Who has THE BEST Node Tree in DaVinci Resolve? - UNCUT - Cullen Kelly & Darren Mostyn Discuss.

I was in LA in April and popped in to have a chat with my Colourist friend Cullen Kelly. Both our node trees/ node graphs are different and I asked him about this, and many other questions, including some from viewers on my channel. This is UNCUT - Our whole conversation.
A huge THANK YOU to Mark Todd Osbourne, Dan Swierenga, Gedaly Guberek for your time and hospitality whilst I was in LA. I also had the pleasure of a morning coffee with Lynette Duensing just before seeing Cullen! Of course a huge thanks to Cullen for giving up an afternoon (and evening!) for me.
You might spot a few other KZbinrs in the opening!!
Subtitles generated by me so should be good in English.
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#colorist #cullenkelly #nodes

[@chrisbogart687]

Loved the node tree talk and rationale from both of your. ♥♥♥

[@DarrenMostyn]

Thanks Chris. Glad you enjoyed it.

[@artmicca]

Waiting for a hybrid node tree version! 🙌

[@imteee]

Self-learning colorgrading has been an amazing journey to me knowing the existence of both you and Kelly! You guys are really helping out tons of new players to this game

[@DarrenMostyn]

Apreciated. Thank you

[@StefanRingelschwandtner]

Nice setup. I like that Cullen has the clients "in front" rather than behind him, watching over his shoulder. :)

[@csharbrough]

THANK YOU. This like watching Moses and Isaiah talk about the Old Testament! Priceless.

[@patrickbaitmen9290]

This is the most amazing thing. I literally got stuck on a project last year watched Darren’s videos which helped but then found Cullen after scouring internet and watched every single one of his videos to make me understand colour. His natural demeanour is so calm and relaxing he has not only made me a better colourist but a better director. Thank you both I never thought I’d get into colour the way I have and although I normally hire a company I now feel confident to do it myself on projects(even bought me new Micro panel which I love). Thank you both

[@maybepranav]

My two favorite mentors/KZbin legends are back together! Thanks for this video Darren

[@DarrenMostyn]

Was a pleasure!

[@UraFlight]

I’m learning piece by piece from both of you 😊

[@DarrenMostyn]

Thats what we are trying to do. Thanks for sticking with us.

[@LeonNathanielHolm]

Very fun interview, hoping you guys will follow through with trying each others node trees in a future video

[@shridharbhat2353]

This is ultimate! Like you both ❤

[@DarrenMostyn]

Thank you. Appreciated.

[@Gedaly]

That was a fun visit!

[@DarrenMostyn]

Hi Gedaly!!! Nice easy edit this one - just left it all in!

[@CullenKelly]

Hey, I know those guys!

[@DarrenMostyn]

Hi Cullen. Hope you all well my friend.

[@Coatsey007]

Darren, that was a very interesting and enjoyable format.

[@DarrenMostyn]

Thank you my friend.

[@JimRobinson-colors]

That was entertaining - Thanks for asking my question. I have a whole other philosophy on node trees as well. Too long to go into every detail here, but basically I break my node tree into all the jobs on set, and have the nodes ready to fix or enhance each job. So it still ends up being large because each job on set can be so varied. But by splitting them up in sections that represent different departments of a production, I can look at in through that perspective, which I think most colourists do instinctively. Your first series of nodes, I think have the same thought of achieving - i.e. Getting the footage to how I would like it coming straight from the camera - so all the fundamentals like Exposure, Balance, Contrast and Saturation etc. are all parts that if are looked at to get the ultimate shot footage. I then split to other jobs from the set - i.e. Lighting, makeup, set design and client focus - all leading to the subjective look and grade in the last stages of the node tree. And knowing your node tree, I think you are basically in a similar state of mind if not intentional at the least practical - you could literally take a print out of your node tree, and circle each departmental job from the set, and see that you are covering most of them in one way or another. For me if I look for things missed, overlooked or need enhancing on some footage I can try to improve the footage if I can.

[@DarrenMostyn]

Glad you enjoyed it Jim! Was great hanging out with Cullen and all the other great colourists on my trip. Yes I understand your idea - sounds a sensible way of thinking about it.

[@tryganderson9620]

fun to watch

[@Coatsey007]

Another thought watching this is that there’s amazing techniques for getting the very best out of material, but what I found really powerful is when you talk about techniques to edit in an efficient and quick manner. The majority of his nonprofessionals will never get to your level, but the techniques around making editing, colouring, efficient for me is the first port of call. Thank you to you both.

[@DarrenMostyn]

Glad it was useful advice.

[@artmicca]

That was a quick, interesting and informative chat! TY!

[@DarrenMostyn]

Glad you enjoyed it.

[@artmicca]

BTW, just painted my "studio" walls in middle grey and the flooring is also neutral grey - the colour perception has improved drastically! I am just starting to be serious about colour. Who cares in the EU, the wall paint is Tikkurila K499 Granite. @@DarrenMostyn

[@DarrenMostyn]

@@artmicca Its always going to help but i think people can get obsessed with the paint types. Thanks for sharing though.

[@artmicca]

Absolutely agree! 😄@@DarrenMostyn

[@MaximoJoshua]

Thank you so much for asking my question!

[@MaximoJoshua]

I can't say I fully agree with CK here, HDR provides a lot more than just a brighter image. I view it as the difference between a micro 4/3's and a full frame open gate camera. The fact that you can fit more in your image without a quality drop (clipping) is huge, not having to decide if you want to sacrifice shadow details to keep those highlights, etc. It is a bigger space, not just a brighter one. Second, you have to roll off things a lot more in SDR, because you always are going to compress the image into tiny Rec709. You don't have to worry about Tone and Gamut Mapping nearly as much when you have space for them to live naturally. Third, Rec2100 is a newer, and more modern standard, so if you have ever had a file appear different on your Mac vs your windows PC, that is a problem only found when using Rec709, all of those problems caused by outdated specs just disappear when you switch to a modern standard. You get better bit rate and less noise in the shadows on youtube due to better compression techniques, KZbin will treat your HDR footage much more gently than your Rec709 footage. Fourth, for the most part, changing two settings (output gamut and output gamma) in your CST at the end is all you need to do to prepare a video for KZbin in HDR, for the most part. Then just grade it as normal, adjust exposure and saturation as normal. This can get get more complicated if you have more advanced needs. Fifth, just because you have more space available, doesn't mean you have to use it. You can create an image that looks identical to a Rec709 image, in a Rec2100 image. You just get a bunch of the benefits above. I think it's odd that in a field where people strive to constantly create the best images, to completely ignore something that creates a better image (based on research studies, color science, surveys). I think it was found that people preferred a 1080p HDR video over a 4k SDR video of the same content, because the tonal range and colors were more pleasing. This is just my personal opinion, so take it with a grain of salt. :)

[@Sam_Holman_Colour]

I’ve heard, don’t meet your heroes. I haven’t heard anything about when your heroes meet. I’m putting forth that it is very good. Thank you for this ❤

[@DarrenMostyn]

Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks Sam.

[@MatheusPereira-eg2nz]

Love your videos man! you're so charismatic :)

[@DarrenMostyn]

glad you like them.

[@rafaelperez4698]

I love, love that both of you are so open about the business. Truly sets both of you apart! Just like Cullen said the secret, saucy secrets of colorists, very good interview Darren!

[@DarrenMostyn]

Thanks so much - Love to share!!

[@michaelandrade3321]

2 of the best colorist teacher in one video!

[@blinds122000]

Brilliant video as always Darren, love the channel! Picking up on what you and Cullen were discussing at 25:00 about screen brightness. I generally work in a brighter room environment when i’m colour grading but sometimes find my reference monitor calibrated to rec709 set to 100 cd/m2 is not bright enough. Would bumping up the brightness to around 175 cd/m2 be acceptable?

[@soraaoixxthebluesky]

Cullen is the reason why my grading speed is improving a lot like I can get to the look that I want for the first clip around 10 mins or so then for the next 50-100 shot it usually take less than a min as 90% of the look already established by the first shot. I always stress tested the shot with couple other shots with extremely different lighting conditions just to see if anything would break.

[@theowlfromduolingo7982]

Two of the best yt colorists in one video - awesome

[@DarrenMostyn]

appreciated.

[@-PiP-]

Awesome. Love the chit chat style, more please : ) I used chat gpt to create my node tree 😁

[@steven871]

Really ? Or u kidding?

[@DarrenMostyn]

its a great way to create a node tree!! AI for the win!

[@-PiP-]

@@steven871 hehe Yes, I'm kidding 😉

[@AJ_UK_LIVE]

Greetings Darren! I hope you are well.

[@DarrenMostyn]

All good thank you.

[@m.i.andersen8167]

"Dark passage" and "Escape from New York" 👍👍👍

[@SamClarkPhoto]

Hi Darren. I have just come across your 'Newbie' tutorial, from a year ago, after recently downloading the free version of Davinci, and wanting some starter tips. It all seems straightforward, and you explain it well, however I have just come across 'ExFAT file detected not recommended for project libraries and may lead to corruption' etc. What should I do? If it makes a difference, I'm using MacOS Sonoma, and have set up my project Library on an external Lacie drive, where my raw videos are stored. Thank you so much.

[@DarrenMostyn]

Project recommended on local drive if you can.

[@SamClarkPhoto]

@@DarrenMostyn thanks so much Darren, I will give that a go!

[@wavensdorvad]

❤

[@sheltonherbert4138]

Sorry to bother you with this, but do you have any suggestions for fixing slight stutter in final, rendered 4K video? DaVinci Resolve 18.6. Computer: Lenovo Legion (CPU AMD Ryzen, NVIDIA 3060, 32 GB memory, 2 TB SSD, 4K Res). Media Source (DJI Pocket 3, some screen captures, FinePix JPEGs), Project Settings (Timeline res 3840x2160 ultra HD, 24 fps, Opt. Media/Render Cache 1/4 DNxHR HQX), Render settings: MP4, H.265, Auto encoder, 3840x2160, fps 24, Quality Auto-Best, Key frames Auto. When I render the final video, it has slight shutter/stutter the entire video. Anyway to fix this?

[@koushikbhattacharya832]

Nice talk sir...sir can u put a link of the live with MTO?

[@DarrenMostyn]

There is no live with MTO. Just some shots I got when I visited him a few days earlier.

[@user-db2tj9yc7f]

But I want to ask. What is the best way to start grading a LOG FOOTAGE. Is it to first convert to Rec709 before pushing colors??

[@DarrenMostyn]

All in here for you kzbin.info/www/bejne/oZW3foWHhcSJbac

[@RafRafaRafRafa]

Nice to see you both talking, I guess you both represent best online colorgrading ressources for lot of people. BTW are you both wearing middle grey shirts, is there a colorist dress code you're hiding from us ? ;)

[@DarrenMostyn]

Thanks glad you enjoyed it. Colorist often wear dark neutral clothing to avoid reflections.

[@tamhuynhhong6546]

Hey Darren can you do a quick a video on the conversion steps needed to grade photos on Davinci? I heard a lot of people use Lightroom but I don't want to have to spend more time learning how to use another app when I'm already familiar with working in Davinci.

[@theisaacmatthew]

hey! i just did a video on my channel detailing a workflow for this. do check it out if you’re interested :)

[@JTechWP]

Would love to see a "Grade Off" between between Darren Mostyn, Cullen Kelly and Qazi. Each has the same clips to grade, show the node tree, thought process and final grades.

[@biswajit07]

they would never collab with Qazi. I've never seen them together. I have seen cullen, daria, casey, darren, alex together in different videos/collabs/events/conferences/interviews but none of them specially cullen and darren collabs with Qazi. And we all know why 😹

[@FilthyBadger]

I dont know why

[@FilthyBadger]

Ego thing?

[@thornnorton5953]

Make it 100 clips color managed and we'll see how inefficient Qazi probably is.

[@graemetowner7257]

Great chat, love Cullens grade school and his philosophy on grading...you did miss the most important question which is...Do all colourists wear white trainers (sneakers), black trousers (pants) and a grey top while crossing their legs the same way !!!!!!

[@DarrenMostyn]

black/grey is actually unofficial uniform Stops refelections. Shoes - I guess we just both simply have good taste!!

[@csharbrough]

Hard to miss. Also, Darren stealing the "pop" with the red on his sneakers.

[@JimRobinson-colors]

I think when grading most colourists wear black t-shirts - it minimizes the chance of your screen reflecting onto the screens in front of you- I think in this video Darren and Cullen were in their street clothes. ( out of uniform )

[@jonicolton]

hey everyone, just tried vision pro today. was able to mirror resolve from their macbook. my mind is blown. i'm switching to apple. can anyone provide insight on specs? specifically, unified memory, and gpu cores. don't work a lot in fusion, but i don't want any bottle necks when i denoise, render, or utilize the usual suspects (e.g. ai). thx -colton

[@lambisstratoudakis]

As for questions.. wonder what is your view on Baselight.

[@DarrenMostyn]

I haven't used it.

[@TheKiakiraly]

the Brad Pitt and George Clooney of color grading! :D

[@tomaskonvicka4135]

Swapping Node trees sounds like a wife swap in your case, guys:)

[@sanadakhumanthem3557]

Who came here after grade school live stream?🐱

[@equisetuminc]

As a non-professional filmmaker (construction is my field) what works for me is the full node tree Darren designed; and modify it with Cullen’s Saturation node, exposure ramp dctl, his GROUPS with his Voyager LUTs in Post Clip. I just turn the secondaries off until after all grades are set. #lazyGirl

[@DarrenMostyn]

Love that hybrid! I think if you taking the best of the two of us you are likely in a good place! Make it your own is something we both teach. Enjoy.

[@KnightmareOX]

Ive noticed that converting my 10 bit vlog footage to DWG then to rec709 breaks my footage and causes me to see weird color artifacts that arent there in the log footage or going straight from vlog to rec709. Havent been able to find the cause

[@2424rocket]

Make sure da Vinci wide gambit is on your first node and then converting it to 709 is your last node and then do all your color correcting in the middle.

[@JimRobinson-colors]

It shouldn't break your image - turn off the tone mapping on the first CST and see if it helps. V-log to DWG doesn't really need tone mapping as the color space sizes isn't a huge jump in size - but it is going from DWG to rec709 on the second CST.

[@Mionwang]

Where can I watch the interview (if it exists) with MTO at 18:39?

[@DarrenMostyn]

doesnt exist

[@Mionwang]

@@DarrenMostyn awh :(

[@DarrenMostyn]

@@Mionwang I went to his studio and just filmed some footage quickly, but it was more a social meet up.

[@Mionwang]

@@DarrenMostyn figured. But a chat with him geeking out about grades would be neat ;)

[@DarrenMostyn]

@@Mionwang we did that - just not on camera!

[@frankinblackpool]

Really really interesting chat. And I'm now intrigued by Rippling, what it does and how I can add it to my teeny tiny personal KZbin projects. I only have one maybe two cameras, the other being a drone, so maybe this could help me in some way. As for Audiio, I'm not exactly impressed with them at the moment. The last three or four episodes that I've published have had KZbin copyright Disputes. I've had Audiio for a couple of years but this is now becoming a common occurrence where the owner (?) of the music is disputing my right to use it in my KZbin stuff. It can take up to a month to get resolved but till then the episode is demonetised. Its not a real problem for me as I'm

[@DarrenMostyn]

I'll be sure to pass this on to them. Thanks Frank. Not happened to me yet and i know a few companies using them, but I'll speak with them - They have good technical support.

[@frankinblackpool]

@@DarrenMostyn I really like Audiio and in my humble opinion they add real production value to my small KZbin projects even though I get a handful of views. However that's not the reason I put stuff on KZbin. I just use KZbin as a hobby and a method of relaxation by creating stuff. My real passion is playing around with Resolve and using the wealth of knowledge that you, and Cullen, have kindly published for free with altruistic desire to increase the knowledge and skills for anybody who wants to learn this amazing discipline. I'll be honest, long before I even heard of Colour Grading, I did not even realise that my perceptions of what I was watching was shaped by a colourist's artistic skills when I sat down to watch a documentary, music video or Block Buster film. I've dipped my toes into colour correction and a tiny bit of grading and I'm hooked. And its all your fault.🤣🤣

[@DarrenMostyn]

Ive enjoyed your journey with me over the past few years Frank!! Keep on it!!

[@frankinblackpool]

@@DarrenMostyn BTW the first 40 seconds of this episode were cut really well. 😄

[@DarrenMostyn]

Thanks. Sorry about the remaining 28 minutes !!

[@mrshaheedmalik]

I like Walter Volpatto's node tree the best.

[@DarrenMostyn]

Its solid!

[@nicholasbrecken7357]

Agreed. I've updated it for my own use but I love not having to think when making any trim

[@user-db2tj9yc7f]

Two greatest colorists together. lol I wish to see them actually working on a film project as colorists. ❤❤

[@Coatsey007]

Mildly nervous raising my head above the parapet given your expert knowledge guys, but my understanding is KZbin knows whether to send HDR or SDR based on the viewers device, screen capability, I may be wrong but I think there seems to be a real lag on the HDR front That’s perhaps through that classic phrase, not invented here syndrome. Given that most modern quality phones, tablet devices TVs and KZbin can display HDR and even edit HDR I’m always confused why people would want to reduce it to a REC.709. this is coming from somebody who is rubbish at colour grading but I wonder if that invalidates what I’m saying.

[@DarrenMostyn]

Hi - I think for me its just habit of throwing it up in REC709. I know what im going to get and it will be achieved easily.

[@BiffGibson]

Don't fight boys your father and I love you both equally.

[@DarrenMostyn]

Quality!

[@oldbrokenwrench1055]

You must have reasons, maybe the demographic is too small and not worth your time… but, I have a question… I try all the time to find individuals on KZbin who teach HDR Rec2020 the same as you and others teach SDR Rec709. There are a few, but they are not the quality you are and I don’t think they know what they are talking about. I don’t understand how this HDR is not spreading like wildfire. Do most people not have an HDR TV? I know their phone has an HDR screen. The difference between SDR and HDR is like night and day. I’m trying to do HDR but I suck at it, which is why I constantly look for individuals who can help me in the way you and others helped me for SDR. Do you know where I can find someone? Is there a channel I cannot find out there? Is everyone scared of HDR because of the format war between HLG, PQ, P3… Are colorist just keeping this for themselves? Why is it no one talking about this? Why does it seems like everyone pretends HDR doesn’t exist?

[@DarrenMostyn]

I will cover HDR eventually. Not priority as most people still deliver 709. It will come from me soon im sure. Thanks.

[@chriscox7404]

When two legends meet 🫱🏻‍🫲🏼

[@DarrenMostyn]

Its always good to chat with Cullen.