Episode 23: NAB 2018

Episode 19: 2017 Year In Review

On this episode of the Colorist Podcast, we take a look back at 2017. So much has happened this past year in the world of the colorist. Blackmagic unveiled two new affordable panels, as well as releasing Resolve 14. Filmlight continues to innovate, and shipped version 5 of Baselight. UHD and HDR are gaining wide adoption, with new content being available every day. I recently had the opportunity to go back and review every podcast from this past year. I couldn’t believe all the talented people that made time to sit and talk with me. Colorists that worked on films from Lord of the Rings to Saving Private Ryan, TV shows NCIS Los Angeles and Planet Earth II, and commercials for Coca-Cola and Levi’s. We delved into many different topics, like collaborating with DP’s, working in foreign countries, and emerging technologies like HDR.

In this podcast, I’ve included some of my favorite insights from 2017:

• Peter Doyle: Working on films that vary visually and conceptually
  
• Dave Abrams: HDR and it’s effect on calibration
  
• Warren Eagles: Film stocks and how they relate to digital cameras today
  
• Bob Festa: Working with clients and getting them to come back for more
  
• Alexis Van Hurkman: Techniques for working with HDR
  
• Dale Grahn: Developing looks for The Ring and Saving Private Ryan
  
• Juan Cabrera: Collaborating with Directors and DP’s in the suite
  
• Adam Inglis: Working with nature footage in Planet Earth II
  
• Patrick Woodard: Being flexible and working efficiently in television
  
• Vanessa Taylor: Working in a foreign country and overcoming language barriers
  

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Episode 18: Patrick Woodard CSI

On this episode of the Colorist Podcast, I talk with Patrick Woodard, Lead Colorist at Digital Film Tree. Patrick is best known for his color work on episodic TV shows like NCIS: Los Angeles, UNreal, Weeds, and Everybody Hates Chris. He’s worked on programs that air on the major networks, like CBS, NBC, and FOX, as well as the pay networks HBO and Showtime. In addition to working in TV, he’s also completed spots for Oakley, DC Shoes, and Fox Racing. Patrick built his foundation in photography, studying at the Brooks Institute of Photography. Combining this background with an internship at Digital Film Tree, set him in the direction of becoming a colorist. Moving up within the company gave him the opportunity to holistically understand the file-based workflow and the ways that it could be fast and flexible.

• How his background in photography served him as a colorist
• Challenges of working on a big budget TV shows
• The effect of streaming networks like Netflix and Hulu on television colorists
• Coloring for short form versus long form
• Collaborating with DPs and showrunners via remote sessions
• New technologies like 4K and HDR in television color
• ACES and other color-managed workflows
• Coloring for different TV networks

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Episode 17: Bob Festa CSI 

Senior Colorist Bob Festa joins me on this episode of the Colorist Podcast. Bob Festa has colored some of the most iconic music videos and national commercials. Companies like Coca-Cola, Levi’s, American Express, McDonalds, and IBM come back to his suite again and again. In a career that spans over 30 years, he has completed over 20,000 spots. He continues to color today, working on the shows “The Runaways” and “The Last Ship.” He is the recipient of daVinci’s “Master Colorist Award” and “Commercial Colorist of the Year.” Bob has held positions as a Senior Colorist at Company 3, R!OT Santa Monica, Hollywood Digital, and Encore. And he also ran his own facility, New Hat. He’s worked with daVinci systems since it’s start, and even helped drive some of the features we use today. Bob continues to be a mentor to aspiring colorists. He shares his skills, experience, and knowledge to the next generation of artists. In this podcast, we talk about:

• How to avoid burnout and have a long career as a colorist
• Comparing long and short form grading
• The inspiration of film and why some colorists still use printer points
• The most abused technique in color grading
• The Festa “Grade once - show many” concept
• New technologies like HDR and how colorists adapt to them
• Coming up with a lot of ideas in a high-pressure environment
• Colorist’s role in new business development
• How the declining price of color systems affect colorists today
• Collaborating with Directors and DPs

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Episode 16: Alexis Van Hurkman CSI - Part 2

On this episode of the Colorist Podcast, I continue the conversation with Director, Writer, and Colorist, Alexis Van Hurkman. In the last episode, I talked with Alexis about how he got his start in post, his experience at Apple, and starting his own boutique grading facility. There was so much great conversation in the podcast that I needed to break it into two separate shows. In this episode, we dive deeper into the tech side of grading. In the last five years, there’s been dramatic changes in color technology. High Dynamic Range (HDR) is making its way into the mainstream, and color managed workflows are improving with each day. And with that “bigger box of crayons,” we have more options when creating looks. The creative and the technical elements in grading are closely linked. In part two, we discuss:

• The “Color Correction Look Book” and how to create subtle grades
• When to push a look further then your comfort level
• Grading HDR and the “hierarchy of highlights”
• Will HDR change the way that colorists grade
• Using ACES, Resolve Color Management, Truelight and other color management workflows
• The Colorist Society and how it will benefit the community in the future

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Episode 15: Alexis Van Hurkman CSI - Part 1

There’s been many twists and turns in the career of Alexis Van Hurkman. He bounced around from audio, editorial, graphics, and visual effects. Ultimately, each of those steps in his journey contributed to his skills as a colorist. Along with grading his own projects, he’s finished programs for The History Channel, The Learning Channel, BBC Four, and WNET. Many listeners will recognize Alexis’s book titles, “The Color Correction Handbook” and “The Color Correction Look Book,” as well as the manuals for Apple Color, Final Cut Pro, and DaVinci Resolve. He’s also created several training titles with Ripple Training, featuring the newest features in Resolve.

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Episode 14: Juan Ignacio Cabrera CSI

Juan got his start in the visual effects industry in Spain, starting his own business at 17 years old. He later moved to the US and was hired at Bad Robot and Paramount Pictures. Currently, he runs his own boutique facility, Lightbender Post, as Founder and Senior Colorist. His projects span everything from features, television, streaming, and video games. He has worked on the films Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Star Trek: Into Darkness, and Transformers: Age of Extinction. He’s been credited as a stereographer, colorist, compositor, and visual effects supervisor.

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Episode 13: Vanessa Taylor

Vanessa Taylor has over 20 years experience in the industry. She got her start working at Animal Logic, working on the Quantel Henry as an Online Editor. After that, she moved on to the DI department at Park Road Post. She’s worked on projects from Joss Whedon, Baz Luhrmann, and Peter Jackson. She’s based out of the UK, but travels worldwide to work on a variety of different independent films.

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Episode 12: Adam Inglis

Adam Inglis was the colorist for feature films Sherlock Holmes, Alien Vs Predator, and Mr. Turner. He was one of the first users of Baselight when it was previously known as “Film Grader.” It was used internally at CFC in London when finishing the claymation feature Chicken Run. Currently, his work can be seen on the BBC Documentary series Planet Earth II. Shot with several different cameras in only natural light, the show puts the viewer in amazing landscapes with vibrant colored animals.

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Episode 11: Dave Abrams

Dave Abrams has been calibrating monitors for over seventeen years. He’s been through the transitions from SD to HD, tape and film to file based, and now 4K and HDR. Post facilities from all over the world rely on his expertise and knowledge of monitors to get the most consistent and accurate monitoring possible. High-end home theater owners also use his services to get great looking images at home. And seeing both sides of each situation gives him a great perspective on the industry as a whole.

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Episode 10: Warren Eagles CSI

Warren Eagles is a freelance colorist based in Brisbane Australia. He has an extensive 28 year career with experience in all forms of color correction. He now runs his own shop in Brisbane and splits his time between grading there and freelancing at other post facilities in Asia. His credits include commercials for Qantas, Ford, Mitsubishi, Revlon, and Tooheys, mainstream UK and Australian dramas and documentaries including the first Australian DI movie “Blurred” and Guy Ritchie’s cult movie "Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels".

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Episode 9: Peter Doyle

Peter Doyle is one of film industry’s most distinguished supervising digital colorists, having handled digital color grading on the industry’s two largest “tent-pole” franchises in movie history, The Lord of the Rings trilogy; and the last six Harry Potter films. He has also color-graded eight of the 30 highest-grossing films of all time. Peter has carried out remarkable handling of digital color-grading for Academy Award-winning cinematographers and directors such as Andrew Lesnie and Bruno Delbonnel, Peter Jackson and Tim Burton to name but a few. 

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Episode 8: Dale Grahn CSI

Long before films were colored using computers, Dale color timed movies, using the only technology available at the time: printer points and printer lights. He is best known for pioneering the bleach bypass look of Saving Private Ryan, and he’s also worked on other huge films like Gladiator, Minority Report, The Ring, Die Hard, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. His work included animated films like The Lion King, Aladdin, Toy Story, and Beauty and the Beast, which required a different workflow that many timers avoided altogether. He’s collaborated with the biggest names in the industry like Steven Spielberg and Joel Silver. Currently, he is a fellow of the Colorist Society International and has directed his energy towards recognition of colorists worldwide.

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Episode 7: Ayumi Ashley

Ayumi Ashley is the founder of Mission Film and Design (MFDSF) in San Francisco, California. It’s a boutique color, sound, and VFX facility, focusing mainly on commercials, music videos, and short films. She has completed work for North Face, Skyy Vodka, and Ben & Jerry’s. Additionally, Silicon Valley clients like Adobe, Pinterest, and Square have also finished their work with her. Ayumi started working as a freelance colorist while still attending college. Apple Color and the reduced price of DaVinci Resolve helped her hone her skills and enter the ranks of working colorists quickly. The combination of affordable grading platforms, higher demand for colorists, and minimal competition in her area, helped her start and run her own finishing company.

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Episode 6: Rob Bessette CSI

Rob is a senior colorist at Finish Boston and specializes in coloring commercials. With over 11 years of experience, Rob has had the opportunity to color spots for Toyota, Coca Cola, Sam Adams, Subway, Chili’s, Dunkin’ Doughnuts, and many others. He became a colorist though a more traditional path. He worked his way up from the ground level while working at night, and then mentored with a seasoned colorist. 

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Episode 5: Terence Curren

Terence Curren is a Colorist and Online Editor in Los Angeles. He’s known for unscripted television shows like Project Runway, True Life, Ghost Hunters, and many others. He got his start at the well-known post facility, Matchframe Video, as employee number one. At Matchframe, he was one of the first editors in LA to work with Avid Media Composer, Symphony, and DS. And to this day, he still colors and finishes his shows on a Symphony. In 2002, after 16 years at Matchframe, he moved on to starting his own company, Alphadogs, a post production facility and design studio located in the heart of Burbank’s Media District, mere blocks from the Walt Disney Company and NBC Studios.

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Episode 4: Mark Todd Osborne CSI

Mark Todd Osborne is a 18-Year Senior Digital Colorist who works in all genres of media: VR, Features, Television Episodic, Commercials, Music Videos and Web. Recent Features include Universal's "Lowriders", Radius-TWC's "It Follows" and DreamWorks "Need for Speed", plus commercial campaigns for Lexus, Coca-Cola, Audi, Target, Toyota & XBOX. Mark's meticulous eye and strong visual sense of taste and style, make him a stand out Color Artist.

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Episode 3: Gray Marshall

Gray Marshall, Associate Finishing Artist at Technicolor in Los Angeles.At Technicolor, has worked on the films Bridge of Spies, The Revenant, Captain America: Civil War, Ant-Man, and many others. But before making his way into color, Gray worked in many other parts of the industry. His roots were in the camera department of Star Trek: The Next Generation and later went on to being a VFX supervisor and owning his own company, Gray Matter Post. Gray is probably best known for epic VFX shots like the building collapse at the end of Fight Club.

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Episode 2: Kevin Shaw CSI

Kevin is a co-founder of the Colorist Society International and the International Colorist Society, a training organisation with specialist instructors for a wide range of services and softwares. He also has his own company, Finalcolor, that provides colorist services, restoration, and workflow consultancy and training.

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