ABSTRACT
Color grading refers to the creative application of postproduction color grading tools to create a specialized mood and visual style for filmmaker's film—commonly known as creating looks. Historically, color grading was done in an expensive color grading session by a trained colorist using specialized software in a postproduction facility. Many students and low-budget filmmakers do their own color correction—and a bit of color grading as well. Mastering simply means exporting filmmaker's film at the highest possible resolution both as a digital master file on a hard drive and onto a high-quality HD tape format. Distribution refers to the process of getting filmmaker's movie out into the world and seen by audiences. Distribution is commonly described in terms of markets or outlets. Video on demand (VOD) platforms are essentially video hosting sites that carefully curate their library of films and, of course, monetize the streaming process for both the website and the filmmaker—and they do this in a number of ways.
