Ollie Kenchington, cinema5D contributing writer, lead colorist at Korro Films and Blackmagic Certified Trainer at Korro Academy, has recently released his second color-grading course on MZed, called “Mastering Color” (reviewed here). We took the opportunity to ask Ollie a few questions about color grading, his start in the industry and some useful advice he would give to aspiring colorists. Here are his answers. Ollie Kenchington – Lead colorist How did you get into color grading? OLLIE: I’ve been professionally color grading for over a decade, but I knew that I wanted to be a colorist after I watched a making-of documentary for the Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, back in 2002. There was a segment about Peter Doyle, who was the senior colorist on all of the Lord of the Rings films. I remember there was a scene in the mines of Moria, and Peter was color grading Legolas’ eyes, to make them look more blue. He tracked the eyes as Legolas jumped off Balin’s tomb, and I remember being absolutely amazed by it and just thinking to myself that that’s what I wanted to do. So I did some digging and found Peter’s email address and contacted him. Amazingly, not only did he reply, he actually offered me a job as his color assistant on the Return of the King! So I’m the idiot that turned down the Return of the King and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Not the most auspicious start to my career! Unfortunately, for various reasons, it didn’t work out, and I never got to fly off to New Zealand. However, about a year later, Peter came to London and contacted me. He said he had another big project coming up and it would be great if I could be his color assistant on this new project. Agonizingly, I decided to turn him down because, by that point, I had a well paid job working with Apple and also wasn’t sure if I wanted to limit myself to just color-grading, when I loved editing and shooting so much too. I later found out that the film he was asking me to work with him on was the Prisoner of Azkaban (Peter Doyle went on to color grade all of the rest of the Harry Potter films, and a long list of other huge films), so I’m the idiot that turned down the Return of the King and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Not the most auspicious start to my career! How did you talk Peter Doyle into actually giving you a shot? OLLIE: I think he appreciated the fact that someone gave a crap about color grading! These days everyone knows about color grading, but back then (2002/2003) digital color-grading was still in its infancy. I think he was just flattered that someone saw that DVD and was interested enough to internet stalk him and find out his e-mail address! I think it was as simple as that, just good timing. What would be the best way to get into color grading nowadays, in your opinion? OLLIE: I would say the best thing to do is just grade everything and anything you can! There will always be at least two or three short films, documentaries or passion projects being made somewhere near your location, at any one time. Anyone making a film on a shoestring budget will be desperate for people to color grade their projects. Building up a portfolio is the most important step in showing people what you can do. Whilst you develop your own style and build up your showreel, you also need to thoroughly study the tools and the theory behind your craft. I’m not saying bury your head in books and forget to work, you’ve got to get the balance right, but you need to develop your technical understanding and creative flair at the same time. …if you can find a really good DP, someone that you really admire, that would be helpful. If you can get a relationship with them and get into the position where they want you to grade their work, and they’re shooting high quality content, that makes you look great, then that’s a real bonus. Once you think you’ve mastered one aspect, take it up a level, dive deeper, research more, look what other colorists are doing and refine your skills. Get out there and network and meet other filmmakers and, if you can find a really good DP, someone that you really admire, that would be helpful. If you can get a relationship with them and get into the position where they want you to grade their work, and they’re shooting high quality content, that makes you look great, then that’s a real bonus. Because, unfortunately, you could be the world’s best colorist, but if you only work on really low budget productions and poor quality footage, it doesn’t look good in a showreel and it doesn’t look good as a showpiece for your talents. Which actually is ridiculous, as it takes more skill to make something poor look good, but unfortunately that’s the reality of it. So the better looking the footage that you can work with, the better your work will look. So yes, finding a good DP or director to buddy up with is a great step. How would you weigh the importance of technical knowledge vs. aesthetic feel and experience for a colorist? OLLIE: I think, although in other areas of filmmaking experience may trump technical skill – certainly I know loads of great DPs who aren’t very technically minded – I do feel that a colorist’s job is to be that person in the production and post-production workflow that is the technical person. They are the one that needs to know everything there is to know about gamuts, gammas, compression, how additive color works, how the human visual system works – a professional pixel peeper! I do feel that a colorist’s job is to be that person in the production and post-production workflow that is the technical person The thing that appeals to me about color grading is that it is such a nice blend of technical and creative. I enjoy both elements of it and I do think that a colorist, more than possibly anyone else, has to straddle that divide. They must be able to create depth in an image and richness and vibrance and support a narrative and all those creative things, but also understand the tools and the mechanics of it all. I don’t think you can be a colorist if you don’t have a grasp of both parts of that. What is the best way to keep up-to-date as a colorist, apart from reading 1000+ pages of ITU specifications? OLLIE: I think a lot of reading, a lot of following certain people and what they put out there. I read a lot of white papers. When I started out I read loads on Wikipedia about what the difference is between gammas and gamuts etc. I really want to stress, though, that I’m not talking from the point of view of somebody who now knows it all! I’m acutely aware that I know a small percentage of what there is to know and there are other people out there who know a hell of a lot more than I do. I am constantly learning from those people and relish the chance to be in a room with someone cleverer than me! For me personally it’s a culmination of lots of different sources over many, many years I think it really helped me, studying photography at college, to gain a good understanding of basic photographic techniques, particularly around exposure. There’s also a lot of understanding about color theory that I learnt through my fine art education. So for me personally, it’s a culmination of lots of different sources over many, many years. Going back to doing color theory sessions on my foundation course at art school in 1999, and everything that’s happened between then and now. And I’m aware that there’s so much more for me to learn, but it’s not like there’s one book that you can buy or there’s one course you can follow, it’s about tackling it all in stages and then slowly, over the years, connecting the dots and putting that into practice. See what happens when you try these things out. When you try and color grade for HDR for example, you can read endless sources of information about HDR, but until you’re actually doing it with an HDR monitor, it doesn’t make a huge amount of sense. What distinguishes a good colorist from a bad one in your opinion? OLLIE: I think that, overall, the most important thing is how good are they at taking a step back and seeing how their work affects and supports the narrative. A good colorist understands narrative structure, understands the impact of color on that structure and understands the importance of continuity within that structure. In a way, it’s the stuff that’s less obvious, it’s the stuff that’s more hidden and certainly it’s the stuff that’s less sexy. When you see those really cool tutorials about grading on YouTube, often the footage is really beautiful and fantastically well lit and they’re often working on just one shot, almost treating it like a photograph. Yeah, it may be impressive in the end, but that doesn’t tell me very much about that person as a colorist. It doesn’t tell me how well they work with the director and the DP, or how well they communicate with clients. Those are the sorts of things that I see in other colorists as a sign of their pedigree, far more than actually the look of their work. A good colorist understands narrative structure, understands the impact of color on that structure and understands the importance of continuity within that structure. In a way, it’s the stuff that’s less obvious, it’s the stuff that’s more hidden and certainly it’s the stuff that’s less sexy. Can a colorist have a style? OLLIE: There are definitely things one can do with contrast and colors, playing with skin tones and other ‘memory’ colors, where everyone knows what it should look like, as well as working with certain palettes of colors, to establish a style. But, going back to what I’ve just said, if that style is arbitrary and it exists across multiple films for no reason, other than so you can say, ‘here is my style’, then I would argue that they’re not a particularly good colorist. If I think back, across all of the stuff I’ve graded over the years, there are very few of them where I’ve used the same style. In fact, most clients just want the image to look its best, they don’t want a style pushed in at all. The clients that do want a style, tend to have very specific notes about how skin tones are treated, how blacks are treated, how whites are treated, how greens and reds are treated, or how skies are treated. They don’t come in saying “I want orange and teal” or, “I want the Wes Anderson look”, because that’s arbitrary. It would be like creating a script by throwing in dialogue that you’ve taken from other films, and hoping that it makes a unique and original script. It doesn’t work that way. What was the intention behind your ‘Mastering Color’ course for MZed? OLLIE: My goal was to create a series of modules that identified and broke down the broad steps a colorist would take when developing an image. I wanted the concepts and workflow to be the star of the show, rather than the software, hardware or demo material I was using. I hope that these lessons can be used as a solid grounding in the art and science of color, upon which amateur colorists can build and develop their software skills, no matter which software they use. It is not intended to be a DaVinci Resolve course, as there are already tonnes of tutorials out there that show you which buttons to press to do x, y or z in Resolve. In my opinion, before you learn how to press a button, you should learn why you are pressing that button, and that’s exactly what ‘Mastering Color’ sets out to do. Thank you for your time Ollie! Ollie’s course is on MZed now. There are 7.5 hours of lessons (plus over 20GB of downloadable resources) in the course, and the first lesson is free to watch. FULL DISCLOSURE: Ollie Kenchington is my fellow contributing writer to cinema5D. However the interview given here, was not influenced by that. Are you a budding colorist? Does this answer some of your questions? Would you like more interviews like this, explaining different nuances and areas of the industry? Do you have other questions for Ollie? Let us know in the comments!

MZed has just released a new and extensive course on color grading by Ollie Kenchington. This new course is the follow-up to the highly acclaimed “Directing Color” course and aims to give a more in-depth perspective on a colorist’s actual work. Here’s what you need to know. The course starts with an hour-long, very in-depth hands-on tutorial to setting up your grading suite: monitor setup, display choice, appropriate ambient lighting for the room you are working in, as well as neutral grey paint, which of course has to be pigment-free – nothing is left to chance here and Ollie patiently takes us through the whole process. As we progress, we get into working with Resolve, starting with a module on contrast adjustment and one on color balancing (what other courses might consider to be primary and secondary adjustments). Here, we are taken through basic adjustments with lift, gamma and gain controls, the additive RGB color model, and color and luminance perception in general. We also learn how to utilise the scopes and use them to double-check our perceptional biases. All of the hands-on examples shown here are punctuated time and again, as are all the other modules, by short on-topic-interviews with industry professionals like director/cinematographer Brett Danton, colorist Toby Tomkins, cinematographer and fellow MZed educator Philip Bloom, director Sam Buchanan and Oscar-winning make up artist Peter Swords King. Following our basic color corrections, we start working on more advanced topics like continuity (between different cameras, as well as between different takes of the same scene) and skin tones. Ollie gives interesting insights into his workflow, using versions and groups, while utilising color checkers to make matching relatively easy. Finally, we get into the more creative parts of the color grading process with modules on creative looks and film emulation. Ollie goes into some detail here, showing us when, where and how apply LUTs, how to build your own look and how to utilise tools like FilmConvert and Resolve’s own film grain effect. To top it all off, we get a module on working with RAW and how to grade for HDR output. Who is the course for (and who is it not for)? In my opinion, the course would suit two primary groups: DPs, editors or directors who have some experience with color grading and would like to take it more seriously Colorists just starting out or at the early intermediate stages This makes sense, as for total beginners and casual colorists it might seem a little far fetched to invest a few thousands into getting a workable reference monitor and kitting out a proper coloring suite with neutral gray paint and a 6500K light bulb. On the other hand, if you know the van Hurkman books on color correction by heart and only start having fun when you’ve created 30+ nodes per image, then this course might also not be for you, as you will have heard most things mentioned here before. That said, the interviews with industry professionals might be interesting to you even then. What works and what doesn’t I have to say, with regards to other offerings on the market right now, this course is incredibly well put together. Ollie Kenchington gets it right, offering just the right level of theory and background knowledge to be effective, without dragging on about theoretical stuff for ages. His calm and considered presentation nonetheless never gets boring or lifeless, just checking off topics because they are on the list. Rather, you do feel that somebody is teaching you, who not only takes color grading very seriously, but also enjoys the process. The footage used in the examples is of very high quality throughout and the examples are very balanced, being taken from commercial, documentary but also narrative work alike. The same thing goes for the industry interviews. These, of course, provide a very valuable professionals’ perspective, but they also give entertaining insights into the collaboration process with directors and the day to day work of being a colorist. This is not the kind of course that will teach you the ins and outs of every facet of Resolve, rather it aims at being somewhat software-agnostic – this is not a bad thing, just something to know going into it. The module on creative looks could just have been a tiny bit longer for my taste, giving a peek into a little more advanced workflows, with more than just serial nodes. In fairness, this might have been a little too much for this particular course, though. The main thing I actually missed from the course was some seriously bad footage. Most shooters probably won’t be at the level of Brett Danton, working with a production crew, or Philip Bloom, so there might be a shot with seriously blown highlights or noticeable shadow noise here and there. While I understand that including this might bear the danger of encouraging some people’s “fix-it-in-post” mentality, it would nonetheless have been interesting to see just how much you can reasonably expect to achieve when something does go horribly wrong. My last gripe is one with MZed, not really this course in particular (though it does happen here too): the usage of music. While I do understand the impulse to try and maybe keep viewers more engaged or interested, I have to say the way it is utilised doesn’t work for me personally at all. Rather than just having the same confidently playful elevator tune play constantly underneath everything that’s being discussed, I’d strongly suggest only using music to punctuate important parts, or for transitions. That said, I enjoyed the course thoroughly and was able to learn quite a few things that will surely come in handy when grading my next project. All in all, it was a great course that I can recommend whole-heartedly to anyone (in the two groups discussed above) interested in color grading. The course is available now and Mzed is celebrating its launch by offering a chance to win some cool prizes in addition for watching the first module of Ollie’s Mastering Color for free! Head to their competition page to learn more. FULL DISCLOSURE: Ollie Kenchington is my fellow contributing writer at cinema5D. However, I had my Mzed membership long before joining cinema5D and this is my honest evaluation of Ollie’s course. What do you think about this course? Does it fit your interests regarding color grading? Would you be interested in taking it? Let us know in the comments!

Life-long learning. Since education is key for almost all aspects of life, this is also true for our craft as indie filmmakers. Especially in a line of work with such a fast-paced development of new gear, fresh techniques and so many skills to be learned. MZed now offers a 4 day summer sale (Ending June 4th), so you can make use of the vast expertise of their hosts – for a discounted price. We don’t need no education? Nah, of course we do. All the time! And for the next four days you’ve got the chance of landing a pretty decent deal over at MZed for their vast catalogue of filmmaking related online courses and masterclasses. MZed Summer Sale Both the individual courses and the MZed Pro subscription plan will be reduced in price for the next few days. So if you played with the idea of registering for one of these courses but felt it was too expensive so far, now is the time! Philp Bloom’s Cinematic Masterclass (screenshot). The MZed Pro plan is on sale for $300 for example (regular $399). This option includes Philip Bloom’s Cinematic Masterclass as well as access to the whole MZed catalogue for a full year. Read our review on Philip Bloom’s Cinematic Masterclass here to get an idea of the content. If you don’t need access to the whole thing, rest assured as the summer sale includes individual classes too. Philip Bloom’s Cinematic Masterclass is on sale for $129 (save $70), and our own Ollie Kenchington recently put together a course called Directing Color (read our review here). It’s yours for only $39 (Save $40) over the course of this summer sale. Ollie Kenchington – Directing Color (screenshot). Learning by watching videos. Is that worth it, one might ask. My personal answer is a resounding yes! Before MZed Pro was even here I purchased some courses from MZed and I learned a lot! But, and this is important, it only works out for me because I can go out and use the freshly learned skills on my real-life jobs. It’s the mix that works great for me. Only watching movies and assuming that you now can pull off a major Hollywood movie would be megalomaniac, of course. But learning a neat trick here, a new technique there and make use of it on your next job? That makes a lot of sense to me. Conclusion Since this sale only lasts four days, you have to make a quick decision. I think there are some great offers at MZed. Just browse their catalogue and find the course that suits you best. Or go all-in and get a discounted rate on the 12-month MZed Pro Plan, which includes all available courses and of course upcoming ones. MZed Pro annual membership $249 (save $50) MZed Pro plus Philip Bloom’s Cinematic Masterclass $300 (Save $99) Philip Bloom’s Cinematic Masterclass $129 (save $70) Directing Color $39 (save $40) Brows all other MZed courses   My suggestion would be to head over to MZed’s website and have a look around. Philip Bloom’s Cinematic Masterclass, Alex Buono’s Visual Storytelling, Vincent Laforet’s Directing Motion, Adam Epstein’s The Cutting Edge, it’s all there. But don’t forget to go out there and shoot something. Education is key but it’s nothing without deploying it in real-life jobs. What do you think? Will you enrol in some of the courses? Let us know in the comments below!

Watch previous episodes of ON THE COUCH & ON THE GO by clicking here! Visit our Vimeo and YouTube playlists, and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes! Please visit our sponsors’ websites to keep new episodes of ON THE GO coming! Thanks to Hedge for Mac,  G-Technology, Røde Microphones, Sachtler, in association with Ford Netherland (thanks for the Ford Galaxy car loan!) and Sony Europe (thanks for the 4K Action cam loan!) This episode of cinema5D On the Go is all about hardware, software and post production! Although perhaps not the hottest of topics, this week we take a ride to discuss what happens after the cameras stop rolling. We talk to three industry professionals whose work is closely related to video post production. Ollie Kenchington is a filmmaker and founder of production company Korro Limited. With a lot of experience in production and post, Ollie shares with us what he thinks have been the most significant advancements in relation to post workflow in recent times. G-Technology’s Greg Crosby is back on the show to talk to us about their latest collaboration with Atomos, with the introduction of the Atomos Master Caddy by G-Technology made specifically for Atomos 4K video workflows. We also talk to Paul Matthijs Lombert, one of the people behind file transfer software Hedge For Mac, who shares with us a little bit about his beginnings as a sound engineer, and the story behind Hedge. Please visit our sponsors’ websites to keep new episodes of ON THE GO coming! Thanks to Hedge for Mac,  G-Technology, Røde Microphones, Sachtler and in association with Ford and Sony.