In Uganda’s rising film scene, Catch Out, directed by Kizito Samuel Saviour, stands as a testament to the power of visual storytelling. Lauded at the Uganda Film Festival 2021, the movie combines gripping performances and tight direction — but what truly elevated its colorfull cinematic polish was the sophisticated color grading, by Ochwo Emmax, the film’s colorist.
Ochwo Emmax, a passionate post-production artist and emerging name in African cinema, took a bold and deliberate approach in designing the film’s visual tone. Drawing direct reference from Hollywood blockbusters — notably Bad Boys, starring Will Smith — Emmax brought international flair to a locally rooted film.
“It wasn’t just about copying the colors,” Emmax explained. “It was about translating their emotional weight into our context.”
The influence is clear: warm midtones paired with cool shadows, precise luminance control around faces, and rich, cinematic blacks. Ochwo Emmax achieved this look by carefully mapping the dynamic range of the Bad Boys reference, replicating its color curves, hue/saturation shifts, and LUT-based corrections, while customizing the palette to suit Uganda’s natural lighting and location textures.
The process went beyond simple matching. Emmax worked meticulously to ensure the scenes reflected the intensity of the storyline without overwhelming the authenticity of the setting. His grading style balanced stylization with realism — a method rarely executed so effectively in Ugandan cinema.
The result? Catch Out became not just a successful film, but a visually striking milestone in East African film aesthetics — now listed on IMDb and recognized as one of Uganda’s best entries in recent years. It’s no surprise that Emmax’s work caught attention from filmmakers across the continent, many of whom now look to him for inspiration in achieving Hollywood-grade visuals using local resources.
Posts
0 Comments