This is a short blog post on my take on Waqas Qazi’s Freelance Colorist course. I just want to inform you of what to expect when you take this course.
Let me tell you the truth about his course. There is no other course that will teach you how to become a colorist than his Freelance Colorist Masterclass.
I took Lowepost, Mixinglight, and MZed courses on color grading. Not to mention other courses in Skillshare and Udemy.
I also took Filippo Cinotti’s color grading course.
There is no other person who will explain it to you from zero to hero than Waqas Qazi.
I am sad reading people on Reddit dissing his course and telling everyone to go to Lowepost or Mixinglight, instead. I’ve been through those courses.
Lowepost has professional colorists of Hollywood films teaching color grading but they don’t really know how to teach. Not all people who are skilled can teach effectively. This is Waqas Qazi’s huge advantage because he is a colorist and a teacher.
Lowepost has this basic course on color grading but there are a lot of things that aren’t covered in that course. Most of them are included in Waqas Qazi’s course with real-time examples on different clips and not as boring as it was presented on Lowepost.
They give some tips which will add to your knowledge if you already know color grading but if you’re a zero, you won’t even know what to really do after taking those courses.
One of the senior colorists in Company 3, Walter Volpatto, has a course in Lowepost. I was hyped and all but all he discussed was his node tree structure which is completely useless to me since I already have a node tree that I’m comfortable with.
What would beat Waqas Qazi’s course is if someone will also cover his topic and provide Hollywood film color grading analysis or add the creative side of color grading. Beginners would love to know how cinematographers’ minds work. Like right now, I’m working on a project for a very talented director.
I am creating looks based on his vision. If a course would give us an idea of how these directors’ and cinematographers’ mind works, that would be a great course since I learned these things by working with them. But, what if a course will brief you about it, wouldn’t it be nice?
The reason why people diss Waqas Qazi is that he uses tons of nodes that won’t be efficient when color grading 1000 cuts. I agree! But, his main is commercial videos and these videos require perfection! That is why you’re going to need tons of nodes to correct specific parts of the video.
Without his course, there wouldn’t be BeyondTheSight. I owe a lot to his course. I have my own style now but when I was just starting, it was him that clear up the road for me to be where I am now.
I’m not telling you that you only need his course. I took tons of courses after his course but if you want to learn how to find clients, know how to conform from premiere pro, how to work remotely, how to build your brand as a colorist, how to price your work, and more, it’s only his course that will teach you all that on top of his color grading course.
Is it worth the price? Heck yeah! If you get one client after his course, it’s like you took his course for free. He even has a money-back guarantee for 30 days.
If you’re a beginner and you’re serious about becoming a Professional Colorist, take Freelance Colorist Masterclass first, then explore other courses for additional knowledge.