Every director has a bag of tricks, and if you are a director/ cameraman, that bag had better run deep. Once it was enough to know how to light and shoot, but recently it has become essential for a director to also have some telecine technique, to understand transfer lenses, defocusing, desaturation and so on.
Not too long ago, much of what a director did to create a look happened chemically. You employed diffusion or not, shot negative or reversal, used a filter. But today achieving a certain look is much more of a collaborative effort, and a lot of that collaboration happens in post. Today’s DPs may be less familiar with sensitometry and defog layers than was the previous generation, but they generally know a lot more about digital technology and computer graphics, and that gives them an edge. They spend much less time on the set sculpting their look, because they know what can be done later on.
This change has increased the importance of the colorist—because much of what used to happen in the camera now occurs in the telecine suite. As a director/cameraman, I think of the colorist as analogous to my lighting guy. I depend on him to ensure that the imagery looks great.
For the past several years, I’ve done much of my transfer work with Mark Wilkins, a colorist at R!OT, Santa Monica. Occasionally a scheduling conflict will cause me to work with someone else, but I see a lot of value in a long-term relationship. Over time, Mark has become attuned to the way I like to work and to how I want my film to look. I have also come to depend on his judgment, creatively and practically. If there is a problem, I know I’ll get the first call.
It’s those seemingly small, interpersonal issues that are key to a good working relationship. Mark is a very creative colorist and highly skilled at what he does, but one of the things I like best about him is that he is fast and is not a lot of schmooze. He can multitask—talk and turn knobs at the same time. That may appear trivial, but to me it’s important because I like to have a dialogue, but I also want to get the work done.
Being fast is also helpful because I like to have Mark do my dailies. It’s more expensive to have him do the work than to have it done at a dailies house, but I find that it’s worth the cost. Dailies are my first opportunity to see my film, and I want to enjoy it and get a clear idea of what’s there. I will have a much better idea of what I have if Mark takes the first pass. Still, I wouldn’t be able to go that route if he weren’t quick. My producers would go crazy.
It makes a lot of sense to get the colorist involved early because that’s when we can do our most productive work. Early on, we have the time to experiment, to test a variety of approaches to coloring the film. I tend to work with blue-chip clients who have a certain level of expectation regarding the look; still, they expect you to experiment, to come up with something fresh and engaging. It’s a fine line to walk.
The experimental phase of a project is exciting, but it can also be a sensitive time for a director. When you go into an agency to show your tests, you’re vulnerable. You don’t often let your clients see the underpinnings of your work. It’s as though you are standing there in your underwear. Obviously, you want to feel confident in what you’ve got. That’s when having a colorist whose judgment you trust matters most.
It wasn’t all that long ago that agencies began telling directors which DPs they wanted them to work with. Now they are doing the same thing with colorists. As part of the natural evolution of the industry, colorists have become powerful figures. Where once they were essentially technicians who transferred film to video, they have become important contributors to the creative process. In doing so, they have earned the right to call themselves "artists."
