Adopting Color Workflows When Pre-Pro LUTs Are Absent

Hey everyone,

I'm Diana Ruiz-Perez, an AD/Producer, and I've been running into a recurring situation that's got me wondering about best practices. Most of the theory out there, and what I'd ideally like to achieve, stresses the importance of colorists being involved from pre-production to develop a show LUT. That makes perfect sense for maintaining a consistent look and vision.

However, in the real world (especially on the independent and commercial projects I often work on, shot with cameras like the ALEXA Mini or a KOMODO-X) the colorist often only gets brought in much later in post-production. By then, there's rarely a show LUT established, and sometimes even the creative brief for color is still fairly loose.

So, my question to all you experienced folks is: How do you adapt your workflow as a colorist (or even as a producer managing this) to efficiently establish a compelling look under these circumstances, when you're handed footage late in the game with no prior LUT or a detailed color roadmap?