peachy Keen Colour’s streamlined approach to remote colour grading, coupled with flexibility and prompt communication, ensures a stress-free and efficient experience for our clients.
Ready to start the process? Learn more about the Peachy Process. We can’t wait to chat about your colour grade.
Prev