High Heels and Hoodoo has a scene that’s a memory and a scene set in the spirit world, and we wanted to make sure those parts looked different. So Brian bought this snazzy program called "Magic Bullets Suite" to manipulate the images. The software has all kinds of filters and effects, and Brian was like a kid in a candy shop trying out all the options. In addition to the distinct looks he could add to the different scenes, he also used the software for color correction. He spent hours making sure the colors were consistent across all the shots, but when he was sure he had it right, he ran into the Goldilocks issue.
He sent the final version to Jocelyn, and she complained that it was too light – when she watched it on her computer, it almost looked bright enough to be daytime. When Brian burned a DVD and watched in on his television, it was too dark. It’s supposed to be midnight in a cemetery, but the viewer has to actually be able to see what’s happening. And of course when he watched it on his computer where he’d done all the color tweaking, it was juuuuust right. So which of those three outputs should we believe?
That’s why we’re so glad we have the upcoming sneak peeks. This is one of the types of issues a work-in-progress screening helps evaluate, so we can discover if we need to make changes. The film will be playing in two different theaters with different projectors and screens, so we’ll be able to see whether it looks too light, too dark, or just right on the big screen.