Thinking about Colour 24/7
I work from both larger facilities and my boutique London-based studio with Dolby Calibrated monitoring and real-time 4K+ playback. End-to-end SDR and HDR finishing workflows including conform, grading, online and delivery for cinema, broadcast and streaming platforms.
After studying photography and design in Cape Town, I settled in London and became involved in the restoration of fine art negatives and prints, through to producing colour work on fashion and natural history images for publishing.
As the digital age took hold of the moving image, an opportunity to combine my love of working with photography and the moving image came up within the emerging world of Digital Intermediates and Colour Grading, what could be a more perfect vocation? So here I am now, creating what I hope is visual harmony for the silver screen, and some smaller screens too.
It's a privilege to do what I do, and I am very aware of how much work goes into producing a film: An army of people all gearing-up for that first screening, where all the hard work comes together and you feel it was all worth it.
I have been incredibility fortunate to work on films which have gained multiple awards, and with artists who are globally respected for their dedication to the moving image, shown at the major Biennales and festivals, acquired by institutions such as The Tate, MoMA, Guggenheim and many more.
A final thought:
From the days of the Technicolor process to the modern blockbuster and everything in-between, great colour and a beautiful image on screen is almost always planned. And while the digital age has made this process easier, we often forget that some of the most celebrated films never touched the digital world, so it's easy to think of what happens in the studio, surrounded by monitors and control surfaces, is where it all happens, this is just where you get excited about it again.
