Post-Production : Color Grading Options by Matt Lofgren

I had just commented on a post by Derek Nickell, so this is a bit of a repeat, but my editor and I (I am the writer/director/lots of other hats) are looking for a color grading solution and thought I could get some thoughts/comments here on the board. My question is this: Speedgrade or DaVinci? We have access to both and just purchased the Tangent Elements control surfaces (that will likely go on eBay after we complete the project!). We may not know what we're doing, but with those fancy control surfaces, at least we'll LOOK like we do! ;) And yes, we have a color calibrated monitor for the work (with a calibration puck), proper lighting in the editing room, etc, etc. We are editing in native R3D files (RED) and do not want to transcode any footage - and haven't needed to for that matter, other than to bring some composite work in to Mocha. We're editing in Premiere and using After Effects and many of the other CC suite products from Adobe (Photoshop and Audition primarily). It has gone very smoothly and want to make sure that it continues to be. Yes, I am well aware that either one of these packages will require a significant learning curve, but hey, this entire venture has been one giant learning curve and that's what it is all about anyhow for me personally - to learn and make myself a better filmmaker going forward. The project: We are finishing up a full-length feature film, "Alarmed" here in the SF Bay area. Very low budget ($100k) and to keep costs down, we are doing a LOT of things we normally would farm out. It is in audio post right now (yes, definitely farming this out - ProTools AND color grading would push this project out another couple years!!) and my editor and I are finishing up the VFX work (Mocha Pro and AE) and will be starting on the grading work next. We both have some experience in grading (he much more so than I), so we're not complete newbies. Nether one of us has used either Speedgrade or DaVinci before however (Apple Color and some color work in AE). We're both very much "layer-centric" guys, so the whole "node" route with DaVinci looks pretty awkward, whereas Speedgrade is definitely more our speed, so to speak, plus it's in the CC package, so we're leaning toward it, but again, can go either way right now without too much cost differential. Any suggestions before we make the leap into one or the other?? Thanks in advance! Matt Oh, and if you're curious, here's a couple of clips from the film. Alarmed is a psychological thriller shot here in the SF Bay area over the course of the last two years. The first is a teaser trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_MjrnvvVhM This second clip is just a snippet of a "tension" scene in the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rz6scliF7P8