u/Consistent-Ring-1344

Hey everyone,

I’m currently trying to improve my portfolio and grading workflow in DaVinci Resolve, and I’ve been wondering where colorists usually find good indie film or cinematography footage to practice with.

Most of the footage packs online feel very commercial/demo-focused, and I’d love to practice more with real narrative scenes, short films, mixed lighting setups, and dialogue-heavy footage to better understand matching, skin tones, and look development.

For people already working in cinematography or post:

Where do you usually find good practice footage?

Are there communities where filmmakers share older projects or unused clips for learning purposes?

What kind of footage helped you improve the most when learning grading?

I’m especially interested in working with Log footage from different cameras and understanding how different cinematography styles translate through grading workflows.

Would appreciate any advice or resources. Thanks!

Hey everyone,

I’m currently trying to improve my portfolio and grading workflow in DaVinci Resolve, and I’ve been wondering where colorists usually find good indie film or cinematography footage to practice with.

Most of the footage packs online feel very commercial/demo-focused, and I’d love to practice more with real narrative scenes, short films, mixed lighting setups, and dialogue-heavy footage to better understand matching, skin tones, and look development.

For people already working in cinematography or post:

Where do you usually find good practice footage?

Are there communities where filmmakers share older projects or unused clips for learning purposes?

What kind of footage helped you improve the most when learning grading?

I’m especially interested in working with Log footage from different cameras and understanding how different cinematography styles translate through grading workflows.

Would appreciate any advice or resources. Thanks!

Hey everyone,

I’ve been grading in DaVinci Resolve using a DaVinci YRGB workflow with CSTs (basically a CST sandwich workflow) up until now, and I’m trying to properly learn and switch over to ACES.

My current workflow is usually something like:

Camera Log → CST to working space → grading → CST back to Rec.709.

Now I’m a bit confused about what the proper ACES workflow should look like inside Resolve.

A few things I’m trying to understand:

Should I switch fully to ACEScct?

What’s the main advantage of ACES over a CST-based workflow?

In ACES, do you still use CST nodes often, or should everything be handled through IDTs/ODTs?

How should the node tree ideally look in an ACES project?

What’s the correct way to handle different camera formats in the same timeline?

How do you approach the look, creation and contrast in ACES compared to CST workflows?

I’m mainly trying to build a proper professional workflow instead of randomly converting color spaces without fully understanding what’s happening underneath.

Would really appreciate advice from people who moved from CST workflows to ACES and how you approached learning it inside Resolve.