The orange and teal overdose
Somewhere along the line everyone decided cinematic meant cranking the orange in the skin and the teal in the shadows until your video looks like a phone commercial from 2015. A bit of warmth and cool contrast is lovely. Drowning in it is not. Pull it back. Subtle wins.
Crushed blacks and blown highlights
People push contrast way too hard, the shadows turn into solid black holes with no detail, and the bright bits clip into pure white mush. Real, filmic images hold detail in both. Ease off, let the shadows breathe, and protect your highlights.
Skin tones
The one nobody talks about. The human eye is ruthless about skin. We know instantly when a face looks wrong, even if we can't say why. If you fix nothing else, get the skin tones looking natural and healthy. Everything else can be stylised, but if the people look ill, the grade has failed.
The secret to a great grade isn't a magic preset. It's restraint. The best color work is the kind you don't notice, the kind that just makes everything feel right.
What will Kumar do?
Color is one of my favourite parts of the job, so this is right in my wheelhouse. I grade by eye, not by dumping a preset on top and hoping. Natural skin, balanced contrast, a mood that fits the story, and crucially, I know when to stop. The result is a video that looks expensive without screaming about it. I'm a video editor in Calgary and a proper grade is the difference between "nice video" and "wow, who made that." Let me put that polish on yours.