Color grading vs color correction
Correction fixes footage so it looks right and matches shot to shot. Grading then styles it on purpose to set a mood.
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What it is
Correction is the repair pass. Set exposure, neutralize white balance, steer skin tones toward the vectorscope's skin line, and match every shot in a scene so nobody notices the cuts. Judge it with scopes and a calibrated display together, because an uncalibrated monitor lies and your eyes adapt, but the scopes only measure. That skin line is a hue reference, not a target every complexion or lighting choice has to land on. Correction is technically constrained: a narrow band of right answers rather than one.
Grading is the authored pass on top. Cool shadows and warm highlights for the teal-and-orange blockbuster look, crushed blacks for something grittier, drained saturation for cold institutional scenes. No right answer, only intent. The reference points are 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?', the first feature graded digitally end to end, and the bleach-bypass harshness of 'Saving Private Ryan'.
Gotcha: doing both in one pass. Grade before you correct and every clip reacts differently to the same look, because each one started from a different exposure and white balance. Correct clip by clip, then apply the grade to all of them at once on an adjustment layer, so a change of mind is one slider and not forty.
Ask AI for it
Run two separate color passes on this footage. Pass 1, correction, per clip: fix exposure so highlights land near 90 IRE without clipping, neutralize white balance until whites read neutral on the vectorscope and on a calibrated display, and match every shot in the scene to the widest shot. Pass 2, grading, on one adjustment layer covering all clips: push shadows toward teal, highlights toward warm orange, lift the blacks slightly for a filmic toe, drop overall saturation by 10 percent, and add a soft vignette. Use the vectorscope skin line as a hue reference for skin throughout rather than forcing every face onto it.