1. The Business of Freelance Color Surprisingly, the first module has nothing to do with color wheels. It covers client acquisition, how to charge by the hour vs. by the day, and how to present "before/after" sliders to land retainers.
2. Deconstructing Commercial Work He takes his actual freelance projects (car commercials, travel vlogs for Mr. Beast’s collaborators, and music videos) and shows the full Resolve timeline. You see the bad grades he tried before landing on the final grade.
3. The Power of the Qualifier Most colorists fear the HSL (Hue, Saturation, Luma) qualifier because it creates artifacts. Qazi dedicates 3 hours to the "Clean Qualifier" workflow. He teaches how to track skin, desaturate the background, and re-saturate the subject without halos.
4. Finishing (The "Qazi Glow") The masterclass culminates in "finishing." This includes adding glow effects, lens dirt, and edge distortion. He argues that a colorist's job is to hide the digital capture.
Suggested Further Research: A quantitative study comparing the scopes (waveform/vectorscope) of Qazi-taught colorists vs. traditionally trained colorists on the same log footage.
The monitor’s glow was the only light in Leo’s cramped apartment, casting a teal-and-orange spill across a desk cluttered with empty espresso shots. For months, Leo had been a "button-pusher"—a freelance editor who accepted whatever flat, muddy LOG footage clients threw at him, slapping on a basic LUT and hoping for the best.
But his latest project, a high-end cinematic short for a boutique fragrance brand, was different. The skin tones looked like plastic. The shadows were milky. He was out of his depth.
That’s when he opened the Waqas Qazi Freelance Colorist Masterclass.
He didn't just watch; he deconstructed. He started with the "Professional Workflow," realizing his node tree was a graveyard of unorganized corrections. He began building his grades from the back—setting his look, then working forward to the primary balance.
By the third module, Leo wasn't just matching shots; he was manipulating emotion. He used Qazi’s techniques to "carve" the light, using power windows to guide the viewer’s eye toward the curve of the perfume bottle. He learned the "Print Film" look, giving the digital footage a thick, organic texture that felt like it belonged in a theater, not just a phone screen.
The breakthrough came at 3:00 AM. Using the masterclass’s grading strategies, Leo transformed a flat, overcast outdoor scene into a rich, golden-hour dreamscape. The skin tones were radiant, yet natural. The greens were deep and cinematic, not neon and distracting.
A week later, Leo sat in the color suite of the fragrance brand's agency. The creative director leaned in, squinting at the calibrated OLED.
"The depth on this... it looks like it was shot on 35mm," she whispered. "Who did the grade?"
Leo leaned back, a quiet confidence replacing his old anxiety. "I did."
He wasn't just an editor anymore. He was a colorist. And for the first time, his invoice reflected it.
Waqas Qazi Freelance Colorist Masterclass (FCM) is a comprehensive training program designed to teach both the technical craft of color grading in DaVinci Resolve and the business skills needed to build a freelance career. Jonny Elwyn
The course is highly polarizing, praised by beginners for its high energy and business focus, but heavily criticized by industry professionals for its non-standard technical methods and marketing-heavy approach. Course Content & Structure The masterclass includes over 30 hours of content
across more than 200 lessons. It is divided into 10 core modules: Jonny Elwyn Technical Foundation:
Modules on conforming, camera science, color correction, and shot matching. Creative Grading:
Focused on look building and professional grading workflows. Business & Freelancing:
37 lessons dedicated to studio setup and finding clients, which many students cite as the course's strongest asset.
Weekly coaching videos, access to an exclusive Facebook community, and discounts on tools like FilmConvert and Shotdeck. Jonny Elwyn The "Work" & Teaching Philosophy Fixed Node Tree:
Qazi advocates for a structured, "fixed node tree" approach to grading, which aims to provide a repeatable sequence of operations for every shot. "Secret Sauce" vs. Industry Standards:
His "secret sauce" techniques—often involving complex node structures and specific LUT applications—are frequently debated. While some find them "mind-blowing," critics argue they are sometimes inefficient or out-dated compared to professional Hollywood workflows. Enthusiasm as a Tool: Reviewers like Jonny Elwyn
note Qazi’s "relentless energy" as a significant factor in building student confidence and motivation. Pros & Cons Waqas Qazi – The Freelance Colorist Masterclass Review
The Freelance Colorist Masterclass (FCM) by Waqas Qazi is a comprehensive training program designed to take students from beginner to professional-level color grading while emphasizing the business of freelancing. 1. Core Curriculum & Work Focus
The masterclass consists of 10 core modules totaling over 30 hours of instruction. Students work through technical and creative workflows, including:
Technical Foundation: Modules on conforming projects, camera-specific workflows, and advanced color correction.
Creative Look Development: Lessons on recreating cinematic looks (e.g., Teal and Orange, Bleach Bypass, Sin City) and mastering skin tone retouching.
Shot Matching: A heavy focus on matching different cameras and scenes to maintain visual consistency.
Professional Materials: Students are provided with professionally shot footage to build their practice reels and practice the craft. 2. Practical Work & Student Outcomes
Students apply their learning through several practical avenues:
Weekly Coaching & Competitions: Qazi provides weekly feedback videos on student work. High performers may be added to his Qazi & Co. job roster for real-world project opportunities.
Portfolio Building: The course explicitly guides students on building an employable reel to land freelance clients.
Business of Freelancing: A dedicated 37-lesson module covers client acquisition, pricing strategies, and networking.
Career Success Stories: Some students report significant career shifts; for instance, one student moved from 4% of their income coming from color grading in 2021 to 65% by 2025 after taking the course. 3. Peer and Industry Reception The course is polarizing within the professional community:
Pros: Praised for its high energy, comprehensive "all-in-one" business and creative approach, and the quality of provided training footage.
Cons: Some professionals critique his methods as being "marketing-heavy" or technically erratic. Critics often suggest alternative mentors like Cullen Kelly or Darren Mostyn for those seeking a more traditional, industry-standard technical approach. The Freelance Colorist Masterclass Review by Jonny Elwyn
He teaches keyboard shortcuts, PowerGrade management, and render settings specifically for fast turnaround—good for freelancers working under tight deadlines.
Unlike most color grading courses (which obsess over nodes & curves), Qazi dedicates large sections to:
This is genuinely useful for freelancers struggling to move beyond “$50 for a music video.”
Through analysis of leaked curriculum outlines and public tutorials, Qazi’s pedagogy rests on three non-traditional pillars:
2.1. The "3D LUT as Foundation" Workflow Unlike traditional teaching (correct exposure → balance primaries → adjust secondaries → grade creatively), Qazi advocates starting with a stylized LUT (often his own "CineLook"). This inverts logic: apply the finish first, then correct the errors. This is fast for social media/commercials but collapses gracefully in log-encoded cinema.
2.2. Aggressive Skin Texture & Sharpening Traditional colorists soften skin to reduce compression artifacts. Qazi famously sharpens skin and adds micro-contrast, arguing that "modern digital sensors look too soft." This creates a hyper-real, almost video-game aesthetic popular with music video and influencer clients.
2.3. The Business Module (The Actual Value) The technical color grading content is replicable on YouTube. The deep value is the freelancing script: how to cold-email DOPs, pricing tiers ($500/day vs $2,000/day), contract templates, and the psychology of upselling. Qazi explicitly states: "Your grade doesn't need to be perfect; your client management needs to be perfect."
If you like his contrasty, saturated, moody style (think trap music videos or action sports commercials), you’ll learn exactly how he builds it using curves, HSL qualifiers, and grain.