With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, director Emma Tammi and cinematographer Lyn Moncrief set out to elevate the franchise with a darker vision and sharper, more impactful scares. Returning to grade the sequel, Picture Shop Senior Colorist Mitch Paulson collaborated closely with the filmmakers to help shape a look that pushes the visual direction beyond what was achieved in the first film.
Paulson previously worked with Tammi and Moncrief on the first Five Nights at Freddy’s, and their shared history allowed discussions about the sequel to begin early, developing a primary LUT for Moncrief to use during production that built a solid foundation for the visual direction from the outset.
“Since I had done Five Nights at Freddy’s with Emma and Lyn, we had already been talking about the second one,” Paulson says. “I created one main LUT that Lyn could shoot with, which helped set the base for the look.”
With the sequel spanning multiple eras and environments, the film introduced a wide set of creative opportunities in the grade. That made it essential for Paulson to define how each space and its characters should be visually distinguished. “We visit new locations that are from a different time, so we needed to establish new looks for those,” he explains. “Some spaces come from the past and some are brand new to the audience. We have new characters with new textures as well, so we needed to set up looks for those. The color for the characters helped differentiate the old from the new ones.”
Paulson emphasized how colors support character interpretation, using the grade to reflect emotional shifts on screen. “The color in Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 really helps convey the moods of the characters,” he notes.
The grading process also incorporated updated capabilities in DaVinci Resolve that expanded what Paulson could do in the color suite to achieve the intensified direction the filmmakers set for the sequel. “We took advantage of the new updated tools in Resolve, like the magic mask, depth map and relight tool,” he says. “We did lots of shaping and pushed things into darkness.”
The final grade supports the expanded world of Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, unifying its shifting eras and textures into a look that meets the sequel’s intensified tone.