WEBVTT

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Hi everyone, I'm Kali Bateman for Mixing Light

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and I'm here today talking with Aurora Shannon

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who's a colourist at Company 3 in Vancouver. We met

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each other many years ago now when she trained

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me when I was working for DNEG. We both worked

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there at the same time and I was really fortunate

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to be trained by Aurora. She's extremely clever and

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to be trained by Aurora. She's extremely clever and

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has an amazing eye. So she taught me everything

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I know about VFX colouring and I'm extremely

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grateful to her. And I'm talking to her today

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about the work that she's been doing with Company 3

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but also the other work that she's doing as a

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but also the other work that she's doing as a

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mentor to up-and-coming filmmaker colourists and as

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well sort of how she got her start and where

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her amazing career has taken her so far. So

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recently I've watched a few things that Aurora's

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graded and they're absolutely beautiful. Some

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recent series work that she's been doing through

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Company 3 shows like Sweet Magnolias and Under the

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Bridge and they're both absolutely stunning.

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They've got gorgeous contrast, they've got

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beautiful saturation levels. So yeah why don't

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beautiful saturation levels. So yeah why don't

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we start there? I would love to know anything

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you're able to share about the grades for those

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programmes. So they're both really really nice

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shows to work on. They're both quite feminine

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shows like Sweet Magnolias about these three women

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who are best friends who live in this

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fictional small town which is like it's essentially

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it's a fantasy of American suburban life and they

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have their ups and their downs but you know it's

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always good in at the end of the day kind of thing.

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Under the Bridge in some ways is almost the

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complete contrast. It's about a group of teenage

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girls. It's set on a set about a really horrific

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true story that happened here in British Columbia

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and it's almost a total opposite. It's not

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wholesome, it's teenage

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friendship gone bad, gone very

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very as bad as it can get. So you've got these two

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kind of very contrasting stories but what they

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both have is they both have this quite beautiful,

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gentle, feminine cinematography

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and that's just literally that's just what we

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follow through in the grades.

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So for both of those shows they both have their own

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bespoke LUTs which is obviously the starting

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point of any look. The Sweet Magnolia it was a LUT

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that I inherited. It was my first project here

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season three when I came to company 3

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Vancouver and it's a very soft just the right

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amount of contrast, just the right amount of

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saturation, warmer tone. It is shot and set

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in Georgia so it's got that kind of that warm

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southern american tone and that was developed

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by the DP Brian Johnson with Colourfront for the

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show. Both HDR shows so obviously

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have a HDR version of that. And then the LUT for

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Under the Bridge is a bespoke company 3

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LUT. I'm not going to say which but it's featured

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on quite a few company 3 shows

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as a starting point for the developers. So you

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start with that LUT and then it gets

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developed towards that vision. In this case the

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main creative is the EP and the show creator Quinn

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who also directed a couple of the episodes. And

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this is, I kind of don't really like

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using the word filmic because film is a format it's

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not a colour palette. But it is that kind

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of that typical filmic kind of Kodak look. So the

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story is set in the 90s. In the 90s if you went

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to the cinema your film would be shot and projected

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to you in celluloid. So I think it was really

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you know she really wanted the film to not only be

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set in the 90s, look like it's in the 90s,

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but almost feel like you're watching something from

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the 90s. The attention to detail is amazing.

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So as someone who grew up in the 90s I'm like I had

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that, I had that, I had that.

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It really really is quite amazing. But again you

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know she had this really really dark story

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and it would have been so easy to go dark with it

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and she didn't. She wanted to go soft and feminine.

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She wanted to have those moments of femininity,

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fairness in the photography and in the grade.

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There are all these pastel tones throughout so

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pinks and yellows and blues and

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and mints and wherever it is in the art direction

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of the cinematography it was just my job to

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let it come through and emphasise it. Well I think

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you succeeded beautifully.

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It's got that lovely softness to it but it also has

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this gorgeous curve that has a real contrast

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through the mids. So the skin always looks right,

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it always looks dimensional and 3D

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and yet the shadows never get too

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low. Yeah I've begun to describe,

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one of the things that's really nice about working

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for a company at Company 3 is you just have this

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catalogue of LUTs. It's extraordinary things have

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at your disposal and when I've you know

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raffa it just being like this is the show, this is

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the LUT use it. You're actually picking and

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developing the LUT and I've begun to talk in very

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untecknical terms about LUTs in terms of

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thickness and thinness. It's something I feel like

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I've become quite sensitive to and I think it's

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what you're eluding to is sometimes you feel like

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okay it's low contrast but I'm not feeling it.

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There's kind of not something in the middle of the,

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there's not this richness

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in the middle of the image. It kind of to me, the

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only way I can describe it is it feels kind of thin

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and then on the other hand it's like well I'm

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looking at my waveform and it's flat but it

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doesn't look flat so it doesn't feel flat. Yeah I

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completely understand what you're saying there

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with the thickness it's got like a real presence to

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it and it's got a density in the colours and

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yeah just stunning. So when you work with those

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LUTs are you working underneath or over or

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combination? I tend to always have my LUT at the

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very end so I'm always working underneath my LUT

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obviously unless it's an input LUT but I tend to

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always have it at the very end and I'm also

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beginning any grain so under the bridge we use

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grain extensively throughout it and actually

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different types of grain. You don't actually change

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the LUT or the colour palette or even the

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look that much because we go back in time we then

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we go to the 70s and we go to 50s

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we have even flashback sequences within the 90s so

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we use grain to signal, try to signal to the

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audience that this is a different time but without

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doing a really obvious look. So one of the things

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that I was playing around with is do I put my grain

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before or after the LUT and what I really

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came to the conclusion with on this show is I think

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now I prefer it after the LUT so I'd go

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grain, LUT, grain. Yeah perfect so those texture

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elements aren't being given the same curve as the

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colour elements that kind of makes sense in terms

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of you know if it was a celluloid process how it

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would kind of work. It's just yeah gorgeous work so

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with the Sweet Magnolias where you inherited

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the look was it a matter of kind of working out

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what the colour journey of the previous seasons

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was and staying quite close to that or were you

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able to deviate a little bit? So Brian decided

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that he wanted a new look from season three going

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forward he wanted a new LUT this was the new LUT

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so I actually graded episodes one and two to match

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to match the previous season and we went

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through the reviewing so that isn't what I want. So

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which was completely fine you know it was a

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learning curve for me you know it was literally my

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first job it was my second week. Oh wow. So

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yeah that that before you start phone

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call with the DP is really important

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but it's totally new look and honestly you know

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Brian knows what he wants so the LUT was what he

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wanted the CDLs were what he wanted I mean I was

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for the most part on that show I'm really just

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polishing the CDLs like I'm polishing the CDLs I'm

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you know just some windows to bring down

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the light he's very sensitive to anything he feels

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is over lit or kind of studio lighting or anything

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like that a few little fixes here and there I don't

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really don't think it's a show I can take

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very much credit for.

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Well I think that sometimes

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knowing when not to do something

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can be actually harder. Yes it does take a very

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light touch. Yeah yeah yeah beautiful and so for

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those listening the CDLs are the files that come

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from set and so if you've listened to the interview

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that I did with Fergus Halley who is an amazing

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dailies colourist out here

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he or a dailies colourist

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would be grading everything on set and usually

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having conversations with the DP around that

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and then we're seeing here what happens in the DI

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sometimes those CDLs are blown away

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but sometimes and ideally really they're brought

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into the DI and used either as inspiration or as

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a starting point. Yeah so I will always use the

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CDLs for a starting point if I feel that they're

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useful and I think all Mads all of the time they

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are useful particularly when you're doing

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the dailies and the finishing as part of the same

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company and you've been able to be part of that

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initial kind of camera test, look day, set the LUT

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before the daily starts.

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For me personally why would

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I not use them you know like it's work. Absolutely.

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It's been done someone spent time on this it's been

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paid for and for me personally it really does just

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give you that head start really.

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And it's sort of when the system works you know

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because that's the idea isn't it that's why people

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do dailies it's not to throw it away it's not just

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you know lip service to the production it's

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actually to start that creative thought and you

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know when it works it does carry through and those

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conversations from the very beginning become part

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of the end. It does and also I think it's I mean

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this isn't the main reason but it is a nice

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consequence of it you know it's so much nicer

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for the people doing the dailies knowing that their

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work is being used and not just being thrown away

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and you know when I'm in early to get a head start

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and they're leaving a bit later and we cross

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paths I can be like you know yeah we're using the

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CDLs and they're great thank you you know.

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And that's part of coming up in this industry isn't

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it because a lot of people cut their teeth

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in dailies and when you get a chance to get that

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kind of feedback I imagine it's quite satisfying

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and also gives you a chance to help them if it's

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not landing if you don't get that feedback how

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are you meant to improve? Yeah exactly I mean if I

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had my way and I've discussed it but it's just

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not possible I think the scheduling points of view

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you know I would I would hand the project

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over to them first to kind of you know almost like

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finish their job you know their path

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um because they do do a tremendously good job but

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obviously when you're grading entire

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takes rather than whatever seconds get picked in in

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the cut it's never going to be

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perfect you know but it doesn't mean that they

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can't do perfect once they've got a path.

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Oh well that's a lovely idea and hopefully the

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scheduling works out and you can do that at some

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point and I think that just goes towards your

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nature as a mentor and somebody who's very very

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good at training people I've been on the other side

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of that and you've got a real skill for it.

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So while we're talking about it can you tell me a

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little bit about the mentoring that you're doing

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through your old university and also through the

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Vancouver post-gi. Yeah so I was very very

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lucky I got to go to Ravensbourne which is part of

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the university London now in the UK really really

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good university I owe a huge huge debt to I

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wouldn't have even known

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that colour grading existed

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or the lab where I first started existed if I

252
00:15:18.584 --> 00:15:21.487
hadn't have gone there and they're really lucky

253
00:15:21.553 --> 00:15:24.757
to have the same tutors that I have so they're

254
00:15:24.757 --> 00:15:28.927
still there. They have several mentoring schemes

255
00:15:29.228 --> 00:15:34.733
and I've participated in several of them the big

256
00:15:34.733 --> 00:15:36.835
one at the moment is called SEEDS

257
00:15:36.835 --> 00:15:40.406
so it's for people I'm not sure exactly what it

258
00:15:40.406 --> 00:15:42.574
stands for it's basically with people

259
00:15:42.908 --> 00:15:46.612
additional barriers entering the industry so it

260
00:15:46.612 --> 00:15:48.847
could be minority it could be neurodivergence

261
00:15:48.914 --> 00:15:51.984
it could be disability for example just people that

262
00:15:51.984 --> 00:15:55.254
need a little bit of extra bespoke guidance

263
00:15:55.487 --> 00:15:59.525
just for them. But I've also done a lot of

264
00:15:59.525 --> 00:16:02.528
unofficial mentoring like I don't want to get

265
00:16:02.528 --> 00:16:06.932
completely undated but I usually reply to every

266
00:16:06.932 --> 00:16:09.668
message I get on LinkedIn for example

267
00:16:10.602 --> 00:16:14.173
and you know I usually especially when I was in

268
00:16:14.173 --> 00:16:16.108
London was going for a lot of Coffees

269
00:16:16.141 --> 00:16:19.979
because I get bored and I like to talk to people so

270
00:16:19.979 --> 00:16:22.915
people usually ask me for a Coffee I'll go for one

271
00:16:23.382 --> 00:16:27.353
so I did a lot of unofficial mentoring and I also

272
00:16:27.353 --> 00:16:30.856
did a lot for other students at Ravensbourne

273
00:16:32.157 --> 00:16:36.995
unofficially as well and I'm now doing the same

274
00:16:36.995 --> 00:16:39.565
thing here in Vancouver the Vancouver

275
00:16:39.865 --> 00:16:43.635
Post Alliance so their mentoring is a little bit

276
00:16:43.635 --> 00:16:46.805
different it's usually for people who are a few

277
00:16:46.805 --> 00:16:50.242
more years into their career than students or

278
00:16:50.242 --> 00:16:53.712
graduates. I've got to be honest it's probably

279
00:16:53.712 --> 00:16:56.014
students and graduates who enjoy mentoring most

280
00:16:56.014 --> 00:16:59.184
just because I feel like there's more

281
00:16:59.952 --> 00:17:02.821
there's more advice to give and the advice makes a

282
00:17:02.821 --> 00:17:06.892
bigger impact you know. I understand completely

283
00:17:07.192 --> 00:17:10.829
you're taking them from the exponential curve you

284
00:17:10.829 --> 00:17:13.365
know it's really really sharp but whereas

285
00:17:13.365 --> 00:17:16.535
when you get a little bit further on your gains are

286
00:17:16.535 --> 00:17:18.904
smaller. Or sometimes it's like yeah just

287
00:17:19.972 --> 00:17:23.776
hold on in there and that's all you can do. Yeah

288
00:17:23.776 --> 00:17:28.347
keep going. But there's a few things that I've

289
00:17:28.347 --> 00:17:32.651
noticed that kind of bit the do's and don'ts. So

290
00:17:32.651 --> 00:17:34.286
one of the things that I've noticed unfortunately

291
00:17:34.620 --> 00:17:37.856
is I feel a lot of young people are getting not the

292
00:17:37.856 --> 00:17:39.792
best advice from their universities

293
00:17:40.192 --> 00:17:43.996
on let's say for example somebody wants a job they

294
00:17:43.996 --> 00:17:47.866
want to become a colourist and they want to do it

295
00:17:48.200 --> 00:17:50.836
what I guess now is the old-fashioned way of

296
00:17:50.836 --> 00:17:53.505
assisting colourists you know make client services

297
00:17:53.505 --> 00:17:57.810
at IO, assistant colourist, unicolorist daily is

298
00:17:57.810 --> 00:17:59.812
the effect of colourist. You know the kind of path

299
00:18:00.045 --> 00:18:03.715
that we've both taken and what a lot of these

300
00:18:03.715 --> 00:18:06.285
colleges and universities tell them to do is

301
00:18:06.919 --> 00:18:10.222
to send the CV out saying that they are colourists

302
00:18:10.222 --> 00:18:15.794
and it's all about the demo reel. And I met this

303
00:18:15.794 --> 00:18:18.997
young one woman say for a whole year she'd been

304
00:18:18.997 --> 00:18:21.433
trying to get a job in London it's just a runner

305
00:18:21.633 --> 00:18:26.905
like anything and she couldn't and she was

306
00:18:26.905 --> 00:18:27.706
convinced it was because

307
00:18:27.706 --> 00:18:29.007
her reel wasn't good enough.

308
00:18:30.409 --> 00:18:33.846
And I was explaining to her no one cares what your

309
00:18:33.846 --> 00:18:37.249
reel looks like. Like at that point when you're

310
00:18:37.249 --> 00:18:42.221
like wanting to enter the industry to get a job to

311
00:18:42.221 --> 00:18:44.256
then get a job as an assistant colourist.

312
00:18:45.124 --> 00:18:48.026
It's nice if you have one you know it shows an

313
00:18:48.026 --> 00:18:51.130
interest probably no one's even gonna like it.

314
00:18:52.097 --> 00:18:56.068
What I want from you is a CV that

315
00:18:56.068 --> 00:18:57.603
shows me you can hold down a job.

316
00:18:59.004 --> 00:19:02.007
So put your one year of working a TesCo in

317
00:19:02.007 --> 00:19:04.009
there because that shows you turned up and

318
00:19:04.009 --> 00:19:06.211
followed instructions and held down a job for a

319
00:19:06.211 --> 00:19:09.181
year. And I want to know what your skill set is.

320
00:19:09.615 --> 00:19:11.416
Do you know what time code is? Do you know what

321
00:19:11.416 --> 00:19:13.585
frame rates are? Do you know what raw camera

322
00:19:13.652 --> 00:19:17.523
codecs are? You know can you import and export a

323
00:19:17.523 --> 00:19:21.593
CDL or an EDL? What software do you know? Rate?

324
00:19:21.960 --> 00:19:24.830
Do you have an understanding? Have you used it? How

325
00:19:24.830 --> 00:19:27.699
much have you used it? And really what this is

326
00:19:27.699 --> 00:19:30.636
is this is all the skills that I'm looking for in

327
00:19:30.636 --> 00:19:33.505
an assistant colourist. All the skills that I'm

328
00:19:33.505 --> 00:19:35.841
going to have to teach that assistant colourist.

329
00:19:36.108 --> 00:19:39.311
They don't already have done. So I get a CV like

330
00:19:39.311 --> 00:19:41.713
that and it's the same for assistant editor jobs as

331
00:19:41.713 --> 00:19:45.117
well. I can look at that and say I can have

332
00:19:45.117 --> 00:19:48.086
them where I need them in three weeks or four weeks

333
00:19:48.086 --> 00:19:52.524
or two months. When I get a CV that says

334
00:19:52.824 --> 00:20:00.766
I've graded 12 music videos I have no clue as that

335
00:20:00.766 --> 00:20:02.935
person's actual technical skill set.

336
00:20:03.869 --> 00:20:06.238
I've got no idea how long it's going to take to

337
00:20:06.238 --> 00:20:08.607
train them. If they've graded 12 music videos

338
00:20:08.707 --> 00:20:13.211
as well, great. That kind of indicates what the

339
00:20:13.211 --> 00:20:16.615
usage of that software package has been.

340
00:20:17.849 --> 00:20:21.153
But it's almost a checklist. So anyway I gave her

341
00:20:21.153 --> 00:20:27.059
this advice. She redid her CV. She sent it to me.

342
00:20:27.859 --> 00:20:31.563
Yep that's great. It was two or three weeks later

343
00:20:31.563 --> 00:20:34.666
she was offered a job at Envy as an assistant colourist

344
00:20:34.833 --> 00:20:40.005
not as a runner. Yeah so and it was just it was

345
00:20:40.005 --> 00:20:42.441
frustrating for me because I see this she's just

346
00:20:42.441 --> 00:20:48.113
been given the wrong advice you know. And with

347
00:20:48.113 --> 00:20:50.782
the right advice she got immediately because she

348
00:20:50.849 --> 00:20:53.452
had every skill. I'm like I want you as my

349
00:20:53.452 --> 00:20:56.888
assistant colourist. You know she had all the

350
00:20:56.989 --> 00:21:00.492
skills but to her she also wasn't valuing. You know

351
00:21:00.492 --> 00:21:04.129
she didn't know that this list of skills

352
00:21:04.363 --> 00:21:06.431
actually has a value because it's just normal

353
00:21:06.431 --> 00:21:09.067
right. You just import it, you export it.

354
00:21:10.535 --> 00:21:17.909
No it's not the necessary this big thing but it is

355
00:21:17.909 --> 00:21:19.778
but it might not feel like it you know.

356
00:21:19.811 --> 00:21:24.483
Right yeah and I think that's something that people

357
00:21:24.483 --> 00:21:27.552
who know quite a bit fall for all the time

358
00:21:27.653 --> 00:21:29.955
is that the more you know the less you think you

359
00:21:29.955 --> 00:21:32.357
know because you're aware of what you don't know.

360
00:21:32.724 --> 00:21:35.327
Whereas if you just know like one tiny little thing

361
00:21:35.327 --> 00:21:36.528
you're like I'm an expert.

362
00:21:37.162 --> 00:21:39.331
Yeah and then the other thing is the reels. Like I

363
00:21:39.331 --> 00:21:41.700
said at that point in your career a reel

364
00:21:41.867 --> 00:21:45.804
probably doesn't really matter. It's not that

365
00:21:45.804 --> 00:21:48.340
important. Obviously if you're a freelancer

366
00:21:48.607 --> 00:21:51.677
trying to get work especially commercials working

367
00:21:51.677 --> 00:21:53.512
it's absolutely vital. It's your

368
00:21:53.945 --> 00:21:57.249
bread and butter. But I was talking to some other

369
00:21:57.249 --> 00:22:00.252
colourists about okay so you're applying for

370
00:22:00.252 --> 00:22:03.455
jobs in assistant colourist. You have the

371
00:22:03.455 --> 00:22:05.891
opportunity to submit a reel. Of course you want

372
00:22:05.891 --> 00:22:07.926
to submit a reel because you want to take that

373
00:22:07.926 --> 00:22:10.662
opportunity to show your work. Well what is a

374
00:22:10.662 --> 00:22:14.766
useful reel? Because the other thing I then find is

375
00:22:14.766 --> 00:22:18.336
the reels I'm like okay there's a series of

376
00:22:18.370 --> 00:22:22.708
images. I've got no idea what they are. I've got no

377
00:22:22.708 --> 00:22:24.476
idea what they look like. I don't know what

378
00:22:24.476 --> 00:22:26.912
you've done to them. I don't even know how many

379
00:22:26.912 --> 00:22:32.751
projects I can't. I literally can't make any

380
00:22:32.751 --> 00:22:38.090
assessment of skill from from this. Whereas if you

381
00:22:38.090 --> 00:22:43.061
have a reel where let's say you have a flow of

382
00:22:43.095 --> 00:22:45.230
reel. Again this is for assistant colourist work

383
00:22:45.230 --> 00:22:48.667
not colourist work. Let's say you have four or

384
00:22:48.667 --> 00:22:52.270
five shots taken from a scene and next to each

385
00:22:52.270 --> 00:22:55.273
other in the scene. Now I know if you can balance

386
00:22:55.741 --> 00:23:00.645
and match up. I can look at that and see it's very

387
00:23:00.645 --> 00:23:05.817
good. Now let's say we have a longer form project

388
00:23:06.618 --> 00:23:10.188
and you've taken a shot from each thing and you put

389
00:23:10.188 --> 00:23:11.390
the next to each other. I'd be like

390
00:23:11.790 --> 00:23:15.827
oh you've made a number of variations of the same

391
00:23:15.827 --> 00:23:17.829
look which are both different and consistent.

392
00:23:19.664 --> 00:23:24.302
Another skill set has been demonstrated. Then you

393
00:23:24.302 --> 00:23:27.506
have some mishmash of lots of different looks.

394
00:23:27.506 --> 00:23:29.441
I'm not so different but okay yeah you can do lots

395
00:23:29.441 --> 00:23:32.110
of different phrases. I've got some sense

396
00:23:33.678 --> 00:23:36.915
and I've also had enough time on each project. I

397
00:23:36.915 --> 00:23:38.250
think sometimes there's this idea that

398
00:23:38.984 --> 00:23:41.987
shows have to be really really quick and really

399
00:23:41.987 --> 00:23:47.526
fast paced. Sometimes I do think it's good to

400
00:23:47.526 --> 00:23:51.596
give people a moment to actually register what it

401
00:23:51.596 --> 00:23:52.798
is that you've worked on.

402
00:23:55.567 --> 00:23:58.770
Even if it's just three or four projects that's

403
00:23:58.770 --> 00:24:00.906
fine that's okay. I mean I think some of the things

404
00:24:00.906 --> 00:24:03.508
that you've covered there are really interesting.

405
00:24:04.109 --> 00:24:06.244
So in terms of the skill set of an assistant

406
00:24:06.545 --> 00:24:14.119
colorist it's less about that artistic creative

407
00:24:14.119 --> 00:24:19.391
kind of vision which you can develop over time

408
00:24:19.491 --> 00:24:21.726
and you can develop your eye and you can develop

409
00:24:21.726 --> 00:24:25.697
those techniques. But it seems that you're sort

410
00:24:25.730 --> 00:24:29.167
of saying that the more fundamental things there

411
00:24:29.167 --> 00:24:36.208
are matching, balancing, consistency,

412
00:24:38.410 --> 00:24:40.145
being able to work to a brief.

413
00:24:41.613 --> 00:24:45.817
These things are quite technical and dry

414
00:24:47.486 --> 00:24:50.856
and you're not necessarily going to learn them on

415
00:24:50.856 --> 00:24:53.525
your own doing music videos in your bedroom.

416
00:24:53.892 --> 00:24:59.130
What I see is when I started there was only one way

417
00:24:59.130 --> 00:25:01.466
to become a colorist. That was to join a company

418
00:25:01.466 --> 00:25:06.037
like Company Free as a runner, work your way up,

419
00:25:06.037 --> 00:25:08.773
try and get in the grading suite, get a position

420
00:25:08.773 --> 00:25:12.110
as an assistant colorist. That was the only way to

421
00:25:12.110 --> 00:25:14.446
do it because there was no kit at home.

422
00:25:15.247 --> 00:25:18.783
You couldn't do it at home, there were no courses,

423
00:25:19.284 --> 00:25:21.152
there were no online resources. That was the only

424
00:25:21.186 --> 00:25:27.425
way you could do it. Now there are these two

425
00:25:27.425 --> 00:25:31.263
pathways. There's this old school pathway

426
00:25:31.496 --> 00:25:35.634
which still very much exists. There's this newer

427
00:25:35.634 --> 00:25:40.005
pathway where you can do these online courses,

428
00:25:41.006 --> 00:25:44.009
you can use online resources. There's so much

429
00:25:44.009 --> 00:25:46.311
content being made, there's so many content

430
00:25:46.545 --> 00:25:53.885
producers. I see students working on advertisements

431
00:25:53.885 --> 00:25:57.489
for social media for really big brands and they're

432
00:25:57.489 --> 00:26:03.028
getting paid for it. There's this other pathway as

433
00:26:03.028 --> 00:26:06.331
well and they both have pros and cons.

434
00:26:08.199 --> 00:26:13.805
The con of that second pathway from the work that I

435
00:26:13.805 --> 00:26:18.944
see is the discipline, the consistency,

436
00:26:19.344 --> 00:26:21.913
the balancing, the matching, all that really really

437
00:26:21.913 --> 00:26:27.052
boring stuff is not impossible but it's

438
00:26:27.085 --> 00:26:30.555
it's harder to learn because where are you learning

439
00:26:30.555 --> 00:26:35.961
it from? You haven't got a senior or a mentor,

440
00:26:37.195 --> 00:26:42.133
you're not sitting in a chair, you know, checking

441
00:26:42.133 --> 00:26:46.171
shots, comparing new VFX shots against old VFX

442
00:26:46.204 --> 00:26:49.207
shots and then matching the new VFX shots in or

443
00:26:49.207 --> 00:26:54.913
doing dailies. You don't have that experience.

444
00:26:55.880 --> 00:27:00.018
Again it's not to say you can't have a career going

445
00:27:00.018 --> 00:27:03.121
that way, lots of people are and do

446
00:27:03.555 --> 00:27:06.391
but I do tend to see it's did

447
00:27:06.391 --> 00:27:08.093
more towards the short form.

448
00:27:10.462 --> 00:27:14.532
Yes I couldn't agree more because also in short

449
00:27:14.532 --> 00:27:17.969
form you can use a lot of maneuvers

450
00:27:18.670 --> 00:27:22.007
to get somewhere but in long form there's often

451
00:27:22.007 --> 00:27:23.908
restrictions on the workflow.

452
00:27:24.776 --> 00:27:27.145
So if you're working on CDLs you've got your 10

453
00:27:27.145 --> 00:27:29.881
values and you can't go outside of that,

454
00:27:29.881 --> 00:27:32.784
there's no secondaries, you know, you can't muck

455
00:27:32.784 --> 00:27:35.887
around and go oh I'll go cool this way and then

456
00:27:35.887 --> 00:27:38.056
warm that way and then I'll come back to the

457
00:27:38.056 --> 00:27:41.226
center. You just have to go straight to the goal

458
00:27:42.127 --> 00:27:46.531
and same when you know we were VFX coloring there

459
00:27:46.531 --> 00:27:49.334
were restrictions around what tools you could use

460
00:27:49.734 --> 00:27:52.771
and how you could implement them so you had to get

461
00:27:52.771 --> 00:27:54.673
really good at getting straight to the point.

462
00:27:56.408 --> 00:27:59.544
You couldn't kind of meander around to get to a

463
00:27:59.544 --> 00:28:01.312
good balance. And you've also, and this is one

464
00:28:01.346 --> 00:28:07.052
of the most challenging parts I found of going from

465
00:28:07.052 --> 00:28:09.754
a junior like this the biggest challenge

466
00:28:09.754 --> 00:28:13.024
I had as a junior colorist having come up with the

467
00:28:13.024 --> 00:28:16.428
assistant colorist in a DI finishing environment

468
00:28:16.528 --> 00:28:19.130
which at the time was quite unusual, usually was

469
00:28:19.130 --> 00:28:21.199
more difficult to be in a daily environment,

470
00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:25.670
was I had a client next to me telling me what they

471
00:28:25.670 --> 00:28:27.772
wanted, validating what I had done,

472
00:28:27.806 --> 00:28:33.645
I had a grade, no problem. At the moment I didn't

473
00:28:33.645 --> 00:28:35.747
have that person next to me, I didn't know what to

474
00:28:35.747 --> 00:28:39.884
do. Like I've got an image, I've got the tools, how

475
00:28:39.884 --> 00:28:43.555
should it look? I don't know. Does it match? Well

476
00:28:44.289 --> 00:28:47.525
I kind of think it does, it does on the waveform

477
00:28:47.525 --> 00:28:50.328
but does it? Is it good? No idea.

478
00:28:51.329 --> 00:28:56.501
And then that was a lack of experience, right? That

479
00:28:56.501 --> 00:28:58.369
was a lack of time in the chair,

480
00:28:59.003 --> 00:29:03.208
the specific time in the chair alone. And that's

481
00:29:03.208 --> 00:29:05.009
one of the reasons why I went into the effects

482
00:29:05.009 --> 00:29:07.078
grading because I knew I was going to get that

483
00:29:07.078 --> 00:29:09.214
time, I was going to be forced,

484
00:29:10.148 --> 00:29:11.216
I was going to be forced

485
00:29:11.216 --> 00:29:12.884
to figure it out by myself.

486
00:29:12.917 --> 00:29:21.126
So let's talk about that start of your career and

487
00:29:21.126 --> 00:29:25.230
how you came up in the DI suite as an assistant.

488
00:29:26.231 --> 00:29:29.067
I mean we've talked about this previously and

489
00:29:29.067 --> 00:29:32.670
you've got some amazing stories of the people

490
00:29:32.670 --> 00:29:35.707
that you worked with at the time and you know the

491
00:29:35.707 --> 00:29:39.043
rooms that you were in are pretty phenomenal so

492
00:29:39.177 --> 00:29:41.379
anything you can share about that I'd love to hear.

493
00:29:41.379 --> 00:29:44.849
Yes I had probably the most extraordinary timing

494
00:29:44.849 --> 00:29:48.353
and luck I've ever heard of the start of my career.

495
00:29:48.753 --> 00:29:51.422
I was doing work experience at a small

496
00:29:51.422 --> 00:29:54.859
laboratory off of Border Street in London and I

497
00:29:54.859 --> 00:29:57.295
went there because they had the lab timers,

498
00:29:57.662 --> 00:29:59.998
the telephony, colorist and the DI colorist, it was

499
00:29:59.998 --> 00:30:01.566
the only place I had all of this. I

500
00:30:01.566 --> 00:30:02.767
was like this is where I'm going,

501
00:30:03.067 --> 00:30:07.005
this is where I'm going to land. So I went there

502
00:30:07.005 --> 00:30:10.708
and a runner walked out, they didn't even walk out,

503
00:30:10.708 --> 00:30:14.813
they just texted that they quit and I asked for her

504
00:30:14.813 --> 00:30:18.283
job and the guy who became my boss didn't

505
00:30:18.283 --> 00:30:20.385
really want to give me the job. I think he thought

506
00:30:20.385 --> 00:30:23.988
I was a bit of a precocious brat which I probably

507
00:30:24.055 --> 00:30:32.530
was. Nothing wrong with that. But anyway he was

508
00:30:32.530 --> 00:30:34.432
kind of desperate so he gave me the job

509
00:30:35.567 --> 00:30:37.202
and my chief's were like yeah sure

510
00:30:37.202 --> 00:30:39.170
just as long as you submit your work.

511
00:30:40.205 --> 00:30:43.241
I had a term left on my degree, go work, this is

512
00:30:43.241 --> 00:30:47.111
the point of the course. So I was supposed to be

513
00:30:47.111 --> 00:30:49.414
looking after the telephony suites but of course I

514
00:30:49.414 --> 00:30:50.982
didn't want to be in the telephony suites, I wanted

515
00:30:51.015 --> 00:30:54.352
to be in the DI suite. So I was always in the DI

516
00:30:54.352 --> 00:30:57.388
suite and the first colorist I assisted was Robin

517
00:30:57.388 --> 00:31:02.427
Pipsi who is just an absolute phenomenal legend of

518
00:31:02.427 --> 00:31:07.932
a colorist and he was doing or they were doing,

519
00:31:08.533 --> 00:31:10.835
this was like just a room in the back of a lab that

520
00:31:10.835 --> 00:31:14.105
almost everyone ignored. I knew what was in there.

521
00:31:15.506 --> 00:31:20.011
None of the other runners knew or cared. So I was

522
00:31:20.011 --> 00:31:21.946
in there and I was talking to him

523
00:31:22.280 --> 00:31:26.150
and then Quantum of Solace comes up. So this room

524
00:31:26.150 --> 00:31:28.453
in the back of this lab becomes company 3

525
00:31:28.519 --> 00:31:31.422
 London. Eventually it goes through a few names

526
00:31:31.422 --> 00:31:36.861
first but it's associated and he basically,

527
00:31:37.295 --> 00:31:40.398
I think he wanted me as an assistant colorist but he

528
00:31:40.398 --> 00:31:42.500
basically says we're going to need our own

529
00:31:42.533 --> 00:31:46.070
client services. This was the end, this was the

530
00:31:46.070 --> 00:31:49.941
excuse. So then I became their own dedicated

531
00:31:51.009 --> 00:31:55.847
client services. Then Laurent Rohan, the color

532
00:31:55.847 --> 00:31:58.883
scientist and technical director was like

533
00:31:59.384 --> 00:32:02.687
I'm not having you sit around making cups of tea.

534
00:32:03.354 --> 00:32:06.190
He gets me in the scanning and recording room and

535
00:32:06.190 --> 00:32:09.427
I'm doing all the dance, matometer readings and I'm

536
00:32:09.427 --> 00:32:11.930
changing lab roles for the lasers and

537
00:32:12.430 --> 00:32:15.466
lacing the Arri scanners. So I'm having a whale of a time.

538
00:32:17.368 --> 00:32:20.772
So much fun. I've just about graduated,

539
00:32:22.373 --> 00:32:25.777
not even had the ceremony and then it's like right

540
00:32:25.777 --> 00:32:28.646
you're going to be Stefan Nakamura's

541
00:32:28.846 --> 00:32:32.784
color assistant. He's coming over the finished

542
00:32:32.784 --> 00:32:34.986
Quantum of Solace and he has to have an assistant.

543
00:32:34.986 --> 00:32:39.657
Now I have no assistant skill set whatsoever. I

544
00:32:39.657 --> 00:32:42.360
don't know how to do anything on resolve

545
00:32:42.927 --> 00:32:47.131
because it's fine. Just go sit next to him.

546
00:32:49.767 --> 00:32:53.871
So my job as assistant colorist was essentially

547
00:32:53.871 --> 00:32:58.109
just always just sit there and talk.

548
00:32:58.910 --> 00:33:05.883
But of course in all of that I just absorbed so

549
00:33:05.883 --> 00:33:09.721
much information and he has one thing Nakamura

550
00:33:09.787 --> 00:33:12.890
has is the most phenomenal, I mean he has a huge

551
00:33:12.890 --> 00:33:16.594
amount of skills and talents. The one thing he has

552
00:33:16.594 --> 00:33:20.598
is the most phenomenal work ethic. You know you

553
00:33:20.598 --> 00:33:23.634
want to work on these kind of films, this is the

554
00:33:23.668 --> 00:33:29.507
work ethic that you have to have. So he really

555
00:33:29.507 --> 00:33:35.213
impaired that on me and yeah it was just

556
00:33:35.246 --> 00:33:39.217
extraordinary just watching this film being made

557
00:33:39.217 --> 00:33:42.887
from the very start. Literally the lab roles of

558
00:33:42.887 --> 00:33:47.125
film coming in and being scanned. To the very end

559
00:33:47.125 --> 00:33:50.661
sitting with him and he actually taught me how to

560
00:33:50.695 --> 00:33:53.231
calculate how on or off paying the print was and

561
00:33:53.231 --> 00:33:54.365
I'm sitting there with my paper.

562
00:33:57.035 --> 00:34:00.371
So it was unbelievably lucky. It's almost like

563
00:34:00.371 --> 00:34:02.073
doing a master's or something.

564
00:34:03.941 --> 00:34:06.611
But at that point then that was it. I was an

565
00:34:06.611 --> 00:34:12.350
assistant colorist. I was able to assist Rob

566
00:34:12.450 --> 00:34:16.654
Pitsy on many films. I think I did another one with

567
00:34:16.654 --> 00:34:19.524
Nakamura. I did a couple with Stefan Sonnesfeld.

568
00:34:19.891 --> 00:34:25.596
I did one with Mitch Paulson. Yeah and then later

569
00:34:25.596 --> 00:34:29.067
we were joined by Adam Glassman and then later

570
00:34:29.067 --> 00:34:33.371
from that was a junior then but Greg Fisher and

571
00:34:33.371 --> 00:34:38.476
Paul Ensey. So yeah it's like a really amazing

572
00:34:38.476 --> 00:34:43.848
group of people and it's not just the colorist but

573
00:34:43.848 --> 00:34:47.452
it's also you know Lauren was an amazing technical

574
00:34:48.019 --> 00:34:52.323
director. Then I was joined by John Cortell who is

575
00:34:52.323 --> 00:34:55.059
absolute legend. I think even the

576
00:34:55.059 --> 00:34:58.429
Academy Award winning color scientist.

577
00:34:59.797 --> 00:35:02.667
You'd never know to meet him. He's so humble but

578
00:35:03.067 --> 00:35:09.907
he is. And then you know it's engineers and it's

579
00:35:09.907 --> 00:35:13.211
editors and then the client. So you know

580
00:35:14.212 --> 00:35:17.448
like sitting in a room next to Anson Dove-Mantle

581
00:35:17.448 --> 00:35:20.985
who's basically telling you how he sets up his

582
00:35:20.985 --> 00:35:24.789
shot for lighting. And then the next day someone's

583
00:35:24.789 --> 00:35:27.158
like oh you know he's doing a talk at the BFI and

584
00:35:27.158 --> 00:35:30.495
it's only 30 pounds. And I'm like what's even a

585
00:35:30.495 --> 00:35:32.864
suite with him all afternoon? Why would I pay

586
00:35:32.864 --> 00:35:39.337
30 pounds to go? But I was realizing moments like

587
00:35:39.337 --> 00:35:42.039
that you really realize what you're just getting.

588
00:35:43.508 --> 00:35:47.445
It's just part of your kind of daily working life.

589
00:35:47.645 --> 00:35:48.779
It's stuff that people would

590
00:35:49.313 --> 00:35:51.549
you know go out for the evening to go and listen

591
00:35:51.549 --> 00:35:53.050
to. But that's just

592
00:35:53.050 --> 00:35:55.586
absolutely the best start anyone

593
00:35:55.786 --> 00:35:59.590
can hope to have. And I think it really speaks

594
00:35:59.590 --> 00:36:02.827
volumes about what you get as an assistant

595
00:36:03.961 --> 00:36:08.666
and why working for bigger companies even if it

596
00:36:08.666 --> 00:36:11.068
takes a little while to get to that goal

597
00:36:12.036 --> 00:36:17.808
is a really solid way to get there. Because you

598
00:36:17.808 --> 00:36:21.279
learn so much clearly. You get so many

599
00:36:21.812 --> 00:36:24.482
opportunities to understand different parts of the

600
00:36:24.482 --> 00:36:27.585
process and you get a chance to get good at

601
00:36:27.585 --> 00:36:30.188
it without all of the responsibility being on your

602
00:36:30.188 --> 00:36:34.892
shoulders. Because you hear stories about people

603
00:36:35.893 --> 00:36:39.463
getting an amazing chance but it's very sink

604
00:36:39.463 --> 00:36:43.100
or swim. And I think it really depends on the day

605
00:36:43.100 --> 00:36:46.404
of the week for anyone whether or not they've got

606
00:36:46.404 --> 00:36:48.673
the ability to get through that kind of

607
00:36:49.941 --> 00:36:54.312
it's not a sustainable way to work. It's not me. I

608
00:36:54.312 --> 00:36:56.113
just know that's not me. That whole

609
00:36:57.081 --> 00:37:00.284
being a freelancer particularly trying to learn

610
00:37:00.284 --> 00:37:05.089
your craft and develop your status and your

611
00:37:05.222 --> 00:37:08.492
profile is a free that is not me. It's just it's

612
00:37:08.492 --> 00:37:12.463
not my personality. I know it's not.

613
00:37:13.798 --> 00:37:16.834
I did have a moment so I left company 3 for about

614
00:37:16.834 --> 00:37:20.104
seven years. I just hit a ceiling where it's like

615
00:37:20.104 --> 00:37:24.075
I'm not going forward. I'm not learning anything.

616
00:37:24.075 --> 00:37:25.910
If anything I kind of feel like I'm drifting

617
00:37:26.277 --> 00:37:30.314
backwards because ultimately you can only progress

618
00:37:30.314 --> 00:37:34.018
as far as the work that there is and the work

619
00:37:35.253 --> 00:37:38.556
that's available to you. And I was in that spot I

620
00:37:38.556 --> 00:37:40.925
think a lot of people can find themselves in

621
00:37:41.726 --> 00:37:45.563
where you're like well I'm too experienced to just

622
00:37:45.563 --> 00:37:47.431
be doing assistant work. I'm

623
00:37:47.498 --> 00:37:50.268
too ambitious. I can want to do more and I can do

624
00:37:50.268 --> 00:37:54.472
it but I can't do that just yet. There's got to be

625
00:37:54.472 --> 00:37:59.510
something in between. And it was a really good time

626
00:37:59.510 --> 00:38:01.612
to be a freelancer in London because the

627
00:38:01.646 --> 00:38:04.415
kit had just become available but very few people

628
00:38:04.415 --> 00:38:07.451
knew how to use it yet. So you could make a lot of

629
00:38:07.485 --> 00:38:13.624
dough. I was just like I'm tired. Like I'm worn out.

630
00:38:13.624 --> 00:38:16.927
I'm tired. I don't want to be running my own

631
00:38:17.228 --> 00:38:21.332
business and invoicing people and chasing money and

632
00:38:21.332 --> 00:38:25.569
chasing work and going into one place one

633
00:38:25.569 --> 00:38:28.205
day and putting this hat on and go and there's also

634
00:38:28.205 --> 00:38:30.908
this underlying thing of kind of just knew

635
00:38:30.908 --> 00:38:34.845
I wasn't quite ready. Like I could probably blag

636
00:38:34.845 --> 00:38:37.114
it. I could probably do a good enough job.

637
00:38:38.849 --> 00:38:43.788
But I knew that there was a block missing to my

638
00:38:43.788 --> 00:38:46.691
experience that I had to fill in fast. And I think

639
00:38:46.691 --> 00:38:50.795
that's when Binn Rona came back to finishing. I'm

640
00:38:50.795 --> 00:38:53.831
still completely terrified. Like that sink or swim

641
00:38:53.864 --> 00:38:56.801
feeling I just don't think it ever leaves you. I

642
00:38:56.801 --> 00:38:59.336
get it at the start of every single show I do.

643
00:38:59.470 --> 00:39:01.739
I'm like this is it. This is it. This is going to

644
00:39:01.739 --> 00:39:04.375
be the one that ruins me. You know.

645
00:39:07.945 --> 00:39:10.815
But I at least knew I had all of the pieces. I'm

646
00:39:10.815 --> 00:39:13.217
like okay I know I can do the clients stuff. I

647
00:39:13.217 --> 00:39:15.886
know I can do the social stuff. I know I can do my

648
00:39:15.886 --> 00:39:18.356
balance. I know I can do my match. I know I

649
00:39:18.356 --> 00:39:21.492
can do my windows. I know I can. I've got all the

650
00:39:21.492 --> 00:39:23.594
pieces. I've just got to put it together.

651
00:39:23.994 --> 00:39:29.300
Yes. And I hate to bring it back to gender. But I

652
00:39:29.300 --> 00:39:33.571
have noticed and I also have experienced this as

653
00:39:33.571 --> 00:39:39.243
a woman is that sense of I'm not ready. I need a

654
00:39:39.243 --> 00:39:42.780
little bit more. I need to be better educated.

655
00:39:43.414 --> 00:39:47.284
I need to get that experience first. Whereas I find

656
00:39:47.284 --> 00:39:49.620
that a lot of men will jump a little

657
00:39:49.720 --> 00:39:56.227
jump a little bit more like head first into those

658
00:39:56.227 --> 00:39:59.530
single swim moments. Like even you know

659
00:39:59.797 --> 00:40:03.534
hearing stories of people who don't know a grading

660
00:40:03.534 --> 00:40:06.604
system particularly well and just kind of talking

661
00:40:06.704 --> 00:40:09.640
their way into a suite and saying oh yeah I can do

662
00:40:09.640 --> 00:40:14.512
it. No worries. I would be absolutely beside

663
00:40:14.645 --> 00:40:17.982
myself. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. I'd

664
00:40:17.982 --> 00:40:19.383
have to go in for a month

665
00:40:19.383 --> 00:40:21.385
unpaid to get up to speed.

666
00:40:23.387 --> 00:40:26.657
And I don't know like I hate I hate to bring it

667
00:40:26.657 --> 00:40:29.727
back to gender but I do think that there is a

668
00:40:29.727 --> 00:40:35.766
gendered element there of feeling confident and the

669
00:40:35.766 --> 00:40:39.036
point at which you just say I'm good enough now.

670
00:40:39.503 --> 00:40:42.072
I'm gonna do it. And I suspect that you were

671
00:40:42.072 --> 00:40:45.209
probably good enough at that point.

672
00:40:48.012 --> 00:40:51.782
But it's everything you did in between gave you

673
00:40:51.782 --> 00:40:54.385
even more. Yeah I mean I think on the gender

674
00:40:54.385 --> 00:40:56.854
thing I mean there are literally studies that say

675
00:40:56.854 --> 00:41:01.525
that you know if a guy fulfills 40% of a job

676
00:41:01.525 --> 00:41:05.663
description he'll apply for it. And if a woman like

677
00:41:05.663 --> 00:41:08.532
90 she won't because she's missing 10 or something.

678
00:41:09.366 --> 00:41:12.703
So there's definitely something there. It is always

679
00:41:12.703 --> 00:41:14.371
hard to know what's personality and what's

680
00:41:14.371 --> 00:41:18.976
gender. But there's also a little element of and

681
00:41:18.976 --> 00:41:20.644
this was really when I was at DNEG. I spent

682
00:41:20.845 --> 00:41:24.315
a lot of time at DNEG. I was very happy there. I

683
00:41:24.315 --> 00:41:26.517
got to live a lot of life. I got to travel.

684
00:41:27.117 --> 00:41:31.255
I got to have weekends. It was wonderful. But there

685
00:41:31.255 --> 00:41:33.791
was also an element of I was waiting for

686
00:41:33.824 --> 00:41:37.862
the right opportunity. I kind of knew I could I

687
00:41:37.862 --> 00:41:40.598
don't want to be rude but this is how it is.

688
00:41:40.998 --> 00:41:48.839
I could go down a level in calibre of work and and

689
00:41:48.839 --> 00:41:51.775
be a finishing. I kind of knew that option

690
00:41:51.775 --> 00:41:55.079
was available to me. But I knew once I did that it

691
00:41:55.079 --> 00:41:56.680
would be really really hard to get back up

692
00:41:57.314 --> 00:42:01.085
to what I actually wanted to work on. Same thing.

693
00:42:02.086 --> 00:42:04.355
You know I spent longer being an assistant

694
00:42:04.355 --> 00:42:06.657
colourist before I became a junior. I probably

695
00:42:06.657 --> 00:42:09.460
could have gone down a level. There's always this

696
00:42:09.560 --> 00:42:13.797
option when when you're working for a top tier

697
00:42:13.797 --> 00:42:18.102
company or a top tier calibre production to go

698
00:42:18.702 --> 00:42:22.273
kind of down a level in calibre and upper level in

699
00:42:22.273 --> 00:42:26.577
job title. There's always there's often always

700
00:42:26.644 --> 00:42:30.881
this option and sometimes it's the right move to do

701
00:42:30.881 --> 00:42:35.486
right. But for me personally I never felt

702
00:42:35.486 --> 00:42:39.957
it was the right move. I felt like this is the

703
00:42:39.957 --> 00:42:42.660
calibre of work that I want to work on

704
00:42:44.428 --> 00:42:48.198
and I'd rather have a lower job title and even

705
00:42:48.198 --> 00:42:53.237
potentially lower pay to be on that rather than

706
00:42:54.038 --> 00:42:57.508
you know to be in the top seat but on something I

707
00:42:57.508 --> 00:43:00.044
don't really want to work on. And there's probably

708
00:43:00.044 --> 00:43:02.947
an element of status there as well. That the

709
00:43:02.947 --> 00:43:04.315
calibre of work that you

710
00:43:04.315 --> 00:43:05.282
work on it gives you status.

711
00:43:05.282 --> 00:43:08.786
Sure I mean I feel

712
00:43:08.786 --> 00:43:12.323
like there are different worlds in a way

713
00:43:13.057 --> 00:43:16.961
and you could either be like big fish in a small

714
00:43:16.961 --> 00:43:19.697
pond or small fish in a big pond

715
00:43:20.731 --> 00:43:25.603
and you chose small fish in a big pond but while

716
00:43:25.603 --> 00:43:28.372
you were that small fish you were actually

717
00:43:29.273 --> 00:43:32.242
getting bigger and bigger and bigger. Yes and I

718
00:43:32.242 --> 00:43:35.312
sort of by chance and accidentally found myself

719
00:43:36.914 --> 00:43:43.954
being a big fish and actually in a bit of a small

720
00:43:43.954 --> 00:43:49.393
pond. So Vancouver is not a crowded market for

721
00:43:49.393 --> 00:43:52.496
colourists or color grading. You know there's

722
00:43:52.496 --> 00:43:55.165
pretty much there's ours there's picture shop

723
00:43:56.634 --> 00:44:00.371
both employ a max of three or four colourists at

724
00:44:00.371 --> 00:44:04.675
any one time. That is pretty much the population

725
00:44:05.142 --> 00:44:09.813
of finishing colourists of Vancouver. There's a

726
00:44:09.813 --> 00:44:14.385
couple of smaller companies but again you know

727
00:44:14.385 --> 00:44:17.788
going back to this luck and timing I just happened

728
00:44:17.788 --> 00:44:23.027
to physically be in Vancouver when they needed a

729
00:44:23.060 --> 00:44:31.235
colourist and they kind of weren't any like I'm not

730
00:44:31.235 --> 00:44:33.637
saying they weren't any other candidates but

731
00:44:34.972 --> 00:44:41.378
you know the big company you know if you're a dailies

732
00:44:41.378 --> 00:44:43.714
colourist it's very easy to get shoehorned as

733
00:44:43.714 --> 00:44:48.352
you're a dailies colourist. You're a VFX colourist

734
00:44:48.352 --> 00:44:49.987
that's what you do. You're an assistant, you're a

735
00:44:50.020 --> 00:44:55.759
junior. It's always an element of luck about how

736
00:44:55.759 --> 00:44:59.897
you come up to the next level. Sometimes it's

737
00:44:59.897 --> 00:45:02.633
moving country you know I went from junior to the

738
00:45:02.633 --> 00:45:06.103
VFX by okay it was an open job and a website I

739
00:45:06.103 --> 00:45:09.940
typed it but I moved country. That's how I went up

740
00:45:09.940 --> 00:45:14.411
that level. This was a case of being in the right

741
00:45:14.511 --> 00:45:21.185
place at the right time and again sorry to bring it

742
00:45:21.185 --> 00:45:25.155
back but with a certain caliber of

743
00:45:25.589 --> 00:45:30.294
employment history and credit list which brings

744
00:45:30.294 --> 00:45:34.898
about an element of trust. You know it's the same

745
00:45:34.898 --> 00:45:39.002
thing if I'm you know if I'm looking to hire an

746
00:45:39.002 --> 00:45:40.938
assistant because probably more now we're talking

747
00:45:40.971 --> 00:45:45.242
about a colourist you know I look at their CV and

748
00:45:45.242 --> 00:45:48.512
I'm like oh well that was on the TV right so I know

749
00:45:48.512 --> 00:45:50.748
that they can work till that's done. That was in a

750
00:45:50.748 --> 00:45:52.950
cinema. I know they can work till that's done.

751
00:45:52.950 --> 00:45:54.251
That was for Netflix. I know

752
00:45:54.251 --> 00:45:55.519
they can work till that's done.

753
00:45:55.519 --> 00:45:59.123
And I think at that level there's more technical

754
00:45:59.123 --> 00:46:02.426
processes to understand and to

755
00:46:02.626 --> 00:46:05.963
you know shepherd the project through. You

756
00:46:05.963 --> 00:46:07.498
mentioned before that the

757
00:46:07.498 --> 00:46:09.099
two series that we discussed

758
00:46:09.099 --> 00:46:14.872
were HDR, SDR. So knowing those workflows if you've

759
00:46:14.872 --> 00:46:17.808
done jobs that are for Netflix or Hulu or

760
00:46:17.808 --> 00:46:20.544
what have you you're probably familiar with Dolby

761
00:46:20.544 --> 00:46:23.113
Vision workflows and HDR XT and

762
00:46:23.814 --> 00:46:27.251
you're on top of these new workflows and these new

763
00:46:27.251 --> 00:46:28.418
technologies that seem to be

764
00:46:29.253 --> 00:46:31.221
moving at lightning speeds.

765
00:46:31.221 --> 00:46:32.723
Yeah and again it's you know

766
00:46:34.625 --> 00:46:37.895
let's say you're someone you've blagged your way

767
00:46:37.895 --> 00:46:41.331
into the suite, you've got your little box of

768
00:46:41.331 --> 00:46:44.701
tricks, you've made this thing look spectacular,

769
00:46:45.302 --> 00:46:47.938
you've got all the social skills and the client

770
00:46:48.038 --> 00:46:51.074
skills and everyone loves you and then it goes off

771
00:46:51.074 --> 00:46:56.747
and it gets rejected by the network. Every

772
00:46:57.181 --> 00:47:02.052
shot has a QC error, the HDR gets rejected on

773
00:47:02.052 --> 00:47:04.021
technical grounds. I mean it'd be a complete

774
00:47:04.121 --> 00:47:05.589
enough a disaster. 

775
00:47:05.889 --> 00:47:09.159
And can you tell me a little bit about when you

776
00:47:09.159 --> 00:47:11.895
moved to Company 3 for the second time

777
00:47:12.196 --> 00:47:16.733
in Vancouver in your current title. I noticed that

778
00:47:16.733 --> 00:47:19.403
on one of the shows that you were on

779
00:47:19.803 --> 00:47:23.740
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 that you were grading

780
00:47:23.740 --> 00:47:25.509
along with Stefan Sonenfield

781
00:47:27.477 --> 00:47:29.780
Did you find that there were a lot of opportunities

782
00:47:29.780 --> 00:47:34.484
for learning these workflows and you know

783
00:47:34.484 --> 00:47:37.654
obviously understanding the Company 3 way of doing

784
00:47:37.654 --> 00:47:42.159
things. Was that an enriching experience for you?

785
00:47:42.292 --> 00:47:44.561
Under the Bridge is also a shared project with

786
00:47:44.561 --> 00:47:47.664
Stefan's. He did episode one and I did

787
00:47:48.232 --> 00:47:53.871
Am doing two to eight. One of the things I found at

788
00:47:53.871 --> 00:47:57.674
Company 3 is in terms of like the editorial

789
00:47:58.208 --> 00:48:01.044
side of stuff, everything outside of the grading

790
00:48:01.044 --> 00:48:05.449
room there is a Company 3 way of doing it right

791
00:48:05.449 --> 00:48:08.352
and of course it changes with technology but it's

792
00:48:08.352 --> 00:48:10.320
pretty consistent and it's pretty consistent

793
00:48:10.687 --> 00:48:12.889
globally and it has to be because projects are just

794
00:48:12.889 --> 00:48:16.960
Pinging all over the place. Inside the grading

795
00:48:17.094 --> 00:48:24.067
room every colorist gets the grade how they grade.

796
00:48:24.268 --> 00:48:28.305
There is a lot of difference between how different

797
00:48:28.305 --> 00:48:32.909
colorist grade. Even the things that you consider to

798
00:48:32.909 --> 00:48:36.380
be technical but still are subjective like doing

799
00:48:36.380 --> 00:48:39.549
your Dolby Vision trim. Do you analyze each shot

800
00:48:39.549 --> 00:48:43.553
separately? Do you find one analysis you like for

801
00:48:43.553 --> 00:48:47.157
the scene on one shot and apply that? I heard

802
00:48:47.157 --> 00:48:49.726
something about someone analyzing a

803
00:48:50.093 --> 00:48:52.863
grayscale chart and applying that to the whole

804
00:48:52.863 --> 00:48:58.936
thing. The colorists have the freedom to work

805
00:48:59.169 --> 00:49:02.105
how they work. There's also a huge amount of

806
00:49:02.105 --> 00:49:04.641
opportunity to learn from other colorists as well.

807
00:49:04.641 --> 00:49:06.877
Sometimes you do an indie film and they

808
00:49:06.877 --> 00:49:09.680
want it to look like an indie film. Sometimes they

809
00:49:09.680 --> 00:49:11.882
want it to look like a glossy Hollywood film.

810
00:49:12.215 --> 00:49:12.816
Sometimes they want it to look

811
00:49:12.816 --> 00:49:13.784
like a glossy Hollywood film.

812
00:49:13.784 --> 00:49:16.286
And you're like what do you mean look like an

813
00:49:16.286 --> 00:49:18.655
indie? Well there are kind of

814
00:49:20.424 --> 00:49:22.960
things. So you know sometimes

815
00:49:22.960 --> 00:49:25.662
they're a little bit grungy, a little bit

816
00:49:26.296 --> 00:49:30.167
mushy or whatever that kind of

817
00:49:30.167 --> 00:49:31.468
trend is or something like that.

818
00:49:32.302 --> 00:49:42.546
But I have noticed the tendency and is with these

819
00:49:42.546 --> 00:49:46.950
kind of higher budget, higher status,

820
00:49:48.518 --> 00:49:52.456
is the importance really really

821
00:49:52.456 --> 00:49:54.825
really seems to be on colour separation.

822
00:49:55.492 --> 00:49:59.763
Like that's that's if someone wants to ask me what

823
00:49:59.763 --> 00:50:02.799
makes a Hollywood film, a Hollywood film

824
00:50:03.400 --> 00:50:06.870
from a colour grading perspective, I would say it

825
00:50:06.870 --> 00:50:09.439
doesn't matter how strong the look is,

826
00:50:09.773 --> 00:50:12.876
it doesn't matter how grungy the blacks is, how

827
00:50:12.876 --> 00:50:18.215
indie look they've gone or how much they've

828
00:50:18.215 --> 00:50:21.284
dirtied up in the LUT or the dailies. When

829
00:50:21.284 --> 00:50:22.986
you look at that end result you're going

830
00:50:23.019 --> 00:50:27.124
to have perfect colour separation every single frame

831
00:50:27.124 --> 00:50:30.594
That's a really great tip for anyone who's

832
00:50:30.594 --> 00:50:33.196
colouring and it comes right back to those

833
00:50:33.196 --> 00:50:37.034
fundamentals of balancing because when you

834
00:50:37.034 --> 00:50:41.004
have a well-balanced image you can then do what you

835
00:50:41.004 --> 00:50:43.907
want to it because you've got that foundation

836
00:50:44.207 --> 00:50:47.844
there and you have created that colour separation

837
00:50:47.844 --> 00:50:51.715
and you see it you know on a parade if you get

838
00:50:51.715 --> 00:50:56.052
your scan or your original material and

839
00:50:56.052 --> 00:50:57.154
everything's in the red

840
00:50:57.154 --> 00:50:59.723
channel and then you pull it down

841
00:50:59.823 --> 00:51:04.027
and pull some some cyan back in and all of a sudden

842
00:51:04.027 --> 00:51:08.665
everything just is revealed. Well sometimes you

843
00:51:08.665 --> 00:51:11.435
know sometimes you go a bit further than that you

844
00:51:11.435 --> 00:51:13.737
know there's there's a colour there's an inherent

845
00:51:13.904 --> 00:51:16.940
colour separation which is in a perfectly balanced

846
00:51:16.940 --> 00:51:19.643
shot and then you can always go for a slightly

847
00:51:20.043 --> 00:51:24.481
high part which is where you're actually separating

848
00:51:24.481 --> 00:51:26.483
the colours further and one of the

849
00:51:26.483 --> 00:51:30.654
ways really really simple is you just key your

850
00:51:30.654 --> 00:51:33.857
blacks like key your blacks put a little bit of

851
00:51:33.857 --> 00:51:37.861
blue in them pop pop now if your shot isn't

852
00:51:37.861 --> 00:51:42.332
perfectly balanced it's not gonna react in that

853
00:51:42.365 --> 00:51:45.035
way the other thing is if you haven't learned how

854
00:51:45.035 --> 00:51:46.837
to match and balance naturally you're using your

855
00:51:46.837 --> 00:51:51.341
keys to match your balance I mean I'm of the

856
00:51:51.341 --> 00:51:53.543
opinion there's only so many keys and windows

857
00:51:53.543 --> 00:51:56.179
you can put on an image and tell it just kind of

858
00:51:56.179 --> 00:51:58.949
falls apart or looks really digital in place

859
00:51:58.949 --> 00:52:03.019
so you kind of already use it up you know yes I

860
00:52:03.019 --> 00:52:08.225
call that overcooked yeah I and I get there all

861
00:52:08.225 --> 00:52:10.460
the time especially doing short form because

862
00:52:10.460 --> 00:52:12.596
everyone from the agency is like oh that thing

863
00:52:12.629 --> 00:52:16.633
there and that thing there and individually yeah

864
00:52:16.633 --> 00:52:19.035
individually you go okay all of these are good

865
00:52:19.035 --> 00:52:22.472
corrections but you step back and go oh it's really

866
00:52:22.472 --> 00:52:26.676
overcooked now and it's really not tied to what

867
00:52:26.676 --> 00:52:32.015
was shot anymore so I completely understand what

868
00:52:32.015 --> 00:52:35.085
you're saying there and I think it comes back to

869
00:52:35.085 --> 00:52:39.656
that idea of complexity not being better than like

870
00:52:39.656 --> 00:52:43.193
sometimes you need to be complex but in an

871
00:52:43.193 --> 00:52:47.797
ideal world I don't I don't think that adds

872
00:52:47.797 --> 00:52:51.201
anything yeah especially with material it's very

873
00:52:51.201 --> 00:52:56.406
well shot yes I mean the difference I mean the

874
00:52:56.406 --> 00:53:00.043
difference between I've done quite a variety of

875
00:53:00.076 --> 00:53:04.014
work and in and the wide variety of work in the

876
00:53:04.014 --> 00:53:07.117
last year and a half as partly because of the

877
00:53:07.117 --> 00:53:10.186
strike the strike really affected us here up in

878
00:53:10.186 --> 00:53:12.856
Vancouver so it got to a lot more indie work and

879
00:53:12.856 --> 00:53:18.995
I mean like real indie work which was great and it

880
00:53:18.995 --> 00:53:22.165
was really amazing to work on some films that's

881
00:53:22.165 --> 00:53:25.135
really great stories but they you know they were

882
00:53:25.135 --> 00:53:28.905
more challenging to grow like there is a big

883
00:53:28.939 --> 00:53:31.141
difference between something that's been shot with

884
00:53:31.141 --> 00:53:35.879
tens if not a hundred or something million

885
00:53:35.879 --> 00:53:42.018
plus dollars spent on it and something which is

886
00:53:42.018 --> 00:53:44.154
grading with us because they want to voucher

887
00:53:44.154 --> 00:53:48.224
a film festival you know there's a big difference

888
00:53:48.224 --> 00:53:54.431
but I think it is it is absolutely doable

889
00:53:55.165 --> 00:53:59.803
you know if you know how to do the tools that's

890
00:53:59.803 --> 00:54:02.639
doable but yes you've often got to do

891
00:54:03.173 --> 00:54:06.242
much more to the image and you've got to do much

892
00:54:06.242 --> 00:54:09.112
more on to each individual image and which is

893
00:54:09.112 --> 00:54:17.320
bespoke to each image yeah so having like a scene

894
00:54:17.320 --> 00:54:21.358
instead of saying everything's already pretty

895
00:54:21.658 --> 00:54:26.930
pretty good you might you might need a bunch of

896
00:54:26.930 --> 00:54:30.367
windows or keys to just match one angle to another

897
00:54:31.101 --> 00:54:34.371
before you look at the scene absolutely but each

898
00:54:34.371 --> 00:54:37.240
one of those should have a point and purpose to

899
00:54:37.273 --> 00:54:41.845
them which couldn't be achieved in a different one

900
00:54:41.845 --> 00:54:45.115
at least for windows and keys some people

901
00:54:45.181 --> 00:54:48.084
like to be very very clean and only have one or two

902
00:54:48.084 --> 00:54:51.354
nodes that have any kind of offset or lift

903
00:54:51.354 --> 00:54:54.557
down a game right like no no you can't have more

904
00:54:54.557 --> 00:54:57.694
than that I don't see any reason to not have as

905
00:54:57.694 --> 00:55:01.998
many as you want I often have a lot I find it very

906
00:55:01.998 --> 00:55:04.768
useful for myself to be able to toggle something

907
00:55:05.802 --> 00:55:10.106
on and off and I especially find clients like to

908
00:55:10.106 --> 00:55:11.875
see stuff being toggled up you know they want

909
00:55:11.875 --> 00:55:14.110
they've made their note they want to see the before

910
00:55:14.110 --> 00:55:17.681
and the after another thing I find very

911
00:55:17.681 --> 00:55:20.717
useful with doing that is let's say I'm really

912
00:55:20.717 --> 00:55:22.852
struggling to match two shots because they're

913
00:55:22.852 --> 00:55:25.622
just so inherently different if you know like oh

914
00:55:25.622 --> 00:55:28.224
I'm too warm I'm too cool you know like

915
00:55:28.758 --> 00:55:33.430
the this perfect line is so thin you can't hit it

916
00:55:33.430 --> 00:55:36.266
and then I'm like okay let's go a bit too far

917
00:55:37.233 --> 00:55:41.237
going to key bring down the gain and start to

918
00:55:41.237 --> 00:55:45.575
dissolve I love this so much dissolve that

919
00:55:45.575 --> 00:55:48.945
nodes opacity and with it the intensity of my

920
00:55:48.945 --> 00:55:51.581
correction and that's how I'm gonna get it but

921
00:55:51.581 --> 00:55:57.320
I can't do that if it's in a node do something so

922
00:55:57.320 --> 00:56:03.293
that we'll find I'm tuning um I've got no

923
00:56:03.393 --> 00:56:06.496
problem with having lots and lots of notes and then

924
00:56:06.496 --> 00:56:08.331
of course you get it right and then

925
00:56:08.698 --> 00:56:14.304
you can apply it to the rest of your thing um but

926
00:56:14.304 --> 00:56:15.739
you don't want to get in a pickle

927
00:56:16.373 --> 00:56:19.209
that's the other thing and I think so I think a lot

928
00:56:19.209 --> 00:56:22.312
of lots of it and again the working with

929
00:56:22.312 --> 00:56:25.615
other colorists working under other colorists the

930
00:56:25.615 --> 00:56:27.784
experience of working on more projects I mean

931
00:56:27.817 --> 00:56:31.554
ideally the aim of the game I think or the aim of

932
00:56:31.554 --> 00:56:36.860
my game is developing a methodology right so

933
00:56:36.860 --> 00:56:39.462
that doesn't mean that you're doing the same thing

934
00:56:39.462 --> 00:56:43.133
on every show or in every shot it's not

935
00:56:43.666 --> 00:56:46.436
you know bunging a bullet grade on or like your

936
00:56:46.436 --> 00:56:49.472
version of a space but it's having some

937
00:56:50.840 --> 00:56:54.277
sense of process of how you approach something I

938
00:56:54.277 --> 00:56:56.479
think this is really important for long form

939
00:56:57.247 --> 00:57:00.350
and the more long the long form for episodic it's

940
00:57:00.350 --> 00:57:03.420
essential I don't know how anyone could grade

941
00:57:03.720 --> 00:57:08.958
a series without having some kind of methodology um

942
00:57:08.958 --> 00:57:12.162
I think you're getting a real pickle there so

943
00:57:12.162 --> 00:57:15.165
you know like this is what I'm gonna do if you're

944
00:57:15.165 --> 00:57:18.268
on resolve on the group grade this is what I'm gonna

945
00:57:18.301 --> 00:57:26.075
do on my clip my first notice my CDL I often end

946
00:57:26.075 --> 00:57:30.647
up especially on the higher budget

947
00:57:31.414 --> 00:57:34.984
shop stuff even ended up with a kind of a no graph

948
00:57:34.984 --> 00:57:39.255
template once you've figured out what the client

949
00:57:39.322 --> 00:57:42.125
wants and what they tend to bump up against in the

950
00:57:42.125 --> 00:57:44.494
review you know you know what they don't like

951
00:57:44.527 --> 00:57:47.697
about what's been shot it even ends up with like a

952
00:57:47.697 --> 00:57:53.336
bunch of turned off nodes kind of doing the same

953
00:57:53.336 --> 00:57:57.674
things which you turn on and off or um other things

954
00:57:57.674 --> 00:57:59.642
on resolve I found really useful that

955
00:57:59.742 --> 00:58:02.679
times per methodology is there's this thing where

956
00:58:02.679 --> 00:58:06.282
you preserve a number of nodes right so it means

957
00:58:06.282 --> 00:58:10.687
you can pop in case grades but you can save nodes

958
00:58:10.687 --> 00:58:13.323
say one and two which is your cdo and your match

959
00:58:15.692 --> 00:58:19.562
or you can do it in your group which is great if

960
00:58:19.562 --> 00:58:22.932
your group's like you're seen by scene um

961
00:58:24.601 --> 00:58:29.172
so I find figuring out how where you want to put

962
00:58:29.172 --> 00:58:31.508
things how you want to put them

963
00:58:32.709 --> 00:58:34.978
because what you really don't want to be doing is

964
00:58:34.978 --> 00:58:38.681
spending time dragging and dropping nodes

965
00:58:39.816 --> 00:58:44.754
onto each individual shot or getting into a pickle

966
00:58:44.754 --> 00:58:46.289
and you're like oh I did it in the group

967
00:58:46.289 --> 00:58:50.226
for this scene but I did it on the clip that's

968
00:58:50.226 --> 00:58:54.931
enough I want it panning off that's all that kind of stuff

969
00:58:54.931 --> 00:58:59.168
I think that's so useful it's that's the

970
00:58:59.168 --> 00:59:04.107
craft side of it I think and every colorist is

971
00:59:04.140 --> 00:59:09.345
going to have their own methodology but you're in

972
00:59:09.345 --> 00:59:13.249
the process of refining yours yeah and with

973
00:59:13.483 --> 00:59:18.655
every show it changes you know every show every

974
00:59:18.655 --> 00:59:24.561
person I work with you know it I feel like it

975
00:59:24.561 --> 00:59:28.164
deepens my understanding of an image like you know

976
00:59:28.164 --> 00:59:31.935
on under the bridge sometimes their eyes

977
00:59:32.602 --> 00:59:35.939
catch the lighting the the not the practical

978
00:59:35.939 --> 00:59:39.442
lighting the set lighting and it creates this

979
00:59:39.475 --> 00:59:43.446
really small but really intense especially in HDR

980
00:59:43.446 --> 00:59:46.482
kind of thing of light I don't like that and I

981
00:59:46.482 --> 00:59:50.353
was like I haven't noticed that but now you mention

982
00:59:50.353 --> 00:59:53.856
it I'm like yeah it is better with that reduce so

983
00:59:53.890 --> 00:59:58.261
then I'll go to the next HDR show and if I see the

984
00:59:58.261 --> 01:00:03.399
same thing I'm gonna see it and and I'm going

985
01:00:03.399 --> 01:00:06.836
to address it immediately and other things like

986
01:00:06.836 --> 01:00:10.139
sometimes you feel so silly afterwards you're like

987
01:00:10.206 --> 01:00:12.709
how did I not notice this but of course you're just

988
01:00:12.709 --> 01:00:14.577
looking at you're like oh does their skin

989
01:00:14.711 --> 01:00:17.981
tone match you're not looking at what their

990
01:00:17.981 --> 01:00:19.816
eyeballs are doing.

991
01:00:20.116 --> 01:00:24.087
and one thing I noticed on another show is I'm like

992
01:00:24.087 --> 01:00:26.255
I'm lowering the contrast

993
01:00:26.656 --> 01:00:31.227
and my saturation's going down but my client hasn't

994
01:00:31.227 --> 01:00:33.796
asked me to put the saturation up so now I feel a

995
01:00:33.796 --> 01:00:41.070
bit like you know am I allowed almost you know the

996
01:00:41.070 --> 01:00:43.906
note is not to take the contrast down and put

997
01:00:43.906 --> 01:00:47.377
the saturation up can you know is it rude or are

998
01:00:47.377 --> 01:00:49.212
they going to be asking what I'm doing if I put

999
01:00:49.212 --> 01:00:52.715
the saturation up back up then they go oh we've

1000
01:00:52.715 --> 01:00:53.750
lost the saturation let's put it up you know

1001
01:00:54.250 --> 01:00:59.622
lovely but but then from that I'm like well

1002
01:00:59.622 --> 01:01:02.258
actually hang on a minute maybe I should have a

1003
01:01:02.258 --> 01:01:06.095
node prepared to my little gallery that both brings

1004
01:01:06.095 --> 01:01:08.731
the contrast down and puts the saturation

1005
01:01:08.731 --> 01:01:14.470
up so the saturation stays exactly even and then I can dissolve that on and off with my gain

1006
01:01:14.504 --> 01:01:22.412
and that way I've almost invented a new tool

1007
01:01:22.412 --> 01:01:24.547
because in resolve you can't

1008
01:01:24.847 --> 01:01:27.283
my knowledge anyway do both at the same time right

1009
01:01:27.283 --> 01:01:30.286
but then that's my tool which does both at the

1010
01:01:30.286 --> 01:01:33.189
same time and then you can end up with like this my

1011
01:01:33.189 --> 01:01:38.728
almost like a gallery of these tools which you can

1012
01:01:38.728 --> 01:01:43.332
jump to really quickly and they're going to do exactly what you want they're going to behave

1013
01:01:43.332 --> 01:01:48.938
exactly how you want them you know
while you're in this live session

1014
01:01:48.938 --> 01:01:50.573
Yeah and when you are in the

1015
01:01:50.573 --> 01:01:54.544
live session I mean I've just from my experience

1016
01:01:54.544 --> 01:02:00.516
I've used resolve for close to 15 years and I

1017
01:02:00.516 --> 01:02:04.020
feel like when I'm on my own or with clients that I

1018
01:02:04.020 --> 01:02:05.655
know really well the tool disappears but I did

1019
01:02:05.922 --> 01:02:10.126
the tool disappears but I did a film with a famous

1020
01:02:10.126 --> 01:02:13.029
director and all of a sudden I felt like a

1021
01:02:13.029 --> 01:02:18.434
newborn baby and everything I was clicking buttons

1022
01:02:18.434 --> 01:02:20.837
wrong I was like pressing the wrong

1023
01:02:20.837 --> 01:02:23.473
thing on the control surface because I was nervous

1024
01:02:23.473 --> 01:02:28.277
and if you're working at that caliber all the time

1025
01:02:29.278 --> 01:02:33.116
I imagine that little toolkit that power grade

1026
01:02:33.116 --> 01:02:37.019
gallery or whatever it is

1027
01:02:37.720 --> 01:02:40.456
is really useful for doing those

1028
01:02:40.456 --> 01:02:46.395
quick confident client reassuring moves

1029
01:02:46.796 --> 01:02:50.366
because like you don't you don't want to move in

1030
01:02:50.366 --> 01:02:53.970
any way that spooks them you've got to keep their

1031
01:02:54.070 --> 01:02:56.706
confidence even more so when you're doing remote so

1032
01:02:56.706 --> 01:03:00.042
a lot of my grades in this remote I have zoom

1033
01:03:00.243 --> 01:03:04.947
I have the iPad and they can't see what's going

1034
01:03:04.947 --> 01:03:08.684
on like they can't see if it's crashed or saving

1035
01:03:08.885 --> 01:03:12.255
menus come after it's stuck in some mode usually

1036
01:03:12.255 --> 01:03:14.323
when someone's in the room they're like oh okay

1037
01:03:15.124 --> 01:03:17.660
you know I'll give her a minute it's it's doing

1038
01:03:17.660 --> 01:03:22.298
something you know it's fine but when you're in

1039
01:03:22.331 --> 01:03:27.036
the flow of a session multiple people in the room

1040
01:03:27.036 --> 01:03:29.005
in a hay or something and you're like

1041
01:03:30.406 --> 01:03:33.809
not doing what I want it to do and the panic can

1042
01:03:33.809 --> 01:03:37.513
kick in pretty quickly yeah

1043
01:03:39.515 --> 01:03:43.452
and that's not an ideal point from which to make

1044
01:03:43.452 --> 01:03:48.024
creative decisions you know when you I hate that

1045
01:03:48.124 --> 01:03:50.927
feeling and I think everyone's been there of like

1046
01:03:50.927 --> 01:03:55.231
oh my god I just want to show the swan on top of

1047
01:03:55.231 --> 01:03:58.334
the water and they can't see the legs but the legs

1048
01:03:58.334 --> 01:04:02.638
are going you know it's just not fun yeah

1049
01:04:02.638 --> 01:04:05.675
sounds you can always feel a bit worried I mean

1050
01:04:05.675 --> 01:04:08.978
there's an element of I guess performance

1051
01:04:10.246 --> 01:04:14.150
yeah to a live section you know how have you

1052
01:04:14.150 --> 01:04:18.354
performed did that go well of course the work's

1053
01:04:18.521 --> 01:04:23.659
fine but did the experience of that section hit

1054
01:04:23.659 --> 01:04:29.966
where you wanted it hit you know yeah and there

1055
01:04:30.066 --> 01:04:34.337
is a lot a lot to that and sometimes just get a day

1056
01:04:34.337 --> 01:04:36.205
and everything seems to be stacked against you

1057
01:04:36.939 --> 01:04:40.576
it does feel like that sometimes I often feel like

1058
01:04:40.576 --> 01:04:42.411
that if I'm having a technical problem

1059
01:04:42.745 --> 01:04:46.115
I remember recently I was in a session and I was

1060
01:04:46.115 --> 01:04:50.219
meant to have a particular plug-in licensed but

1061
01:04:50.219 --> 01:04:53.155
there was a problem with the license and there was

1062
01:04:53.155 --> 01:04:55.258
so much backwards and forwards around that

1063
01:04:55.258 --> 01:04:58.160
that I just couldn't focus on the creative and I

1064
01:04:58.160 --> 01:05:01.931
couldn't even be that you know fun person in the

1065
01:05:01.931 --> 01:05:06.802
suite and yeah it can be a problematic moment. Yeah

1066
01:05:06.802 --> 01:05:09.472
one thing I found different is say when I

1067
01:05:09.472 --> 01:05:12.775
first started features and broadcasts were two

1068
01:05:12.775 --> 01:05:15.912
separate divisions completely separate

1069
01:05:16.679 --> 01:05:20.750
separate clients, separate DPs, separate colorists

1070
01:05:20.750 --> 01:05:22.652
almost at some point even within the whole

1071
01:05:22.652 --> 01:05:27.757
asset the like company 3 separate companies now

1072
01:05:27.757 --> 01:05:31.193
it's just it's long form right episodic and

1073
01:05:31.193 --> 01:05:34.130
features pretty much together it's long form

1074
01:05:34.130 --> 01:05:36.899
colorists clients DPs

1075
01:05:36.899 --> 01:05:39.335
writers are moving through them

1076
01:05:40.503 --> 01:05:44.540
there's no barrier but what I have found is still a

1077
01:05:44.540 --> 01:05:46.676
very big difference is when I do a

1078
01:05:46.976 --> 01:05:50.413
Episodic generally speaking I'll grade the episode

1079
01:05:50.413 --> 01:05:53.716
and then we review the episode there's probably

1080
01:05:53.716 --> 01:05:56.552
some look there right at the beginning and then

1081
01:05:56.552 --> 01:05:59.121
there's a little bit of time for some notes and

1082
01:05:59.221 --> 01:06:02.925
that's the episode finish you go on to the next

1083
01:06:02.925 --> 01:06:07.496
episode and you do it over whereas with features

1084
01:06:07.630 --> 01:06:12.368
particularly indie features if they've got a 4 CR

1085
01:06:12.368 --> 01:06:14.637
package or they've got an 8 CR package they

1086
01:06:14.670 --> 01:06:18.808
want to be in that room for 40 or 80 hours.

1087
01:06:19.141 --> 01:06:22.011
and I remember one of the things we spoke about

1088
01:06:22.144 --> 01:06:24.947
 was how in an ideal world

1089
01:06:24.947 --> 01:06:30.152
you would balance the shot then match your

1090
01:06:30.152 --> 01:06:33.823
balance shots and you then apply your grade because

1091
01:06:33.823 --> 01:06:36.926
that way you're not kind of a lot of it

1092
01:06:36.926 --> 01:06:39.395
comes back to color separation you're not you know

1093
01:06:39.395 --> 01:06:41.163
what's the difference between a grade and a watch

1094
01:06:41.230 --> 01:06:45.434
kind of thing so a lot of what that means is at

1095
01:06:45.434 --> 01:06:47.436
least I found that you end up doing all three of

1096
01:06:47.536 --> 01:06:51.474
those at the same time in the same process so

1097
01:06:51.474 --> 01:06:54.977
you're doing your your balance your match

1098
01:06:56.178 --> 01:06:59.382
and you're kind of LUT and sometimes you're

1099
01:06:59.382 --> 01:07:03.953
finishing as well kind of all in the same

1100
01:07:05.154 --> 01:07:11.193
path with a live studio audience which can feel

1101
01:07:11.193 --> 01:07:13.896
quite high pressured at sometimes but I think

1102
01:07:13.963 --> 01:07:16.665
again that's just an experience being a need to get

1103
01:07:16.665 --> 01:07:20.002
used to it because you know when I started

1104
01:07:20.036 --> 01:07:22.705
out and I was sitting next to people who had been

1105
01:07:22.705 --> 01:07:26.809
doing you know color grading for 20 years and who

1106
01:07:26.809 --> 01:07:31.380
had been doing finishing for 10 of those years I

1107
01:07:31.380 --> 01:07:35.117
mean that was Monday you know like that that's

1108
01:07:35.151 --> 01:07:40.423
just what they did day in day out whereas for me I

1109
01:07:40.423 --> 01:07:44.193
went from it's quite funny actually I went from

1110
01:07:44.894 --> 01:07:47.396
really struggling to grade without a client being

1111
01:07:47.396 --> 01:07:50.599
next to me so learning how to grade

1112
01:07:51.233 --> 01:07:53.135
without a client next to me

1113
01:07:53.135 --> 01:07:56.172
now having to almost relearn

1114
01:07:58.441 --> 01:08:00.776
not in terms of the skill set but kind of like the

1115
01:08:00.776 --> 01:08:04.747
time management and the okay yeah I remembered

1116
01:08:04.814 --> 01:08:07.016
that note we'll jump to that but I'm just going to

1117
01:08:07.016 --> 01:08:09.218
finish the shot here kind of again

1118
01:08:10.186 --> 01:08:13.289
I think everyone's going to relate to

1119
01:08:13.289 --> 01:08:17.159
that I think you've actually hit on a journey

1120
01:08:17.159 --> 01:08:20.496
that a lot of people go through right because

1121
01:08:20.496 --> 01:08:24.366
there's a massive difference between putting on

1122
01:08:24.366 --> 01:08:29.038
a podcast or putting on your favorite album being

1123
01:08:29.038 --> 01:08:33.209
snug in the room by yourself you control

1124
01:08:33.209 --> 01:08:35.744
the environment you've got some snacks it doesn't

1125
01:08:35.744 --> 01:08:38.747
matter what your face is doing doesn't matter what

1126
01:08:38.747 --> 01:08:41.617
you're saying you don't have to say anything and

1127
01:08:41.617 --> 01:08:44.186
you can just go right into those pictures

1128
01:08:45.087 --> 01:08:48.290
and go for it and if you want to get up and go to

1129
01:08:48.290 --> 01:08:50.426
the loo or if you want to walk around the block

1130
01:08:50.459 --> 01:08:54.763
and refresh your eyes yeah you can and then you

1131
01:08:54.763 --> 01:08:57.132
bring the client in and it's a whole different

1132
01:08:57.132 --> 01:09:00.769
ball game I actually so I didn't do it this year

1133
01:09:00.769 --> 01:09:03.506
which I actually really enjoyed it so it was a

1134
01:09:03.506 --> 01:09:07.109
bit disappointing but last year I did something

1135
01:09:07.109 --> 01:09:10.646
called we haven't made people crazy eight so it's

1136
01:09:10.646 --> 01:09:14.483
a filmmaking competition and what happens is people

1137
01:09:14.483 --> 01:09:17.219
pitch their short film ideas and the eight winners

1138
01:09:17.419 --> 01:09:22.324
get to make their films in I think it's eight days

1139
01:09:22.324 --> 01:09:24.159
which sounds like a lot but they're like

1140
01:09:24.159 --> 01:09:26.762
building sets and stuff these are properly made

1141
01:09:26.762 --> 01:09:30.699
films and then people like our companies they get

1142
01:09:30.699 --> 01:09:33.035
some funding and they get kind of gifted services

1143
01:09:33.035 --> 01:09:36.472
and stuff like I did two of them and they were

1144
01:09:37.106 --> 01:09:40.943
two short films you know it's been five and seven

1145
01:09:40.943 --> 01:09:44.113
minutes long I had four hours to grade them

1146
01:09:44.780 --> 01:09:46.448
so four hours to grade one one

1147
01:09:46.448 --> 01:09:47.650
day four hours to grade the other

1148
01:09:48.918 --> 01:09:52.087
which would not be crazy except you get five

1149
01:09:52.087 --> 01:09:55.457
filmmakers come in and they're all sleep

1150
01:09:55.457 --> 01:09:58.194
deprived and delirious because they've almost

1151
01:09:58.194 --> 01:10:04.033
finished and they've all got so many ideas and

1152
01:10:04.300 --> 01:10:07.036
honestly the projects are absolutely fantastic I

1153
01:10:07.036 --> 01:10:09.838
really really loved them we ended up with two

1154
01:10:09.905 --> 01:10:13.075
really really good looking pieces of work those

1155
01:10:13.075 --> 01:10:15.778
were crazy like you literally got someone with

1156
01:10:15.778 --> 01:10:17.580
you know you're going to be disqualified if you

1157
01:10:17.580 --> 01:10:21.450
don't stop and why should it be red it should be

1158
01:10:21.450 --> 01:10:29.191
exactly that was not good I kind of

1159
01:10:29.191 --> 01:10:32.161
came out this sweet in another color

1160
01:10:32.228 --> 01:10:33.229
so previously was like how

1161
01:10:33.229 --> 01:10:34.630
was I was like yeah that's crazy

1162
01:10:34.630 --> 01:10:44.940
well it's good to mix it up a bit and I mean

1163
01:10:44.940 --> 01:10:47.977
working through the strikes and working on a

1164
01:10:47.977 --> 01:10:50.879
bunch of indie projects and working on a bunch of

1165
01:10:50.879 --> 01:10:55.417
shorts I imagine that it gives you quite a breadth

1166
01:10:55.651 --> 01:11:00.489
of experience that at other times perhaps you

1167
01:11:00.489 --> 01:11:02.091
wouldn't be getting in that role

1168
01:11:02.091 --> 01:11:05.160
totally I mean totally if it wasn't for like the

1169
01:11:05.160 --> 01:11:07.730
quick clean anxiety of that situation

1170
01:11:09.398 --> 01:11:15.604
I would have really enjoyed it but um no it was it

1171
01:11:15.604 --> 01:11:17.640
was a really good opportunity for me to do

1172
01:11:17.740 --> 01:11:23.579
a much broader range of work I mean I was basically

1173
01:11:23.579 --> 01:11:28.884
hired to increase capacity on

1174
01:11:28.917 --> 01:11:31.987
episodic grading for what at the time was a

1175
01:11:31.987 --> 01:11:33.522
streaming boom and was

1176
01:11:33.522 --> 01:11:35.624
projected to be a continually

1177
01:11:36.125 --> 01:11:41.397
exponentially growing streaming boom so after I

1178
01:11:41.397 --> 01:11:44.300
joined about two months later the boom ended

1179
01:11:44.867 --> 01:11:50.873
and then there were the strikes um so really what

1180
01:11:50.873 --> 01:11:53.909
I'd signed up to do was was to be doing

1181
01:11:53.909 --> 01:11:58.580
you know episodic shows one episodic show after

1182
01:11:58.580 --> 01:12:01.917
another episodic show and what I ended up getting

1183
01:12:01.917 --> 01:12:06.755
to do was to do two really phenomenal episodic

1184
01:12:06.755 --> 01:12:10.926
shows and a bunch of features of very varying

1185
01:12:10.926 --> 01:12:15.798
budget you know all the way from Big Factory

1186
01:12:15.798 --> 01:12:19.201
Wedding to I'm trying to think what my lowest

1187
01:12:19.201 --> 01:12:23.338
budget was I think it's probably Takes the Village

1188
01:12:23.338 --> 01:12:26.709
um because the documentary set in

1189
01:12:26.709 --> 01:12:30.279
East Vancouver about a refugee Gansan family

1190
01:12:30.279 --> 01:12:37.353
growing up um which I think was sponsored by Telus

1191
01:12:37.353 --> 01:12:46.228
and kind of everything in between um and yeah again

1192
01:12:46.228 --> 01:12:48.764
you just learn something from from every

1193
01:12:48.764 --> 01:12:51.633
project and every person that I work with

1194
01:12:51.633 --> 01:12:56.939
especially DP always always learn something

1195
01:12:56.939 --> 01:13:01.477
can another little node goes in that gallery of

1196
01:13:01.477 --> 01:13:04.046
something to pull out um and another kind

1197
01:13:04.213 --> 01:13:07.649
and another kind of luck goes on the favorite list

1198
01:13:07.649 --> 01:13:10.152
of like okay this is a good luck for this but

1199
01:13:10.285 --> 01:13:18.427
this is how I grade with that lot um so yeah

1200
01:13:18.427 --> 01:13:20.462
because I've never done documentary before that

1201
01:13:20.462 --> 01:13:25.400
was the first documentary I'd ever done um Party

1202
01:13:25.400 --> 01:13:28.504
Pirate had some sections of claymation I've never

1203
01:13:28.771 --> 01:13:31.273
graded animation I've never graded animation

1204
01:13:31.273 --> 01:13:34.076
literally into a live action scene like it's

1205
01:13:34.076 --> 01:13:39.381
the same scene it's like whoa how how do I do this

1206
01:13:39.381 --> 01:13:44.586
you know um so I I did benefit a lot and also yeah

1207
01:13:44.586 --> 01:13:47.089
I got to do some music videos and commercials and I

1208
01:13:47.089 --> 01:13:49.158
think one of the things that I really loved is um

1209
01:13:49.992 --> 01:13:53.328
one of the features I did Valiant 1 which I think

1210
01:13:53.328 --> 01:13:55.297
is going to be released this year so it's certain

1211
01:13:56.365 --> 01:14:00.936
north-south chris minstler but was shot in BC so

1212
01:14:00.936 --> 01:14:04.139
that was it was quite a challenging grade from

1213
01:14:04.540 --> 01:14:09.378
making it look not only like different country um

1214
01:14:09.378 --> 01:14:12.181
but also completely different weather conditions

1215
01:14:12.314 --> 01:14:14.650
because they shot in BC thinking well we're

1216
01:14:14.650 --> 01:14:18.821
guaranteed to be overcast and rainy and it was

1217
01:14:18.854 --> 01:14:23.458
like blistering heatwave so it was a very

1218
01:14:23.458 --> 01:14:27.329
challenging grade but really phenomenal um

1219
01:14:27.563 --> 01:14:31.867
DP who actually shoots only on red which is

1220
01:14:31.867 --> 01:14:34.102
interesting because I feel like not a lot of

1221
01:14:34.203 --> 01:14:37.506
people are shooting on red at the moment or at

1222
01:14:37.506 --> 01:14:39.675
least here what we're getting in Vancouver

1223
01:14:40.709 --> 01:14:46.481
um and a very strong look he's a commercial DP um

1224
01:14:46.481 --> 01:14:48.717
so he came back with a couple of strikes

1225
01:14:49.718 --> 01:14:52.120
of strikes he came back with a couple of

1226
01:14:52.120 --> 01:14:54.590
commercials during the strike um which were

1227
01:14:54.590 --> 01:14:56.992
much appreciated and great I was like yeah he would

1228
01:14:56.992 --> 01:15:02.164
be fine um and tell so on that film where

1229
01:15:02.698 --> 01:15:07.703
it was red my understanding is that you created a

1230
01:15:07.703 --> 01:15:11.340
bespoke LUT for that one using the

1231
01:15:12.207 --> 01:15:16.211
red creative kit what was that process so it was

1232
01:15:16.211 --> 01:15:17.946
quite interesting so what happened was

1233
01:15:18.313 --> 01:15:22.384
this was another LUT originally that had been done

1234
01:15:22.384 --> 01:15:24.620
either by or for our dailies department

1235
01:15:25.921 --> 01:15:29.825
um which I had inherited but when I came and the

1236
01:15:29.825 --> 01:15:31.360
dailies looked absolutely fantastic

1237
01:15:33.195 --> 01:15:37.232
and it was originally going to be a HDR stream so

1238
01:15:37.232 --> 01:15:38.100
we would have just had a

1239
01:15:38.100 --> 01:15:40.869
HDR version but when I made

1240
01:15:41.904 --> 01:15:44.172
Converted it to P3 and I looked it in the theater

1241
01:15:44.172 --> 01:15:45.874
by the time we came to grade the one that's been

1242
01:15:46.041 --> 01:15:49.912
actually it just wasn't working it was it was too

1243
01:15:49.912 --> 01:15:52.781
heavy you know you can always like you can always

1244
01:15:53.582 --> 01:15:58.186
add contrast in it's very hard to kind of take it

1245
01:15:58.186 --> 01:16:02.024
out you know and I was like I love like how

1246
01:16:02.024 --> 01:16:05.227
the LUTs going it's just it's too strong to keep

1247
01:16:05.227 --> 01:16:09.197
 so I took some advice and again this is one

1248
01:16:09.197 --> 01:16:11.099
thing that's wonderful about working with a company

1249
01:16:11.099 --> 01:16:15.037
you can knock on a suite and and go to a colorist

1250
01:16:15.037 --> 01:16:18.440
it's more senior than yourself and I worked

1251
01:16:18.440 --> 01:16:20.609
with an absolutely phenomenal um

1252
01:16:20.609 --> 01:16:24.680
cover called Anne Boyle and she looked at it and she

1253
01:16:24.680 --> 01:16:29.051
went that's worth a creative kit that's I reckon that's

1254
01:16:29.051 --> 01:16:32.821
what so we found the creative kit and we were able

1255
01:16:32.821 --> 01:16:36.625
to completely reconstruct the LUTs that

1256
01:16:36.625 --> 01:16:39.428
have been made essentially like a base LUT and a

1257
01:16:39.428 --> 01:16:43.565
bunch of input LUTs with different names some of

1258
01:16:43.599 --> 01:16:50.605
them are a touch odd um so we we rephrased it and

1259
01:16:50.605 --> 01:16:55.110
then we were able I was able to adjust how much of

1260
01:16:55.110 --> 01:16:58.814
each of these input LUTs and which base LUT these

1261
01:16:58.814 --> 01:17:03.552
input LUTs were going on to to create a more

1262
01:17:03.685 --> 01:17:07.022
bespoke version of the lot for the fee free but

1263
01:17:07.022 --> 01:17:09.558
then also I could adjust it on a person

1264
01:17:09.958 --> 01:17:15.831
basis as well what an amazing amount of control so

1265
01:17:15.831 --> 01:17:18.900
unbelievable I will now actually I did do

1266
01:17:19.101 --> 01:17:21.803
another short which was red now I get any red

1267
01:17:21.803 --> 01:17:24.840
project I'm straight for that phrase because

1268
01:17:24.840 --> 01:17:28.043
you know if I go to our I mean our imagery and

1269
01:17:28.043 --> 01:17:30.545
science team at scene one I go I want

1270
01:17:30.645 --> 01:17:32.247
a LUT that does this is in this is

1271
01:17:32.247 --> 01:17:35.617
RED they'll give me whatever I asked for

1272
01:17:36.618 --> 01:17:41.289
but I can't adjust it literally live in the room

1273
01:17:41.289 --> 01:17:47.829
with on on such you know on a scene by scene basis

1274
01:17:47.829 --> 01:17:51.600
And to have that skill which

1275
01:17:51.600 --> 01:17:53.435
is more of a color science skill

1276
01:17:54.102 --> 01:17:56.872
and you've brushed up against color science your

1277
01:17:56.872 --> 01:17:59.608
whole career and worked in very technical roles

1278
01:17:59.708 --> 01:18:03.879
that have required understanding of it and to be

1279
01:18:03.879 --> 01:18:06.715
able to get hands on with it and see how it can

1280
01:18:06.715 --> 01:18:11.420
be like an actually creative solution to a problem

1281
01:18:11.420 --> 01:18:15.290
as opposed to a bunch of like really scary

1282
01:18:15.624 --> 01:18:19.428
formulas in a white paper yeah I think I still find

1283
01:18:19.428 --> 01:18:23.732
it kind of scary I I've yet to meet anyone

1284
01:18:23.732 --> 01:18:28.904
that I think has an equal handle on both the

1285
01:18:28.904 --> 01:18:32.708
technical color side side of color and then

1286
01:18:32.741 --> 01:18:38.413
the subjective creative side of color you know I

1287
01:18:38.413 --> 01:18:41.783
think they're just fundamentally different types

1288
01:18:41.950 --> 01:18:46.321
of brain um I once considered I was like maybe I

1289
01:18:46.321 --> 01:18:47.789
should put the color scientist and I think it

1290
01:18:47.789 --> 01:18:52.527
lasted about one afternoon um that also goes along

1291
01:18:52.527 --> 01:18:54.930
with when I decided I was going to learn how to

1292
01:18:54.930 --> 01:19:00.335
use python that also lasted one afternoon um but

1293
01:19:00.335 --> 01:19:06.808
yeah I kind of the necessity of needing to

1294
01:19:06.908 --> 01:19:12.347
understand something in order to do what I want to

1295
01:19:12.347 --> 01:19:15.417
do creatively seems to kind of push

1296
01:19:16.585 --> 01:19:20.188
push me through it so I always say it's my

1297
01:19:20.188 --> 01:19:22.591
understanding of that extends as far

1298
01:19:23.291 --> 01:19:27.496
as it needs to and it seems not an inch more but um

1299
01:19:27.496 --> 01:19:29.765
I think that's um I think that's really

1300
01:19:29.765 --> 01:19:32.367
practical though because you've only got so many

1301
01:19:32.367 --> 01:19:34.970
hours in the day and there's only so much

1302
01:19:34.970 --> 01:19:38.340
bandwidth any one person has and if you're really

1303
01:19:38.340 --> 01:19:41.843
focused on your goal of being an incredible

1304
01:19:41.843 --> 01:19:45.647
colorist then going off and getting sidetracked

1305
01:19:45.647 --> 01:19:48.950
becoming a color scientist is not necessarily

1306
01:19:48.984 --> 01:19:52.587
going to get you there I also think it's it's how

1307
01:19:52.587 --> 01:19:56.424
you learn so like if something's abstract but I'm

1308
01:19:56.424 --> 01:19:58.593
trying to learn python it's like if you write this

1309
01:19:58.593 --> 01:20:01.930
script you'll be able to tell the time on this

1310
01:20:01.963 --> 01:20:04.666
clock to go back by 10 minutes what I don't want to

1311
01:20:04.666 --> 01:20:08.737
so therefore none of this is making any sense

1312
01:20:08.737 --> 01:20:11.773
to me whatsoever if I actually wanted to do that it

1313
01:20:11.773 --> 01:20:13.708
would probably make enough sense that I would

1314
01:20:13.708 --> 01:20:19.714
be able to do it but if python was going to help

1315
01:20:19.714 --> 01:20:22.284
you with that you know setting up your node graph

1316
01:20:22.317 --> 01:20:25.086
for something really practical I imagine you'd get

1317
01:20:25.086 --> 01:20:30.225
it if anyone can write python and can write that

1318
01:20:30.959 --> 01:20:33.128
please message me on linkedin and

1319
01:20:33.128 --> 01:20:35.564
we'll go for coffee and I'll buy it this time

1320
01:20:38.500 --> 01:20:41.937
well there you go you heard it here first and um if

1321
01:20:41.937 --> 01:20:45.440
anyone in the Vancouver area feels like buying

1322
01:20:45.440 --> 01:20:47.876
Aurora coffee it sounds like you've

1323
01:20:47.876 --> 01:20:50.011
um you've got a potential coffee date

1324
01:20:52.881 --> 01:20:55.917
so um can you tell me a little bit I feel like I've

1325
01:20:55.917 --> 01:20:58.186
taken a lot of your time up and I will wrap

1326
01:20:58.286 --> 01:21:00.589
things up quite shortly my first mentoring session

1327
01:21:00.589 --> 01:21:03.325
I ever did was supposed to be half an hour and it

1328
01:21:03.325 --> 01:21:08.096
lasted three hours so don't worry oh they're so

1329
01:21:08.096 --> 01:21:13.468
lucky um well I did want to just hear a little

1330
01:21:13.468 --> 01:21:16.838
bit about so you've obviously done some amazing

1331
01:21:16.838 --> 01:21:19.741
things and since we last saw one another

1332
01:21:20.342 --> 01:21:23.445
you've been kicking huge goals and doing beautiful

1333
01:21:23.445 --> 01:21:27.749
work now that the strikes are over in productions

1334
01:21:28.116 --> 01:21:31.486
ramped up again I know there's quite a few shows

1335
01:21:31.486 --> 01:21:34.923
that you've graded that haven't been released yet

1336
01:21:35.523 --> 01:21:38.126
but I also imagine there's a huge amount of stuff

1337
01:21:38.126 --> 01:21:42.797
coming up oh wow so what are you excited for so

1338
01:21:42.797 --> 01:21:46.401
the plan is I'm finishing under the bridge um sweet

1339
01:21:46.401 --> 01:21:49.304
magnolias is coming back to me for season 4 which

1340
01:21:49.537 --> 01:21:55.744
is a massive massive privilege because it's I think

1341
01:21:55.744 --> 01:21:57.712
the first show it's the first show that's

1342
01:21:57.712 --> 01:22:01.650
come back to me rather than been given to me you

1343
01:22:01.650 --> 01:22:04.152
know like it didn't have to come back to me it did

1344
01:22:04.819 --> 01:22:08.790
um so I'm hoping to manage as much of that as I can

1345
01:22:08.790 --> 01:22:11.359
and then I'm taking a year off to have a baby

1346
01:22:13.228 --> 01:22:14.296
that's what you do when

1347
01:22:14.296 --> 01:22:15.430
you're at the top of your career

1348
01:22:16.264 --> 01:22:21.269
oh well that's so awesome

1349
01:22:23.305 --> 01:22:30.512
oh any congratulations oh well that's I don't even

1350
01:22:30.512 --> 01:22:33.448
know what to say I'm just so excited for you

1351
01:22:33.448 --> 01:22:38.153
so yeah so that's my next year and we're hoping

1352
01:22:38.153 --> 01:22:40.355
we'll probably be spending a chance a bit in Europe

1353
01:22:41.256 --> 01:22:48.129
um kind of that's where our family is and maybe

1354
01:22:48.129 --> 01:22:49.631
even a little bit traveling

1355
01:22:49.864 --> 01:22:55.303
while we get we'll see.  Oh you always manage to

1356
01:22:55.303 --> 01:22:59.007
squeeze a bit of traveling

1357
01:23:01.276 --> 01:23:04.346
So that's very exciting,

1358
01:23:04.346 --> 01:23:11.019
and then yeah I guess kind of after that my slate

1359
01:23:11.019 --> 01:23:14.689
is pretty pretty blank really um

1360
01:23:15.390 --> 01:23:17.325
I guess I just have to hope that

1361
01:23:17.325 --> 01:23:19.527
I've made enough good work now that

1362
01:23:19.694 --> 01:23:24.699
it speaks for itself in the year and a bit some

1363
01:23:25.800 --> 01:23:30.271
yeah I look it absolutely will. Talking as a mother

1364
01:23:30.271 --> 01:23:34.142
of a three-year-old now um when I came back from

1365
01:23:34.175 --> 01:23:39.581
Vancouver um I was seven months pregnant and I'd

1366
01:23:39.581 --> 01:23:41.349
been away for about a year and a half

1367
01:23:42.016 --> 01:23:43.918
and I was like oh my god I'm about to take another

1368
01:23:43.918 --> 01:23:47.188
six months off and everyone will have forgotten me

1369
01:23:48.189 --> 01:23:51.860
but you know as soon as I was back

1370
01:23:51.860 --> 01:23:54.596
everyone was ready to jump on again

1371
01:23:54.829 --> 01:23:56.898
and I think people actually love it

1372
01:23:56.898 --> 01:23:58.199
when you're a little bit unavailable

1373
01:23:58.666 --> 01:24:00.402
I'm just so excited for

1374
01:24:00.402 --> 01:24:03.371
you and I'm all about the working mums

1375
01:24:04.873 --> 01:24:09.043
fantastic.  We'll see how it goes but you know I

1376
01:24:09.043 --> 01:24:13.348
think it's you know it's it's very easy

1377
01:24:14.249 --> 01:24:19.621
to always think of work in terms of work and only

1378
01:24:19.621 --> 01:24:24.692
work um and I think when you're first starting

1379
01:24:24.793 --> 01:24:28.063
out kind of going all the way back to when you're

1380
01:24:28.063 --> 01:24:31.633
first starting out it really is because that's how

1381
01:24:31.633 --> 01:24:35.770
you do it you don't make something of your career

1382
01:24:35.770 --> 01:24:38.940
by being one foot in and one foot out you know

1383
01:24:39.607 --> 01:24:43.478
you're all in but you know at a certain point life

1384
01:24:43.478 --> 01:24:47.315
has to happen or should should happen

1385
01:24:47.515 --> 01:24:48.983
or otherwise it's like well what's

1386
01:24:48.983 --> 01:24:51.019
the point in working hard you know

1387
01:24:51.052 --> 01:24:58.626
that's absolutely right yeah and when it comes to

1388
01:24:58.626 --> 01:25:01.629
family I just think you know

1389
01:25:02.730 --> 01:25:07.836
all of those previous generations problems of you

1390
01:25:07.836 --> 01:25:10.972
know oh I'm having a baby so I can't have a career

1391
01:25:11.272 --> 01:25:17.679
they're gone now and we can we can do both so why

1392
01:25:17.679 --> 01:25:21.082
why not why not be happy in both areas

1393
01:25:21.082 --> 01:25:24.152
well I think that's a really nice point to wrap it

1394
01:25:24.152 --> 01:25:28.990
up um I'm absolutely thrilled on all points

1395
01:25:28.990 --> 01:25:33.428
I'm so excited with the amazing career that you're

1396
01:25:33.428 --> 01:25:34.829
making for yourself and watching the beautiful

1397
01:25:34.829 --> 01:25:35.663
making for yourself and watching the beautiful

1398
01:25:35.697 --> 01:25:42.570
work that you're working on um and I'm really I

1399
01:25:42.570 --> 01:25:44.372
think I'll talk to you offline about your

1400
01:25:44.372 --> 01:25:46.341
mentoring because I really back that awesome all

1401
01:25:46.341 --> 01:25:48.376
mentoring because I really back that awesome 

1402
01:25:48.376 --> 01:25:50.578
All right well thank you so much for having me

1403
01:25:51.513 --> 01:25:54.516
and um thank you for listening if

1404
01:25:54.516 --> 01:25:56.651
you've managed to get to the end of this

1405
01:25:56.651 --> 01:25:56.851
you've managed to get to the end of this

1406
01:25:56.918 --> 01:26:04.292
yes thanks guys thanks so much for joining me and

1407
01:26:04.292 --> 01:26:06.828
for Mixing Light I'm Kali Bateman