How to Recreate the Joker Film Look in DaVinci Resolve: A Comprehensive Guide

Summary:

This video provides a detailed guide on how to reproduce the "Joker" film look using DaVinci Resolve, broken down into four key steps as shown in the video's outline. ![Image 2]

Analyzing the Reference Clip [00:27]: The video starts by analyzing a "Joker" reference still to understand its brightness, color tones, and texture, particularly noting the dark look, yellow skin tones, and complementary cyan. ![Image 3]
Adjusting Contrast [01:25]: The footage's contrast is adjusted to match the reference's dark, low-key aesthetic, focusing on lowering overall exposure, setting skin tone highlights, and crushing shadows using curves. ![Image 7]
Adjusting Color [06:18]: The specific split-tone color scheme is achieved by enhancing skin tone saturation and applying an overall cyan tone. This involves using parallel nodes and the HDR wheels for precise color and luminance adjustments across tonal zones. ![Image 12]
Refining Texture [15:58]: Final touches include adding filmic texture elements like halation for diffused light, creating specific lighting directions with power windows, applying noise reduction, sharpening details, and adding film grain for a cinematic finish. ![Image 15]

1. Analyzing the Reference Clip [00:27]

The video begins by demonstrating how to analyze a reference still image from the "Joker" film to understand its distinct visual characteristics. ![Image 3]

The image's overall brightness and darkness are assessed.
- Information is concentrated in the low-luminance areas, resulting in a dark look. [00:41]
- Skin tone highlights are found to be between 512 and 640 on the waveform. [00:47]
- Shadows are observed to be touching or near zero. [00:50]
The color tones are examined.
- Skin tones lean towards yellow, creating a split-tone look where complementary cyan tones are used throughout the image to emphasize this. [00:54] ![Image 8]
The texture and lighting are evaluated.
- Light diffuses softly from the upper right, creating a gentle gradient towards the shadows. [01:03]
- Close-up inspection reveals high clarity and detail in the subject's face. [01:11]

2. Adjusting Contrast [01:25]

This section focuses on matching the brightness and contrast of the footage to the analyzed "Joker" reference. ![Image 4]

Setting up nodes for adjustment.
- Three nodes are added: Exposure (ex), Contrast (con), and White Balance (wb). [01:29]
Adjusting exposure (brightness).
- The scope is switched to "Waveform" mode, and the luminance (Y) channel is isolated for clear viewing. [01:43] ![Image 6]
- The split-screen view is used to compare the editing material with the reference. [01:57] ![Image 5]
- The global control in the HDR wheels is used to lower the overall exposure of the editing material, preserving tonal ranges. [02:13]
- The exposure is reduced to match the darker reference image. [02:22]
Adjusting contrast.
- The skin tone highlight value (512-640) from the analysis is used as a target. [03:07]
- The Curves tool is preferred over the Primary Wheels for finer control and smoother contrast adjustments. [03:29]
- Highlights are adjusted to prevent clipping (values touching 1023) by lowering the curve at the high end. [03:41] ![Image 7]
- The mid-tones are raised slightly to bring skin tone highlights into the target range (around 512). [03:51]
- Shadows are "crushed" (lowered significantly) using the curve to match the reference's deep shadows. [04:10]
- A slight lift is applied to the very darkest shadows to prevent complete loss of detail. [04:34]
Adjusting white balance.
- The Vector Scope is used, enabling "2x Magnification" and "Skin Tone Indicator" for precise color balancing. [04:57]
- The "Gamma" setting of the node is changed to "Linear" to work in the camera's sensor color space, and "Luminance Mix" is set to 0. [05:10]
- The skin tone is adjusted by pulling the gain wheel slightly towards magenta to counteract a yellow bias, making the skin tone appear more natural. [06:00]

3. Adjusting Color [06:18]

This section details how to achieve the specific split-tone color scheme of the "Joker" look. ![Image 12]

Setting up nodes for color adjustment.
- Two parallel nodes are added after the white balance node: "Add" (for adding skin tone saturation) and "Sub" (for adding overall cyan tone). [06:53]
Enhancing skin tone saturation (Add node).
- The Color Slice tool is used to boost the saturation of the skin tones more effectively than HSL curves, while maintaining density. [08:24]
- Skin tone saturation is increased using the "Skin" control in Color Slice. [08:35]
Applying overall cyan tone (Sub node).
- The global color wheel in the HDR wheels is used to pull the entire image towards the cyan direction, complementing the yellow skin tones. [08:40]
Using parallel nodes for granular control.
- Three more parallel nodes ("red," "light," "shadow") are added to allow color grading adjustments on specific tonal ranges without affecting others. [10:12]
Adjusting red density.
- The "Red" node is used with the Color Slice tool to add density to red hues, creating a film-like, rich red. [11:13]
Refining color with HDR wheels.
- The HDR wheel offers six tonal zones (Black, Dark, Shadow, Light, Highlight, Specular) for precise color and luminance adjustments. [12:06] ![Image 10]
- The "Light" zone is adjusted to introduce a yellow/orange key light into the skin tone, mimicking the reference image's warm highlights. [13:18] ![Image 11]
- The "Shadow" zone is adjusted to introduce a dark cyan hue into the shadows, matching the reference's cool, deep shadows. [14:49] ![Image 13]
- The "Key Output" for the "light" node is adjusted to avoid overly strong effects, allowing for subtle color integration. [13:57]

4. Refining Texture [15:58]

This final step focuses on adding filmic texture elements and final sharpening. ![Image 14]

Adding halation for soft light.
- A "Halation" effect is applied from the FX library. [16:17]
- The "Threshold" is adjusted to target specific bright areas for halation. [16:30]
- "Secondary Glow" is added to the halation for a softer, more diffused light effect, similar to the "Joker" look. [17:17]
- The strength of the halation and glow are carefully adjusted to avoid an over-edited appearance. [16:53]
Creating directional lighting.
- A Power Window (circular tool) is used to create a soft, diffused key light from the upper left, mimicking the reference. [18:12]
- The "softness" of the Power Window is increased to create a smooth light fall-off. [18:31]
- A gradient tool is used for another light source, with the Alpha channel passed between nodes to maintain the selection range. [18:42]
- The "Outside" node is used with an inverted mask to darken the areas outside the primary light source, enhancing the cinematic feel. [19:12]
Removing digital noise.
- Noise Reduction (NR) is applied early in the node tree (after the IDT) to clean the footage before color grading, preventing noise from being amplified or colored. [20:25]
- "AI Ultra NR" is selected for effective noise reduction. [20:59]
Adding sharpness and grain.
- Sharpening is applied to bring back details potentially lost during noise reduction or other processes. [21:26]
- The "Blur vs Sharp" curve is used to apply sharpness selectively to the subject, avoiding over-sharpening that can create an artificial look. [21:32]
- Alternatively, the "Mid Detail" control in the Primary Color Wheels can be used for skin tone sharpening. [21:55]
- Finally, "Film Grain" is added to achieve a vintage, film-like texture that further matches the "Joker" aesthetic. [22:25]
- A 35mm film grain preset is chosen, and the grain intensity and size are adjusted to replicate the reference's coarse grain. [22:40] ![Image 15]