Lamont McLeod edits and grades his language courses with DaVinci Resolve

Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve software is used by Lamont McLeod not only for colour grading, but also to edit the pieces on his YouTube channel ‘Days of French ‘n’ Swedish‘.

A former professional photographer, McLeod brings his visual expertise to the short films on Days of French ‘n’ Swedish. The YouTube channel, which started out with reviews of foreign language TV series, has since become very popular in the language learning community. McLeod has been involved with DaVinci Resolve since his early days in the digital entertainment and education industry: “When I started making my first short film in 2020, there were effects that I wanted that I couldn’t get in other software. I decided to give DaVinci Resolve a try and was blown away with how much easier a ton of stuff was, as well as some of the extra options it gave me. My only regret about it is not switching to Resolve earlier. Once I used it I never even thought about going back.”

McLeod particularly appreciates the software’s ability to retouch colour, as well as the various effects included in the edition module: “I often have to be a bit creative with the color features of the software, and I felt like I could get to a look that I wanted in DaVinci Resolve much faster than before. It was only later that I found out that Resolve was originally a color grading tool, which explained why these features were so powerful. “I also love the built in titles and effects. It saves me so much time to have animated titles and functions like Dynamic Zoom.”

One of his most popular videos, which marked a turning point on his YouTube channel, is called When watching a foreign TV series goes VERY wrong: “I genuinely don’t remember having the idea, because before I knew it, I was working on a script that was a language learning version of the film Gravity. Although that film obviously uses tons of CG and green screen and mine uses none, I was inspired by seeing the lengths that they go to get a three second shot right.”

“I learned everything that I know about film lighting in the few weeks before shooting that first short, and since then I’ve been looking for an excuse to shoot another short. If I’m able to make another one, I want to expand on the idea of acquisition versus learning,” McLeod concludes.