Colourist skills

Overview of the role

Colour grading is performed, often in a dedicated grading suite, by a skilled colourist. They take a brief from the producer or sometimes the DoP about the mood or feel they intended and interpret to recreate that on screen. This can be done in collaboration or once style is established they can be left alone to complete the work for review by the client before it returns to the online.

Footage is manipulated using powerful specialised software such as DaVinci Resolve or Filmlight’s Baselight. These both give the colourist the power to isolate different sections of the image, based only on for example their luminance level or hue, and manipulate them to fine tune every part of the image so it achieves the overall visual finish the director wants.

Often footage comes from a variety of sources and cameras so it is also the colourist’s responsibility to balance these images to match for consistency. Consistency can either be required throughout a whole scene or it is the task of balancing a main interview camera and a second camera which were wildly different at source. It may also require helping to smooth damage such as burnt out highlights, correct aperture shifts and other errors.

Dedicated grading suites are usually Filmlight’s Baslight or DaVinci Resolve.

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Core responsibilities

These core responsibilities are provided as a guide and are not exhaustive. The exact responsibilities in a particular job will vary depending on the scale / budget band / genre of the production.

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Skills

Check out role specific skills, transferable skills, and attributes for the role of colourist.