Grade reconstruction report · 2019
Eight frames from Joker, where a city is made of sodium amber, institutional green-teal fluorescent and overcast olive daylight, where the clown's white greasepaint and red suit have to survive every one of those lights, and where the grade's hardest work is keeping skin human in rooms that are designed to make it sick.
Joker is a low, dense film with a narrow set of lights. Across its 1,302 photographed shots the mean L* is 16.77, the shadow-field share averages 0.69 and the warm/cool balance 0.38: most of the picture is dark and more of it is cool than warm. But the cool is not blue. In this film the shadows and ambient go olive, green and teal — the colour of old fluorescent tubes, painted institutional walls and a sky over a dirty city — and the warm is sodium amber, tungsten and fire.
Against that sits a character whose costume and makeup are designed to be seen: white greasepaint, red mouth, blue diamonds over the eyes, a rust-red suit, a mustard waistcoat and a green shirt. Every lighting environment in the film changes what those colours become, and much of the grade's work is deciding how far they may be carried by the light and where they must be protected.
The eight studies follow that: an overcast avenue of 1981 marquees, a pharmacy at dusk under neon, a teal corridor, a four-frame muzzle flash on a subway, the clown on the stairs, the talk-show set in front of a painted skyline, a riot in smoke and fire, and a white-tiled room so bright it turns green.
The film-level construction
In six of the eight studies mean a* is negative, from −3.4 to −12.7: the ambient leans green. Shadows go olive in daylight, teal under fluorescent and neon, green-grey in the overexposed tiled room. A conventional blue-shadow split-tone would miss the film; the ambient hue sits between yellow-green and cyan.
The warm sources are specific: amber streetlamps, tungsten wall lamps, a lit gazebo, burning cars. They stay local, in pools and spills, and when they fill a frame — the riot at L* 25 with a warm/cool balance of 0.95 — it is because smoke has carried them everywhere.
The clown's white face, red mouth and blue diamonds, and the rust suit, mustard waistcoat and green shirt, are designed to read in every light. The grade lets the light colour them — the white face goes green on the subway — but never lets red lips and white base merge with the surround.
Mean L* across the film is 16.77, and half the studies here put a third or more of the frame in deep shadow. The darks are not crushed; they carry grain and a faint colour, and they sit below faces rather than swallowing them.
Resolve blueprint
Normalize camera originals into DaVinci Wide Gamut / DaVinci Intermediate with Resolve Colour Management or a documented input CST, and give fire, smoke and muzzle-flash elements their own input transforms. Place exposure from faces and from the brightest surface that must keep texture — a sky, a tiled wall, a white face — before any palette work.
Keep the ambient (olive, green, teal) and the sources (sodium, tungsten, neon, fire) in separable branches, and keep skin and greasepaint on a third. The film's look depends on the ambient reaching into the shadows of faces while the lit side stays human. Suggested settings are starting ranges for suitable log or raw footage, never recovered originals.
Normalize camera, plate and element sources correctly before judging a green ambient or a white face.
Place exposure from faces and from the brightest textured surface; balance from credible neutrals without removing the ambient green.
Keep darks dense with grain and a faint colour, and roll highlights softly so skies, tiles and white paint keep texture.
Carry the ambient into the shadows and lower mids as olive in daylight and teal-green under fluorescent and neon.
Keep lit skin human and greasepaint distinct — white base, red mouth, blue diamonds — while allowing the scene's light to colour them.
Hold the rust suit, mustard waistcoat and green shirt as distinct families under every light.
Keep streetlamps, wall lamps and neon as sources with their own colour and a controlled spill.
Build fluorescent interiors — corridors, wards, tiled rooms — as green-teal casts over bright or dark architecture.
Keep smoke as a warm-lit veil and fire as the brightest warm source without flattening depth.
Shape attention with soft windows that follow real light: lift eyes and the lit side of faces, quiet large bright surfaces.
Keep colour believable at the extremes: little chroma in deep shadow, controlled colour in near-white.
Keep a visible, film-like grain structure that holds up in dense darks without blurring faces.
Integrate muzzle flashes, fire, smoke and period cleanup with the plate's black, grain and light.
Render the scene-referred grade to the calibrated delivery while keeping display trims out of the shared look.
8 reconstruction studies
Each study begins with a literal visible description and tests it against the active-picture measurements of the verified midpoint. Metrics describe the whole frame and cannot identify a face, a sign or a flame without the visual inspection recorded in the prose.
Build the base with every optional node bypassed. Add only the named shot operations, check keys and windows at full resolution, and inspect moving footage before approving qualifiers, tracked windows, grain, smoke or flash integration.
01 · Study I · The avenue · shot 30 · 01:02:19:06
An overcast avenue of old theatres and marquees — NEWARK, STRIP SEARCH, a yellow LIVE sign — with yellow cabs and 1970s sedans, steam from the street, a crowd on the sidewalk and a figure holding a yellow sign.
Daylight in this film is not neutral. The palette is olive and khaki — #636D53 at 27%, #32392B at 26%, a pale khaki #9FA273 at 18% — with a small yellow #B78829 at 4%, the cabs and the LIVE sign. Mean a* is −6.2 and b* +12.2: the whole frame leans yellow-green. Mean L* 33.3, 11% in highlights (the marquee boards and the sky's reflection on the street) and 14% in deep shadow under awnings and cars.
The frame is dense with detail: signage, facades, dozens of cars and people. The steam in the middle distance is the only atmosphere. Despite all the detail, the colour hierarchy is simple: olive everything, yellow accents, a few reds in the signage.
An overcast day, a location dressed with period cars, signs and marquees, and extras supply the image. The grade makes the olive: overcast daylight is close to neutral on camera, and the green-yellow shift across shadows and mids is plausibly a grade choice. It keeps the yellow cabs yellow rather than letting them go green with everything else.
Balance from the white marquee boards, then move the ambient toward olive, then protect yellows and reds from the move.
Can regular footage get there?
The grade is achievable from overcast daylight footage; the frame is conditional on the period dressing — cars, signs, marquees — which the grade cannot supply.
Composite and background read
A present-day avenue dressed as 1981 usually needs modern signage, lights and details removed or replaced; several marquees and billboards are period-specific, and the upper floors are clean of modern fixtures. The cars, steam and crowd are coherent with practical capture.
Which signs are practical and which were added or cleaned cannot be determined from a still.
Shot-specific Resolve pass
Balance so the white boards read near neutral before any look.
Why: The boards are the frame's white.
Watch: Balancing from the sky reflection instead.
Move shadows and lower mids toward yellow-green at low saturation.
Why: Daylight in the film is olive.
Watch: The olive reaching the cabs and turning them green.
Narrow Hue vs Hue on yellow to hold cabs and the LIVE sign.
Why: They are the frame's accents.
Watch: Yellows going khaki.
Grain and softness matched across any cleaned signage.
Why: Period cleanup must disappear.
Watch: Cleaner patches on the facades.
02 · Study II · The pharmacy · shot 113 · 01:09:27:15
At dusk a brick building carries a neon sign — a white Rx, red script Helms and green PHARMACY — over lit windows; warm wall lamps hang either side, and a yellow cab and dark cars streak past in front.
The ambient is deep teal: #042837 at 42% and near-black #020C12 at 48%, mean a* −3.4, b* −5.7, warm/cool balance 0.07. Mean L* 11.8 with 85% of the frame in shadow. Saturation is high, 0.85, because the few lit pixels are strongly coloured: the green PHARMACY neon #61B094, the red Helms, the white Rx, and the wall lamps #C77C3D.
The neon reads cleanly against the teal because each colour sits in its own place: the white Rx the brightest, the red and green at similar value. The shop windows below are a mix of warm and green light. The cab is motion-blurred, keeping its yellow.
A dressed storefront with working neon, practical wall lamps, a dusk sky and passing cars supply the image. The grade places the teal ambient, keeps each neon colour separate and below clipping, and keeps the wall lamps warm against the teal.
Grade the ambient first at low density, then key each neon and lamp. The cab's yellow should survive the teal ambient.
Can regular footage get there?
Dusk or blue-hour footage with practical neon and lamps reaches this frame with an ambient key and separate practical keys.
Composite and background read
Neon reflections on the cars, the lamps' pools on the wall and motion blur on the traffic are coherent with one plate. Signage in period work is sometimes added digitally, but the neon's glow and reflection here are consistent with practical tubes.
Sign replacement or cleanup cannot be ruled out from a still.
Shot-specific Resolve pass
Move the ambient toward teal at low density.
Why: The street is teal-dark.
Watch: Teal reaching the wall lamps.
Individual keys on white, red and green; hold hue at the cores.
Why: Three neon colours at similar value.
Watch: Red neon clipping and going orange.
Keep the two lamps warm and below white.
Why: Warm against teal gives the facade depth.
Watch: Lamps flattening into the neon.
Lum vs Sat in the deep toe.
Why: 48% of the frame is near-black teal.
Watch: Teal noise in the brick.
03 · Study III · The corridor · shot 233 · 01:20:33:14
Arthur, in a brown hooded jacket, stands in profile in a narrow corridor with olive-painted walls, smiling; the corridor recedes behind him to a teal ceiling light.
Two ambient colours meet here. The walls near the camera are olive — #1F2211 at 33% and #443B14 — and the corridor's far light is teal, #1C5449 and #53A58A. Mean a* −5.8, b* +6.5, mean L* 11.9 with 84% in shadow. The face and jacket sit between them: the jacket takes the olive, the face is the warmest broad surface and is lit from the front-right.
The corridor's depth is built from the teal light spilling on the ceiling and the far walls; the near walls are dark and painted. The face's smile is readable, its shadow side falling into the dark.
An institutional corridor with painted walls, a cool overhead practical at depth and a warm key on the face supply the construction. The grade holds the olive walls dense, keeps the teal light distinct, and keeps the face warm against both.
Place the face, then set the two ambients. Do not let the teal spill reach the face; it is lit by a different source.
Can regular footage get there?
A corridor with a cool practical at depth and a warm key on the subject reaches this frame with separate ambient and skin work.
Composite and background read
The corridor's perspective, the light's spill and the actor's occlusion are coherent with a practical set or location.
Invisible cleanup cannot be ruled out from a still.
Shot-specific Resolve pass
Key the far light and its spill; hold teal at moderate density.
Why: The far light builds the corridor's depth.
Watch: Teal spill reaching the face.
Shadow and lower-mid move toward olive.
Why: The near walls carry the olive ambient.
Watch: The jacket merging with the walls.
Face key; hold warmth against both ambients.
Why: The face is lit by a different source.
Watch: A green cast on the face.
Toe so the painted walls stay dark with grain.
Why: The walls frame the figure.
Watch: Lifted walls exposing noise.
04 · Study IV · The subway · shot 425 · 01:32:30:16
In clown makeup and a mustard waistcoat, Arthur fires a revolver toward the camera in a subway car; the muzzle flash blooms yellow-white, his arm and a pole smear with motion, and green light covers everything.
The detected shot lasts 0.167 seconds — four frames at 23.976 — and this is its midpoint. The frame is green-yellow throughout: mean a* −7.7, b* +15.6, palette #677A40 at 19%, #373B1B, a pale green #BED39A at 10% (the shirt and the lit face) and the mustard waistcoat #D1A912 at 5%. σL* 28.1 is the widest in the report: black at the edges and the flash at the top.
The white greasepaint reads pale green; the red mouth and blue diamonds survive as the only red and blue in the frame. Motion blur smears the arm and the pole; the face is softer than the gun.
A subway set under green fluorescent light, a performer firing a blank-firing or non-firing weapon, and a flash that may be practical, enhanced or added supply the frame. The grade holds the green cast, keeps the greasepaint's red and blue, and places the flash below clipping with spill on the hand and face.
Decide first whether the flash is practical. If it is added, match its spill and its frame-to-frame shape to the plate before grading.
Can regular footage get there?
Settling on a useful reference rather than a generally reproducible candidate. A four-frame event with a muzzle flash depends on an element or a practical blank that a grade cannot create, and on motion blur from the capture.
Composite and background read
Muzzle flashes in contemporary film are often added or enhanced in compositing for safety and control. The flash's soft bloom and its spill on the hand are consistent with either a practical blank or an element; the short duration and the smeared foreground make a decision from one frame impossible.
Only moving footage, plates or production records could establish whether the flash is practical.
Shot-specific Resolve pass
Match the flash's spill on the hand and face; keep consistent across the four frames.
Why: A flash without spill looks pasted in.
Watch: A flash brighter than anything else with no light on the subject.
Hold the green cast across walls, skin and shirt.
Why: The subway's light is part of the scene's violence.
Watch: Neutralizing the green.
Separate keys; hold hue.
Why: They are the only red and blue in the frame.
Watch: Red mouth going brown under green.
Toe for the dark edges, soft shoulder for the flash.
Why: σL* 28.1.
Watch: Flash clipping to a white disc.
05 · Study V · The stairs · shot 1020 · 02:30:49:07
In clown makeup, a rust-red suit, mustard waistcoat and green shirt, Arthur dances down a long outdoor stairway between graffiti-covered walls, railings either side and streetlamps at the top under a pale sky.
The setting is almost colourless: mean C* 6.8, the palette dark green-grey #090F0D at 50% and #223032 at 30%, the pale sky #C6DCC8 at 8% and the rust suit #4E2913 at 4%. Mean a* −3.5: the stone and the sky lean green-grey. Mean L* 18.8, 34% in deep shadow in the walls and under the steps, 8% in highlights in the sky.
The costume is designed for this: a rust-red suit and a mustard waistcoat against green-grey. The face's white base is the brightest object on the figure and reads slightly green in the overcast. The wet steps carry faint highlights along their edges.
An overcast day on a real stairway, wet stone and a costume designed to stand out supply the image. The grade holds the green-grey ambient, keeps the sky below clipping with a trace of green, and keeps the suit rust rather than red or brown.
Place the figure first, then let the stairs and walls fall dense around him. The sky is a small part of the frame and should not set exposure.
Can regular footage get there?
Overcast location footage with a strongly coloured costume reaches this frame with exposure, a green-grey ambient and costume protection.
Composite and background read
The stairway, wet stone, railings and the figure's contact with the steps are coherent with one plate. Sky cleanup or signage removal is always possible in a city location.
Cleanup or sky replacement cannot be ruled out from a still.
Shot-specific Resolve pass
Offset from the face and suit; ignore the sky.
Why: The sky is 8% of the frame.
Watch: Exposing for the sky and darkening the figure.
Low-saturation shadow move toward green-grey.
Why: The setting's ambient.
Watch: The suit taking the green.
Narrow keys; hold both hues.
Why: The costume is designed against the setting.
Watch: The suit going brown or pink.
Soft shoulder for the sky with a trace of green.
Why: Clipped sky turns into a white hole at the top.
Watch: Sky clipping flat.
06 · Study VI · The talk show · shot 1153 · 02:38:42:21
On a 1970s talk-show set the clown in a rust suit holds an older woman by the shoulders as the host sits at an orange-panelled desk; mustard sofas and a painted night skyline with pink sky fill the set.
This is the most 1970s palette in the report: orange #75360E at 20%, a pale tan #B68951, mustard sofas, a rust suit, against blue-black #1C2634 at 25% in the backdrop and the camera. Mean C* 18.6 with 16% high-chroma pixels; warm/cool balance 0.55. Light is even and bright across the set, typical of broadcast.
The skyline behind the windows is a backdrop: its city is sharp at the same focus as the set, its sky is pink-purple with a lightning flash, and its lights are evenly scattered. The blue studio camera at left is out of focus and very dark, framing the set as a set.
A built period studio, broadcast-style flat lighting, a painted or printed skyline backdrop and costume supply the image. The grade holds the warm set colours inside their channels, keeps the backdrop's blue and pink distinct from the set, and keeps faces readable under the flat light.
Treat the backdrop as a separate density. It should read as a lit backing, not as a real night.
Can regular footage get there?
A built set with a lit backdrop and even broadcast lighting reaches this frame directly.
Composite and background read
The skyline's uniform sharpness and painted sky are consistent with a physical backing on set. The lightning flash could be part of the backing or added.
A digitally replaced or enhanced backdrop cannot be ruled out from a still.
Shot-specific Resolve pass
Keys on orange, mustard and rust; hold hue and limit saturation by channel.
Why: The set is the palette.
Watch: Orange panels clipping in red.
Key the skyline; hold its blue and pink at lower density than the set.
Why: It is a backing, not a sky.
Watch: The backdrop brightening to compete with the set.
Face keys; small lifts only.
Why: Broadcast light is even; faces need little.
Watch: Faces flattening further.
Toe so the camera stays a dark blue shape.
Why: It frames the set.
Watch: Noise in the camera's blue.
07 · Study VII · The riot · shot 1260 · 02:47:48:14
A city street at night fills with smoke: cars burn at left and in the distance, rubbish is piled around a lamp post, an ACE IN THE HOLE billboard glows, and streetlamps and signs recede into amber haze.
The warmest frame in the report: warm/cool balance 0.95, mean a* +11.9, b* +20.0. The palette is brown and amber — #4B2D19 at 33%, #714223 at 28%, #9E5A28 — with near-black #1B1009 at 25% and a pale #D7B77F at 4%, the fires and lamps. Mean L* 25.0, only 3% in highlights: the fires are small, the smoke carries their light.
Depth is layered by smoke: foreground rubbish and cars in near-black, a burning car and figures in the amber middle, the far avenue of signs and lamps receding into haze. The billboard is the one cool-ish light, its blue frame against the amber.
A dressed street at night with smoke, practical fire, streetlamps and signage supply the image; fire and smoke may be enhanced or extended in compositing. The grade holds the amber veil, keeps the fires below clipping and keeps the foreground dense.
Grade the smoke as a layer. The foreground must stay near black and the far city must stay readable through the haze.
Can regular footage get there?
Conditional on real smoke and fire, or matched elements; a grade can shape an amber veil but not create the layered depth that smoke gives.
Composite and background read
Several separate fires, a deep avenue of signs and towers and dense even smoke are the kind of riot scene commonly augmented with fire elements and set extension. The foreground fire and smoke interact plausibly with the cars.
Which fires and how much of the far street were practical cannot be determined from a still.
Shot-specific Resolve pass
Key the smoke by luminance; hold its density and warmth.
Why: The smoke carries the fire's light.
Watch: The smoke key lifting the foreground.
Soft roll on fire cores.
Why: Fires are the brightest points.
Watch: Fire clipping into white blobs.
Toe so rubbish and cars stay dark with grain.
Why: Layered depth.
Watch: A lifted foreground flattening the layers.
Match any added fire's grain and smoke interaction.
Why: Elements must sit in the smoke.
Watch: Fire elements sharper than the plate.
08 · Study VIII · The white room · shot 1303 · 02:52:57:12
From high in a corner, a white-tiled room under two hanging fluorescents: a woman in a maroon jacket sits at a table facing Arthur, seen from behind in white, below a frosted window and a stencilled notice.
The brightest frame in the report and the coolest: mean L* 58.3 with 50% of the picture in highlights, mean a* −12.7 and warm/cool balance 0.01. The white tiles are not white: the largest cluster, #93B09A at 48%, is a green-grey, and the pale tiles #C2D6BF are green-tinted too. The only warm object is the woman's maroon jacket.
The composition is symmetrical and graphic, with dark grout lines drawing the room. The two fluorescents are the brightest points but the tiles around them keep texture. The observation window at left reads teal-dark.
A white-tiled set, fluorescent practicals and a controlled overall exposure supply the image; the green of the whites is plausibly partly practical fluorescent and partly the grade. The grade holds the tiles bright but not clipped, keeps the green-grey cast, and keeps the maroon jacket and the woman's face from taking it.
Expose for the tiles near the table, roll the shoulder for the fixtures, then set the cast. Keep the grout lines crisp.
Can regular footage get there?
A white-tiled room with fluorescent practicals reaches this frame with a soft shoulder and a green-grey cast.
Composite and background read
The fixtures' light on the tiles, the grout's perspective and the actors' shadows are coherent with a practical set.
Invisible cleanup cannot be ruled out from a still.
Shot-specific Resolve pass
Roll the top so tiles keep texture and grout lines.
Why: Half the frame is highlight.
Watch: Tiles clipping to flat white.
Hold the fluorescent cast in the tiles.
Why: The room's whites are green.
Watch: Neutralizing the room.
Face and jacket keys; hold warmth.
Why: The only warm colours in the room.
Watch: The jacket going brown under green.
Lum vs Sat on the brightest tiles.
Why: The shoulder can push whites toward lime.
Watch: Lime-green tiles near the fixtures.
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