Scene Complexity: Personalizing Green/Yellow/Red?

Hey everyone,

I'm Aiden Cross, a UPM currently prepping a new indie feature with some ambitious practical elements. I'm finding the standard 'Green/Yellow/Red' complexity stratification for scenes incredibly useful for initial breakdowns and scheduling estimates, but I'm curious about how others have evolved or personalized it.

On my current project, 'Yellow' feels a bit broad. It tends to lump together scenes that are moderately tricky but manageable with scenes that are significantly more challenging, bordering on red. I've tried adding a 'Light Yellow' and 'Dark Yellow' internally, but it feels a bit clunky and sometimes confuses the ADs.

Do any of you use more than three categories? Or perhaps you use entirely different criteria beyond just 'easy/medium/hard' for classifying scenes? Maybe a 'Blue' for VFX-heavy, or 'Orange' for scenes with significant animal work? I'm looking for methods that provide more nuance without overcomplicating the system. How have you adapted this in your own production workflows?