Inside Look: The Color Grading Process for The Weeknd's "Live at SoFi Stadium"

Our Conversation With Jacob McKee

In this installment of our blog, we dive into the captivating world of color grading with Jacob McKee, as he shares his insights and experiences working on The Weeknd's electrifying music video, "Live at SoFi Stadium." Join us as we unravel the secrets behind the mesmerizing visuals and discover the meticulous artistry that goes into creating the perfect color palette.

1. What was your process for coloring the music video?

Like most projects we started this one chatting about what feel the film should have and the world it should live in. We’ve done a few of The Weeknd's videos now and I feel like we’ve been creating this visual language so I wanted to be consistent with that in this one. We wanted a 35mm feel but practically on this sort of project to shoot film wouldn’t be realistic. We worked through a few test looks and I built them a LUT to use on set. On a concert a LUT like that is hard to build since one minute he’s bathed in all red then the next song it’s a mix of greens and blues but it was a good starting point. Once it was all edited and in my hands I went through and built hero looks for each setup and modified our overall look. It’s a pretty simple grade, the key to something like this with strong lighting is just finding the accurate skin tones and everything usually falls right into place. There’s only like one qualifier in the whole film, we pulled the red back a little bit on some of the dancers dresses. The image from the start was fantastic. Once the look was in a good place we played around with a few OpenFX tools to dial in our film look but we wanted it to be really subtle not like an “in your face” fake film emulation. We added a few simple things like some faint halation and this really nice one that mimics diffusion filters. I’ve been wanting to use LiveGrain for a while and I was finally able to get my hands on it with this film. The DP and I tested a lot of grain structures but ended up finding this really nice 50D and really went with it.

2. What challenges did you face while coloring the video?

Not a whole lot to be honest. The team really nailed everything in camera so my job was pretty easy. There were certain parts like where the dancers are walking over the red lights that took a bit of work to reign in some of the reds and a few scenes with competing colors but nothing out of the ordinary. The camera team did a great job keeping all of the angles consistent. A lot of times on a concert you have to spend a good amount of time matching cameras but that didn’t happen here, it all looked great out of the gate. We talked a lot up front about the looks we were wanting and I think everyone was on the same wavelength in terms of the grade so dialing it in pretty straightforward.‍

3. Did you use a specific color palette, or reference stills for this project?

Yeah I definitely pulled a few stills of my own just to reference certain blue and red tones and to compare my black values. I grabbed a lot of 35mm film references for those tones and to compare grain structures. It also helped to see exactly which film stocks were used in our refs to help dial in the color palette and keep things consistent.

4. Was there a specific mood or feeling you were trying to evoke with the colors?

Definitely yeah we wanted this one to feel moody and cinematic but also true to the live performance. I got to go to the show which was really helpful in seeing what the lighting looked like in real life. Had I not, I may have tried to overcorrect some of the greens or some tones but knowing just how vibrant and rich the show was in real life informed me to really embrace those tones and keep them punchy.

5. Which scenes in the video were most fun or challenging to color?

I really love the look in After Hours, it’s about halfway through the show. Abel has this balanced spotlight on him so his skin tones look great then the background and surrounding lights are this great jade / teal tone so he pops off screen and the red dressers of the dancers just look great and really come forward. The stage is flashing this bright white on the floor so the grain really screams on it. A really cool look. Also Hurricane because that song is my favorite and the stage effects are insane. That single spotlight with the burning city in the in the background is iconic.

6. What was your process for working with the director as you colored this music video?

The director, DP, and I all talked way ahead of time about the looks we wanted and the world we wanted the film to live in. We’ve done a few together now so we all speak the same language and I have a good idea of where they’re at and what they want. Practically speaking though we worked over postings and stills. I would constantly send them stills of the looks and where I was at in the film to get quick feedback and make adjustments. We used Frame.io for notes and to send postings out. The display preset settings in the new MacBooks and Pro Display XDRs helped insure we were all looking at the same calibrated image across devices wherever we were.

7. What would you say is your personal highlight from working on the project?

Going to the show and seeing it live then digging into the grade and having that experience in the back of my mind was really great. This film has also been a multi year journey I feel like. The other feature long show we did for The Weeknd came out around this time last year and we started building that visual language there and really cranked on this one so it’s been really cool to step back and see the whole story progress visually. It was a labor of love for the whole team and we had a great crew screening so it was really nice to share the film with each other and see the feedback and love its had now that it’s live. One of the coolest parts honestly too was seeing our trailer play before The Last of Us. I did the “point at the TV and say ‘we did that!’” thing which felt surreal.

Closing Thoughts

And there you have it—an exclusive glimpse into the color grading process of The Weeknd's stunning music video. We hope you enjoyed this behind-the-scenes journey with Jacob McKee as he masterfully crafted a visual language that brought the performance to life. Stay tuned for more "Inside Look" features, where we uncover the hidden stories and creative techniques that make our favorite projects truly extraordinary.