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From Burritos to Hollywood Blockbusters: A Chat with Senior Colorist John Daro
From Burritos to Hollywood Blockbusters: A Chat with Senior…
Join us on an engaging journey into the colorful world of filmmaking with John Daro, the lead DI colorist at Warner Post Production Creativ…
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Feb. 6, 2025

From Burritos to Hollywood Blockbusters: A Chat with Senior Colorist John Daro

Join us on an engaging journey into the colorful world of filmmaking with John Daro, the lead DI colorist at Warner Post Production Creative Services. John shares his fascinating insights into the art of color grading, drawing parallels between the meticulous craft of filmmaking and the simple pleasure of brewing coffee and tea. 

Together, we unravel the unconventional path of an editor whose passion was sparked by early tech experiences and unique ventures like selling breakfast burritos and DJing. From pivotal moments in Camarillo to the life-changing Avid certification, we celebrate the magic that happens when technology, creativity, and a human ingenuity combine in a relentless pursuit to make cool stories. Our conversation also sheds light on the groundbreaking use of HDR in animated films, where subtle enhancements in character emotions and minute details transform storytelling, drawing unexpected yet powerful parallels with classical art techniques.

Reflecting on the evolving landscape of filmmaking in the remote (COVID) era, we emphasize the irreplaceable value of collaborating with talent in person and how the essence of in-person creativity remains unmatched in the sport of filmmaking. 

Grab your favorite beverage and get ready for an excellent episode of Color & Coffee!

Guest Links:
IG - https://www.instagram.com/johndaro/
Website + Blog - https://www.johndaro.com/
Studio Website - https://www.watertowercolor.com/
IMDB - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2237933/
NeatVideo - https://www.neatvideo.com/

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Flanders Scientific Inc. (FSI)
Reference Displays for Editors, Colorists and DITS

PixelTools
Modern Color Grading Tools and Presets for DaVinci Resolve

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Produced by Bowdacious Media LLC



Chapters

01:43 - Intro & Coffee Talk

06:48 - John's Background

17:15 - HDR and Animated Films (Seabeast, In Your Dreams)

25:38 - Understanding HDR and its use in Filmmaking

32:00 - Collaborative Filmmaking in Remote Era

Transcript

WEBVTT

00:00:00.140 --> 00:00:06.141
I feel like if you are in the room and often I like to have my filmmakers sit right next to me, right?

00:00:06.663 --> 00:00:13.420
Only because, let's say, they're in front of the console or whatever One thing good about that is you don't have monitors blasting in your face, so your color perception is a little bit better.

00:00:13.461 --> 00:00:19.762
But I think that often people get you'll give a note and then there'll be some time where the note's being executed.

00:00:19.981 --> 00:00:27.995
That's like watching paint dry, start to get you know like do-do-do, and then there'll be another note that's on the same shot while you're finishing the first one.

00:00:28.539 --> 00:00:37.134
And if they're next to you, if they're in the room and they see what you're doing on the GUI and they see you know Fury of Bleach, there's something about that where that's engaging for them.

00:00:37.380 --> 00:00:42.584
And now it's a different sort of process than I ask for something and I'm waiting 30 seconds for it.

00:00:42.965 --> 00:00:46.987
And that collaboration there's no substitute for that.

00:00:47.027 --> 00:00:48.429
You have to be together.

00:00:48.668 --> 00:00:50.170
It's a communal thing, right?

00:00:50.411 --> 00:00:54.853
The whole reason that we make theatrical content is because it's a communal thing.

00:00:55.195 --> 00:00:57.216
You need to be in the same space, you know.

00:00:57.235 --> 00:00:58.697
You want to laugh together, you want to cry together.

00:01:01.719 --> 00:01:02.843
You know it's not something that should be in isolation.

00:01:02.862 --> 00:01:11.662
So I think that if we're making it for that, we should while we're making it be together as well.

00:01:11.682 --> 00:01:14.308
Welcome to Color and Coffee, a podcast that's focused on the craft of color and the artists behind it.

00:01:14.328 --> 00:01:24.266
I'm your host, jason Bowdach, and each episode we'll sit down with some of the most talented artists in the industry and have a casual chat from one artist to another.

00:01:24.548 --> 00:01:30.670
We'll share their stories, their insights, their tips and, of course, their beverage of choice.

00:01:31.230 --> 00:01:36.688
Whether you're a season pro or just getting started, join us for some great color discussion.

00:01:37.430 --> 00:01:39.153
Sit back, grab your mug.

00:01:39.799 --> 00:01:41.763
You're listening to Color Coffee.

00:01:43.665 --> 00:01:47.031
Welcome to another episode of Color and Coffee.

00:01:47.352 --> 00:01:50.442
I am so excited for our guest today.

00:01:50.802 --> 00:01:55.573
He is somebody that I have been trying to get on the show for literally years now.

00:01:55.739 --> 00:01:56.862
I'm not joking about that.

00:01:56.923 --> 00:02:00.992
We have been going back and forth for, I want to say, two years now.

00:02:01.501 --> 00:02:04.167
I am excited to introduce you to John Daro.

00:02:04.527 --> 00:02:09.044
He is the lead DI colorist at Warner Post Production Creative Services.

00:02:09.466 --> 00:02:19.112
His work includes the soon-to-be-released In your Dreams, dear Mama, the Sea Beast and some of my favorites Contagion and Side Effects.

00:02:19.520 --> 00:02:20.504
Welcome to the show, john.

00:02:21.310 --> 00:02:23.058
Thanks, jason, appreciate it, man, happy to be here.

00:02:23.139 --> 00:02:24.443
I'm glad we can make this work finally.

00:02:24.865 --> 00:02:26.670
Seriously, it's been too long.

00:02:26.951 --> 00:02:34.692
We're both members of CSI and we've been talking about this forever, but obviously giving busy schedules is hard to make time to get on a podcast.

00:02:34.711 --> 00:02:36.966
So I appreciate you coming on the show, no doubt, man.

00:02:37.447 --> 00:02:39.092
Yeah, no colorist, we build by the hour.

00:02:39.639 --> 00:02:43.445
Seriously, you got to fill that schedule or otherwise that room's going to be expensive.

00:02:43.747 --> 00:02:48.775
So the most important question of the hour that I'm going to be asking you what are you drinking today?

00:02:49.360 --> 00:02:53.812
Well, usually bourbon, but because it's work hours, I almost got a spill cake from you.

00:02:54.580 --> 00:02:56.187
No, no, just normal coffee.

00:02:56.340 --> 00:02:59.370
We have Starbucks here on the lot, but it's like halfway across the way.

00:02:59.721 --> 00:03:02.689
I rarely venture out that way, so it's just like the little Keurig machine.

00:03:03.280 --> 00:03:05.407
I know, I know I just made a bunch of like coffee.

00:03:05.447 --> 00:03:11.284
Like aficionados just cringe, but to me it's a caffeine delivery mechanism, it's okay.

00:03:11.305 --> 00:03:12.950
I totally, totally get you.

00:03:13.050 --> 00:03:13.693
What are you drinking?

00:03:14.194 --> 00:03:14.796
I'm drinking.

00:03:14.856 --> 00:03:20.412
Well, to be full disclosure, john surprised me and this is put together on, like I want to say, 45 minutes notice.

00:03:25.099 --> 00:03:26.304
So this is Cameron's coffee, which is my normal cup of joe.

00:03:26.324 --> 00:03:31.241
I didn't have anything fancy to put together in my Super Mario mug, I think a little bit of vanilla extract in there, so pretty standard.

00:03:31.745 --> 00:03:44.450
But one of the things that I've put together by talking to so many colorists is there is so much variety and really the only thing that is important is getting some type of beverage in your system, and if it is caffeinated beverage, make sure to get water in there as well.

00:03:47.900 --> 00:03:50.750
Yeah, no doubt I usually don't drink coffee all that much, but you made it a request so I was like, well then, yes, let's have a cup.

00:03:50.770 --> 00:03:57.245
I do like I don't know if you've ever had that I'm going to butcher the name, but it's like I O T E N, I, I T, n, I T?

00:03:57.365 --> 00:03:57.465
N.

00:03:57.965 --> 00:03:59.546
It's green tea that my wife gets.

00:03:59.586 --> 00:04:01.649
I don't know where she gets it from, but it's fantastic.

00:04:01.669 --> 00:04:02.330
It comes in a bottle.

00:04:02.550 --> 00:04:08.276
You don't have to brew anything, and I'll usually crush those quite a bit, but yeah, not not something that I.

00:04:08.575 --> 00:04:12.366
I'm kind of twitchy by nature, so, like coffee, it puts me over the edge.

00:04:12.847 --> 00:04:15.391
I mean, I'm literally twiddling my feet over here.

00:04:15.453 --> 00:04:16.944
So I I completely understand.

00:04:17.204 --> 00:04:17.507
You know what.

00:04:17.747 --> 00:04:33.091
I sort of had a secret fascination with discovering different types of coffee, so that was also a side discovery of wanting to start this show is discovering what other people were drinking, and obviously not wanting to crash in their kitchen or not having the ability to work in every post house around the world.

00:04:33.480 --> 00:04:38.245
I get to ask so many lovely people about what their favorite cup of joe is while powering their suite.

00:04:38.982 --> 00:04:41.589
In many ways, though, isn't it just artistry in all levels?

00:04:41.850 --> 00:04:56.192
Right, there's places around my house where they just take it to such a high level of like the brewing, the coffee, with these crazy drip contraptions, with like this really nice blown glass that spins the thing, cools it as it drops down, and I'm kind of impressed with that, that like people can take it to that level.

00:04:56.252 --> 00:05:03.250
I'm probably that way with a little bit of, like you know, cooking and like grilling and certain types of charcoal at home, I get that level.

00:05:03.391 --> 00:05:04.713
Coffee probably not so much.

00:05:09.399 --> 00:05:10.947
It's so funny you bring that up because that it's essentially.

00:05:10.966 --> 00:05:12.572
You have to pick and choose how fine you're going to be about certain arts.

00:05:12.593 --> 00:05:15.545
I like to be that way about coffee, but see, about grilling meats.

00:05:15.685 --> 00:05:17.473
I was talking to this about Joey Deanna.

00:05:17.834 --> 00:05:19.079
I like my meats.

00:05:19.259 --> 00:05:26.622
Well done, and I know I just made a bunch of people fall over right now, exactly, exactly, and that's just my preference.

00:05:26.961 --> 00:05:31.822
And my wife looks at me and she's like there's something wrong with you, you're wired incorrectly.

00:05:32.182 --> 00:05:44.663
But that's 100%, and so I understand there's probably like 85% of the audience I know it's a majority or like you're wrong but my answer to that is well, they wouldn't ask you if it wasn't a preference.

00:05:44.704 --> 00:05:50.161
They would just be like but in the same way, I really like to get all fancy with my coffee and stuff.

00:05:50.201 --> 00:05:54.500
So totally, not only is it a preference, but how much do you want to dive into getting into it?

00:05:54.540 --> 00:05:57.369
In the same way, about color grading, you can get really technical.

00:05:57.730 --> 00:05:59.783
And same way about the creative you can dive into it.

00:06:00.384 --> 00:06:01.889
And it's picking and choosing.

00:06:02.269 --> 00:06:06.696
I have a follow-up question to that, and I don't think I've ever asked you this when are you from originally?

00:06:07.180 --> 00:06:10.625
This is going to make a little bit more sense With that weird preference.

00:06:10.985 --> 00:06:13.105
I'm that weird guy that was born and raised in LA.

00:06:13.586 --> 00:06:14.067
Oh, no way.

00:06:14.088 --> 00:06:14.309
Me too.

00:06:14.961 --> 00:06:15.865
La kids, we're like unicorns.

00:06:16.300 --> 00:06:21.646
The reason I ask that is because my mother was from Texas and she would burn her meat.

00:06:21.766 --> 00:06:24.591
It had to be well done, so you won't even go like a medium.

00:06:24.872 --> 00:06:25.733
A medium is too far.

00:06:30.439 --> 00:06:30.800
It's just too far.

00:06:30.841 --> 00:06:31.824
It needs to be all the way cooked through.

00:06:31.843 --> 00:06:32.925
Where in Texas is this I'm going to have to visit?

00:06:32.946 --> 00:06:33.307
You would like it?

00:06:33.326 --> 00:06:33.507
No, no, no.

00:06:33.528 --> 00:06:36.461
You'd never find this place Sublime, Texas, population 60-fo.

00:06:36.822 --> 00:06:40.687
It had a general store, a dairy queen and a post office.

00:06:40.987 --> 00:06:41.449
That was it.

00:06:41.850 --> 00:06:42.850
That was the entire town.

00:06:43.072 --> 00:06:44.533
If only they had a barbecue place.

00:06:45.355 --> 00:06:49.701
Right right?

00:06:49.721 --> 00:06:50.644
No, you had to go into Shiner for that.

00:06:50.665 --> 00:06:52.211
Where's Shiner box from as we wander away from what we're talking about?

00:06:52.230 --> 00:07:05.232
But that's one of the joys of this podcast is the fact that we are essentially all artists but we have different preferences, and the most important thing is that a lot of us get, especially as colorists, get really caught up in knowing every single thing.

00:07:05.653 --> 00:07:08.685
But that's something that you touched on is you can pick and choose.

00:07:08.906 --> 00:07:13.726
You're choosing not to be what a lot of people call a coffee snob, and that's perfectly fine.

00:07:14.329 --> 00:07:17.564
Oh, but I would be interested in it If somebody wants to take me down that rabbit hole.

00:07:17.785 --> 00:07:23.064
I think curiosity is the key that I think we probably all share, right, Like, hey, how did you do that?

00:07:23.386 --> 00:07:26.610
Hey, that's really good, I can appreciate that, right, and I think it is just.

00:07:26.670 --> 00:07:29.040
That's what it comes down to a matter of taste, right?

00:07:29.120 --> 00:07:30.485
Just because I don't probably pursue that.

00:07:30.524 --> 00:07:32.451
I can definitely appreciate a good cup of coffee.

00:07:33.040 --> 00:07:37.050
I think its color is probably similar to that, right, there's no right or wrong answer.

00:07:37.071 --> 00:07:39.463
I mean, there's technically correct and we're not going to get into that stuff.

00:07:39.502 --> 00:07:42.086
But when you get away from that, it's does it work?

00:07:42.406 --> 00:07:43.348
Does it work for the story?

00:07:43.528 --> 00:07:45.651
Is this the vision that the filmmakers were going for?

00:07:46.132 --> 00:07:53.189
Well, let me ask you a question what is, what is your background and how did you get into this, so I can understand a little bit more about how you think?

00:07:53.550 --> 00:08:10.245
Yeah, I always wanted I mean, when I was younger, at least, I feel like next to directing and maybe on the same level as writing, I feel like the next job and position that has the most control over how a story is told is the editor, right?

00:08:10.345 --> 00:08:13.471
And so, for me, I always wanted to be an editorial.

00:08:13.932 --> 00:08:14.420
That was my goal.

00:08:14.500 --> 00:08:23.103
I mean, I guess in a way, we're the local 700 editors guild, so I've made it, but you could think of me as a failed editor.

00:08:23.485 --> 00:08:24.507
Let's put it that way.

00:08:24.869 --> 00:08:25.108
Jordan.

00:08:25.250 --> 00:08:25.870
Welcome to the club.

00:08:26.600 --> 00:08:34.695
That was always my goal and still my first passion, and I love how you can take the same footage right and you give it to four different editors.

00:08:34.715 --> 00:08:42.765
You're going to have four different styles, four different voices, four different ways and potentially four different stories right Come out of that same exact media.

00:08:42.986 --> 00:08:43.869
I just love that craft.

00:08:43.989 --> 00:08:45.091
I just think it's so cool.

00:08:45.131 --> 00:08:49.168
It's a really high form of art because it does involve every discipline.

00:08:49.370 --> 00:08:55.860
You know, for me, starting out early on, I wanted to be an editor, so I, you know, show up to photos In school or when you got into the industry.

00:08:56.642 --> 00:08:57.322
School, what's that?

00:08:59.645 --> 00:09:01.807
No, I honestly I never even graduated high school, man.

00:09:01.948 --> 00:09:02.789
I don't recommend that.

00:09:02.950 --> 00:09:05.072
I was kind of a bad kid, I'm going to put it that way.

00:09:05.192 --> 00:09:07.875
But I did tool around with cameras and my computer.

00:09:09.299 --> 00:09:09.881
That was like my thing, right.

00:09:09.902 --> 00:09:11.368
I was ripping apart computers when I was like 13 years old.

00:09:11.941 --> 00:09:13.989
I remember working for my father for one summer.

00:09:14.179 --> 00:09:25.660
He paid me in a GPU and a tablet, right, and I was like, looking back on that, I'm like wait a minute, you deal.

00:09:25.681 --> 00:09:26.283
But that was always my passion.

00:09:26.303 --> 00:09:28.934
I mean, I remember Lightworks way, way, way back in the day and me tooling around with like 3D animation and that kind of thing.

00:09:28.955 --> 00:09:31.725
The original Photoshop, before it had layers I remember having that.

00:09:31.745 --> 00:09:32.908
I got it on a zip disc.

00:09:33.288 --> 00:09:35.142
All of that stuff was really, you know, formative.

00:09:35.363 --> 00:09:38.840
To me it was all just tinkering, it was a hobby until it wasn't right.

00:09:39.381 --> 00:09:53.429
I did go to Video Symphony and got my ACSR and I think that was the first step of me becoming not a kid anymore and kind of growing up and going oh wait, to survive in this world you need to have a job and make money and self-support.

00:09:53.509 --> 00:10:06.068
Right Way back in the day I did work for a motherboard manufacturing place and, like building chips, that was a factory of a job, but it did get me Motherboard manufacturer as a fellow nerd.

00:10:06.600 --> 00:10:08.246
It was called GACA Technologies.

00:10:08.500 --> 00:10:12.010
As a matter of fact, they made the Alcatel chip which goes into a ton of cell phones.

00:10:12.259 --> 00:10:12.964
This is super nerdy.

00:10:12.984 --> 00:10:15.720
But I grew up in Camarillo and there's nothing out there.

00:10:15.779 --> 00:10:20.625
There was an insane asylum back when they had those, before Reagan got rid of them all.

00:10:21.086 --> 00:10:26.732
That is now Cal State Channel Islands, which I think is kind of funny because it's a different sort of an insane asylum here.

00:10:26.793 --> 00:10:37.428
Think, like everybody else, in a weird way, there was nothing to do out there, but that was maybe a good thing.

00:10:37.448 --> 00:10:40.519
I mean, it's just strawberry fields and track homes, but they had this industrial park that had a ton of industry.

00:10:40.539 --> 00:10:44.606
I mean Technicolor, way back in the day, had a huge facility there that was all duplication.

00:10:44.908 --> 00:10:48.052
So I'd be seeing that every day driving to school From that right.

00:10:48.072 --> 00:11:01.866
There was a place that is probably going too far off topic but I used to sell like breakfast burritos, like to all of these places that me and my buds would make, and then we would instead of we'd say like hey, that roach coach, you don't want to eat there here, have this out of the back of my Honda Prelude.

00:11:01.907 --> 00:11:02.748
This is much better.

00:11:02.888 --> 00:11:03.808
We made this at home.

00:11:04.750 --> 00:11:06.293
Give me three bucks, I'll give you a breakfast burrito.

00:11:06.774 --> 00:11:11.227
Well, one of the guys at the place liked the ingenuity of that and said, hey, you want a job?

00:11:11.269 --> 00:11:22.609
And I was like, yeah, sure, started working there at this JCA technology place and what was cool about it was at the time they had a giant machine that would basically use early machine vision.

00:11:22.710 --> 00:11:34.057
It took a black and white picture of the chip and you fed in the CAD drawing and it could recognize where the corners were, auto align itself and do the soldering with gold thread.

00:11:34.097 --> 00:11:35.782
Basically that's cool, super cool.

00:11:36.302 --> 00:11:37.065
And so that was always.

00:11:37.125 --> 00:11:39.480
I was always kind of nerdy like that, always into some tech stuff.

00:11:39.922 --> 00:11:49.291
Long story short, I was kind of a partier, I would suppose, and pursued the dream of being a DJ Right, that was a horrible mistake, went out to Vegas.

00:11:49.799 --> 00:11:57.690
But if you think about it, djing is not dissimilar to making swift cuts, right, or mixing things in layering certain elements, right.

00:11:58.139 --> 00:12:03.426
So it's kind of like the first, I guess you could say like multi-track sort of experiences, and it's all about timing Right.

00:12:05.279 --> 00:12:06.562
Multi-track sort of experiences and it's all about timing right.

00:12:06.582 --> 00:12:10.793
I quickly learned that you cannot survive off of free beer and chicken wings, and like the piddly sums they were paying.

00:12:11.174 --> 00:12:15.128
So that was when I was like I better get some skills, as my wife says.

00:12:15.168 --> 00:12:19.104
You were bona fide and I got my ACSR certificate From there.

00:12:19.464 --> 00:12:25.715
I thought, well, if I fix the avids, if I'm in there, I'm surrounded by a bunch of the high end editors that are in Los Angeles, around here.

00:12:25.779 --> 00:12:26.946
I'm going to fix their avids.

00:12:27.379 --> 00:12:32.251
This should give me an in to potentially assist or, you know, even log and digitize and that kind of thing.

00:12:32.759 --> 00:12:41.389
Because now you had the dream of essentially you wanted to be an editor, because you saw what these guys were doing and creating stories and you wanted to essentially be in that seat.

00:12:42.129 --> 00:12:42.951
Absolutely Like.

00:12:42.971 --> 00:12:43.892
That's the spot man.

00:12:43.971 --> 00:12:49.535
And so you know, in going through that, one of the paths that I went, I remember editor over at PhotoChem, right.

00:12:49.556 --> 00:13:10.698
So I call him up, he gets me a gig over with this guy, tom Wong, who is head of HR.

00:13:11.120 --> 00:13:13.673
He sits me down, he says all right, john, what would you like to do here?

00:13:14.014 --> 00:13:19.774
And I said, oh, edit, I'm an editor, right, here's my certifications, I'm an editor.

00:13:19.793 --> 00:13:22.398
And he goes yeah, yeah, you and everyone else that works here.

00:13:22.717 --> 00:13:24.480
So where would you like to start?

00:13:24.600 --> 00:13:32.889
And I was like, well, boy, ego beat down wherever, Right.

00:13:32.910 --> 00:13:40.359
So I started off in negative assembly and cleaning and, like, doing this for eight hours a day with a velvet cloth, you know, leadering up things, getting it prepped for telecine, from there moved into a telecine assist spot and watching scopes.

00:13:40.519 --> 00:13:47.503
You know some of the greats, like you know you're watching Tom Satori, costas, the Garrow brothers like very, very priceless education on the job.

00:13:47.789 --> 00:13:50.158
Right, just watching these masters just move this stuff around.

00:13:50.217 --> 00:13:57.211
And the hard way, right, setting up the ranks and getting everything tuned up and making sure that it was all perfect, laying it down.

00:13:57.251 --> 00:14:00.620
You had one shot Better, sure, it was programmed right from there.

00:14:00.769 --> 00:14:02.792
Then we got this is pretty DaVinci right.

00:14:03.392 --> 00:14:04.833
It was a DaVinci 2K Like.

00:14:04.854 --> 00:14:10.499
So I came in like there were still some of those old Pogles with the joysticks, but that was old technology.

00:14:10.558 --> 00:14:15.222
So, yeah, davinci 2K was the hot thing and the spirits were just starting to roll out.

00:14:15.263 --> 00:14:17.985
There was a Millennium that could do IMAX scanning.

00:14:18.005 --> 00:14:18.866
That was really cool too.

00:14:21.769 --> 00:14:23.052
So from there then I saw how they were doing the Avids.

00:14:23.092 --> 00:14:28.716
There was one show and this happens in every career, every position right, where something is broken, people are freaking out, right.

00:14:28.870 --> 00:14:29.591
It was at that moment.

00:14:29.611 --> 00:14:32.240
I got pulled out of the room and they said, hey, it's really tense in here.

00:14:32.590 --> 00:14:34.357
We don't need to tell us any prep around here.

00:14:34.450 --> 00:14:35.614
Can you just walk out?

00:14:35.653 --> 00:14:39.230
All the engineers were in there, it was all hands on deck and I said, yeah, yeah, but I know what's wrong.

00:14:39.491 --> 00:14:43.916
This guy walks back in, he, he thinks he can fix it and he goes all right.

00:14:43.937 --> 00:14:46.578
You got five minutes and I went click, click, click and that was it.

00:14:46.619 --> 00:14:47.299
It was on the Avid.

00:14:47.320 --> 00:14:50.023
They had AES coming in instead of embedded audio.

00:14:50.102 --> 00:14:50.484
That was it.

00:14:50.524 --> 00:14:52.365
And they said, wow, you really do know these things.

00:14:52.426 --> 00:14:53.106
I said yes, yes, yes.

00:15:02.960 --> 00:15:05.182
This is all I've been doing for the last couple of years.

00:15:05.222 --> 00:15:06.644
So, the Avid, I did that for a little bit.

00:15:06.664 --> 00:15:07.946
And then it was scanning and recording.

00:15:08.470 --> 00:15:11.639
Scanning and recording led to, hey, let's buy a color corrector and do this for real.

00:15:11.779 --> 00:15:13.176
Right, we got a Quantel.

00:15:13.711 --> 00:15:14.634
None of us knew how to run it.

00:15:14.750 --> 00:15:16.397
We imported Walter like a fine wine.

00:15:16.990 --> 00:15:23.451
So then we have Walter Valpato coming in and you know, then all of a sudden I was like, oh, that's how you do it, okay.

00:15:23.532 --> 00:15:24.253
Okay, I got this.

00:15:24.273 --> 00:15:25.153
This is how you really do this stuff.

00:15:25.373 --> 00:15:30.294
Worked underneath him for a long time, kind of got my bearings, finally got to be in the chair.

00:15:30.774 --> 00:15:35.917
At that point I knew how to press the buttons really well, computers were my thing, but the color didn't know the color at all.

00:15:36.256 --> 00:15:45.139
So then Dan Muscarella sat with me for, you know, taught me the beauty of a point of yellow.

00:15:45.600 --> 00:15:46.740
That's really all it was right.

00:15:46.760 --> 00:15:48.480
It was just like he's a master man.

00:15:48.561 --> 00:15:49.081
And then that was it.

00:15:49.322 --> 00:15:51.182
That was it Ended up here.

00:15:51.581 --> 00:15:57.104
Well, that was a really good background about how you got there, so I have a quick question for you then.

00:15:57.283 --> 00:16:00.304
So what was one of the first films that you were in the hot seat for?

00:16:00.546 --> 00:16:00.966
For color.

00:16:01.105 --> 00:16:05.506
The very first one was a Lindsay Lohan movie called I Know who Killed Me, shot by John Leonetti.

00:16:05.726 --> 00:16:06.408
That was that.

00:16:06.447 --> 00:16:09.729
Couldn't pick a nicer DP to be like yeah, strap in, buddy.

00:16:12.909 --> 00:16:14.052
Sorry, this is, this is my first rodeo, not yours.

00:16:14.072 --> 00:16:17.390
Shot on Genesis and the process of that, right Again.

00:16:17.831 --> 00:16:24.610
So much of it is working with amazing DPs and pulling a little something out of each experience, right.

00:16:24.730 --> 00:16:27.697
And then all of a sudden it's like a soup and your taste has been made.

00:16:28.318 --> 00:16:33.618
And, if I'm not mistaken, you've continued to work with him again on, I believe, annabelle, or was it?

00:16:33.658 --> 00:16:34.520
Annabelle that was shot by him.

00:16:35.470 --> 00:16:36.753
Yeah, that was the first Annabelle.

00:16:37.134 --> 00:16:41.631
And then on top of that there was this was working with Walter.

00:16:41.672 --> 00:16:45.946
Before that was Dead Silence, death Sentence.

00:16:46.046 --> 00:16:47.652
I know those sound similar but they're two different movies.

00:16:47.913 --> 00:16:56.115
And then just being a collaborator just throughout the years, you know calling him when I had questions on the camera side and vice versa, and John's a killer, killer, dude.

00:16:56.155 --> 00:16:57.760
Actually, that whole family is incredible.

00:16:58.269 --> 00:16:59.212
Oh yes, I forgot that.

00:16:59.533 --> 00:17:00.277
It's a whole family.

00:17:00.397 --> 00:17:03.515
The whole family is DPs, or they're all just in the industries?

00:17:07.451 --> 00:17:08.855
I think his father was actually camera rental.

00:17:08.875 --> 00:17:09.718
I could be wrong on that one.

00:17:09.738 --> 00:17:13.476
But Matt Leonetti, his brother, also amazing, amazing cinematographer, just killer, shooter, man.

00:17:13.636 --> 00:17:15.542
What a great way to jump into the industry.

00:17:15.884 --> 00:17:17.691
I want to switch gears a tiny bit.

00:17:17.730 --> 00:17:24.357
We've talked mainly about live action, but I want to talk about your work on some animated films, like the Seabees and In your Dreams.

00:17:24.818 --> 00:17:27.145
So it's fascinating to me.

00:17:27.307 --> 00:17:52.057
I watched the Sea Beast probably a couple of years ago, but we had some interesting conversations about the filmmakers resistance to HDR and I wanted to chat about some of that here and about how you approach animated films and how they work in the HDR pipeline and in the HDR container, because, from what we've talked about, you're a fan of HDR as a creative tool, right?

00:17:52.479 --> 00:17:56.693
Yeah, but I think that that's like saying you're a fan of, like, oil-based paint, right.

00:17:56.755 --> 00:18:01.413
It really is just another medium that you can spread your pixels across.

00:18:01.433 --> 00:18:06.296
That Like, if you think of it like it's, you have a piece of bread, right, you can butter one side or you can butter the whole bread.

00:18:06.737 --> 00:18:07.559
It's really up to you.

00:18:07.829 --> 00:18:09.135
What are you going for, right?

00:18:09.631 --> 00:18:12.319
Just because you have the container doesn't mean you have to fill it up.

00:18:12.450 --> 00:18:13.515
You can use what you want.

00:18:14.349 --> 00:18:15.830
Why don't you explain it better than I can?

00:18:16.171 --> 00:18:30.997
What was some of the reaction that creatives that are used to an SDR not only grade but create a process that when they come into your suite and they see this in HDR for the first time, what are the reactions that they're getting, or what was the reaction that they were getting for the first time?

00:18:31.237 --> 00:18:32.157
I think you said resistance.

00:18:32.258 --> 00:18:33.618
It wasn't necessarily resistance.

00:18:33.739 --> 00:18:37.779
It was a strange time for all of us, right, it was a lot of people working from home.

00:18:38.240 --> 00:18:51.066
Typically on a show, I will build the color pipeline and be very managed, and we will have displays that are calibrated, that are sent off to the chief creative people that are in charge of really dialing in the look, from lighting and production design, that kind of thing.

00:18:51.246 --> 00:18:57.972
We didn't get to do that on this one, right, it was a lot of like hey, here's an iPad, set it this way, and it's going to be pretty close From that point of view.

00:18:58.232 --> 00:19:08.425
A lot of the work was done at these artists' houses, so by the time they got into the bay and they were actually seeing it for real, they're looking at that going that's not my movie, that's not what we did.

00:19:08.506 --> 00:19:13.468
And I was like, well, this is your data, but it might not be your movie, and that's okay, right, they're two different things.

00:19:13.928 --> 00:19:24.742
So the first thing that I did was take what they've been looking at which was mainly sRGB 2.2, and place that inside of a PQ curve, right?

00:19:24.782 --> 00:19:31.567
So now you're sitting there looking and this is exactly what you had, but we have a little bit more right Before you were hitting the ceiling.

00:19:31.909 --> 00:19:33.071
You don't have a ceiling anymore.

00:19:33.373 --> 00:19:34.295
Grow bigger, right.

00:19:34.796 --> 00:19:48.992
And so what we did was we kind of stretched it to a point where it was what we would consider the maximum right, like that's all right, that's where we're getting, where after this, it starts to look a little garish, maybe looks a little HDR, right, and so we pegged it right there.

00:19:49.153 --> 00:20:10.502
Then what we did was we throttled that and we throttled it based on the filmmakers' choices for the scenes, and the funny thing was I didn't notice it at the time as I was going through it, but when you look back on it now and see what my values were set to, you'd think that it would have to do with, like, the action right, when really it actually was tied more to the emotional arc of the characters.

00:20:11.143 --> 00:20:28.810
And it was certain scenes that you would think would be less HDR, because it's a softer sort of like quieter time, were actually the most impactful in HDR, because you'd get sparkles in the characters, like eye glints, right, and that really drew you into the performance.

00:20:28.730 --> 00:20:29.330
So it was kind of interesting to see that.

00:20:29.250 --> 00:20:55.477
It was a little bit counterintuitive, at least for me, to see where that was used, and I kind of feel like it was a little bit like salt and pepper, right, a little bit of salt makes it better, but too much ruins the dish, and so it was one of those things where it was really cool to see how those filmmakers kind of used the medium and they explored it right, as it was kind of the first time seeing what was actually rendered by Sony Picture Imageworks Animation, where you have like, look at all of this that you never saw, it's all here Now.

00:20:55.617 --> 00:20:58.673
Just because it's there doesn't mean it's artistically intended.

00:20:58.753 --> 00:21:09.422
So there is a roll off and you can roll it off and then stretch it, and so then you still have the original kind of like, let's say, ratio, but it's getting a little bit more punch.

00:21:09.722 --> 00:21:11.085
That was not available to them before.

00:21:11.109 --> 00:21:17.160
If you think about it like, think of like old school Renaissance painting, right, like you got a Titian or Rubenesque type thing or like a Rembrandt even.

00:21:17.691 --> 00:21:24.717
It's not that those pictures are jumping off the canvas, right, they're not super bright, but the use of the ratio of contrast and light is what gives them their luminescence.

00:21:24.737 --> 00:21:29.732
Right, they're not super bright, but the use of the ratio of contrast and light is what gives them their luminescence right.

00:21:30.153 --> 00:21:41.917
And so, in the same way, we kind of tried to stay in that same zone where it's like, hey, this is where the clouds need to start kind of folding off and being just background and not being an element that we're looking at, right.

00:21:41.958 --> 00:21:51.463
So let's cap this, roll it off, and now let's expand our compressed range and taking the compressed range and mapping that to what's compelling HDR.

00:21:51.910 --> 00:21:55.477
So that leads me to a really sort of interesting question.

00:21:55.778 --> 00:21:57.280
This is not in the trim process.

00:21:57.320 --> 00:21:58.804
This is during the actual grade.

00:21:58.864 --> 00:22:08.980
Then, because you're describing it sort of like the way that I hear somebody describe a trim and the way that they're touching the curve, but it's actually in the way that they're touching the curve, but it's actually in the grade.

00:22:09.040 --> 00:22:09.721
Think of it this way.

00:22:09.903 --> 00:22:14.973
It's similar to like that wasn't Aces show, but imagine it being like an LMT that we're putting on.

00:22:15.335 --> 00:22:16.459
That's defining a look right.

00:22:16.479 --> 00:22:30.155
If you're working in Aces, oftentimes you'll throw like a film emulation type print simulation LMT on that thing and often what it's doing is it's kind of giving you that soft little shoulder and then giving that toe a little bit of flare.

00:22:30.395 --> 00:22:32.201
It's theoretically doing the same thing.

00:22:32.301 --> 00:22:39.032
I'm compressing the top end and the low end right To give them the same representation that they were used to seeing.

00:22:39.334 --> 00:22:44.191
But now let's place this creatively so that you're basically you painted a frame.

00:22:44.311 --> 00:22:47.240
Let's keep that painting the same, so it stays true to that.

00:22:47.589 --> 00:22:49.315
But now let's place it in this new medium.

00:22:49.634 --> 00:22:54.778
You're essentially just moving it into the correct container and adjusting it so it's not distracting.

00:22:55.018 --> 00:22:55.840
Porting the look over.

00:22:56.550 --> 00:22:56.872
Got it.

00:22:57.693 --> 00:23:05.957
So it's not totally different than, essentially, once you grade an SDR version, moving it into the HDR container and making sure.

00:23:05.977 --> 00:23:16.156
I mean it's that concept of maintaining the contrast ratio you and the DP, the DP set on set and that you guys established originally in your grade and then just moving it into HDR.

00:23:16.390 --> 00:23:17.535
Sort of the same concept, right.

00:23:17.756 --> 00:23:23.001
Totally, and I think that's why I wasn't rattled when they were like that's not my movie, I was like, okay, no problem, We'll make it your film.

00:23:23.342 --> 00:23:30.306
Because, especially in the early days of HDR, I feel like directors and DPs have kind of warmed up to the idea now, but in the beginning days it was no.

00:23:30.326 --> 00:23:37.700
I wanted to look like what was on the project, I wanted to look like my theatrical version, and so what ends up happening in the beginning days of HDR?

00:23:37.779 --> 00:23:45.057
This is just my opinion, but you saw a lot of very tame HDR grades right Grades that were basically you know, your.

00:23:45.217 --> 00:23:51.566
Your highlights weren't going past 100 nits and you had your SDR just in an HDR container, but it matched all versions.

00:23:52.009 --> 00:23:54.338
So everybody was happy with that and everybody was content.

00:23:54.830 --> 00:24:08.104
And slowly but surely I think that that's unwinding itself and you're starting to see a little bit more use of what you can do, Not necessarily pushing the boundaries, but pushing it more to where you're not as tame as you used to be.

00:24:08.971 --> 00:24:21.904
How are you seeing that in some of the films that you've been working on what are some of the I'll say, the more brave situations without giving anything narratively away that you've seen creatives attempt to use HDR in creative ways.

00:24:22.230 --> 00:24:23.255
Just a few that come to my head.

00:24:23.315 --> 00:24:32.323
Right, there's a few sequences where the light is supposed to be intense, right, like you're coming out of a cave or something and you kind of want to be like, oh, I'm a little bit blinded by it, right.

00:24:32.611 --> 00:24:44.163
It's kind of cool to have the technology now where you can physiologically kind of iris your eye down right, like on purpose we're controlling your physiological response and without putting any keyframes, it's sort of a natural dynamic.

00:24:51.349 --> 00:24:53.999
You will adjust to this, but we just hit you with it, really, you know, quickly, right, and that's kind of a cool thing.

00:24:54.019 --> 00:24:58.711
I think another use case would be anything like sci-fi lasers, all that stuff Excellent in HDR, and again, sunsets, like really anything that really should be HDR.

00:24:58.731 --> 00:25:21.009
What I don't like seeing and I do see this quite a bit now and I think it's a problem with I don't want to say you know names or anything but like certain certain grades that I see sometimes where, just because you have a thousand nits or 4,000 nits, you don't put your the hottest thing in your frame at a thousand nits, like if I'm looking at you and we take that light behind you and we put that a thousand, it's going to totally.

00:25:21.130 --> 00:25:22.794
The ratio is broken and it's going to look all crazy.

00:25:22.894 --> 00:25:24.196
I think that the beauty of it.

00:25:24.458 --> 00:25:40.718
If you think of PQ, right, it's perceptual, it should land where it would actually land and if something warrants that like you know, sun bouncing off of snow or dead, dead shot sunset right into the sun then let it go, let it be what it is, and I think that that's.

00:25:40.990 --> 00:25:44.919
We're starting to start to see a lot more of that now, which excites me actually.

00:25:45.279 --> 00:25:46.422
I've been noticing that as well.

00:25:46.461 --> 00:25:58.319
I've been seeing more characters fall into deep shadow and seeing less compression, which I think is pretty exciting in terms of being able to mimic what we're actually seeing in the real world.

00:25:58.820 --> 00:25:59.913
Yeah, no doubt, see.

00:25:59.933 --> 00:26:07.557
I think that's also kind of funny, though, because a lot of people go oh, you get extra blacks and more highlights, and I don't really ever feel that you get extra blacks right.

00:26:07.979 --> 00:26:15.346
Now you do have a little bit more as far as the steps in between, right, where it'll just plummet, right.

00:26:15.645 --> 00:26:16.967
So I do think that you get that.

00:26:17.626 --> 00:26:33.768
I think you also got to be careful, though, when you're grading in a perfectly controlled environment, you know, such as like a DI bay, and then it goes through hits streaming, gets onto service and then you're looking at it very compressed at home not in 12-bit anymore it diminishes, right.

00:26:33.928 --> 00:26:38.064
So I still treat the low end exactly the same as I always have, right.

00:26:38.345 --> 00:26:41.394
If you think about it, zero is always zero, right, so we're staying there.

00:26:42.116 --> 00:26:44.750
What I do feel like you gain is that you don't have that ceiling.

00:26:44.832 --> 00:26:46.838
Ideally, you should never be clipping right.

00:26:47.009 --> 00:26:55.578
Nothing ever hits that top In turn of that, right, if you lift middle gray up and you have something very bright and it's causing your eye to iris down, right.

00:26:56.050 --> 00:26:58.660
So now you've lifted the entire range up.

00:26:59.330 --> 00:27:17.980
Now the impression that you get, the perception that you get, makes those blacks blacker, right, and so if you do lift everything up, you do have that more range because that lifted black that you had before now, because your eye is compensating for a brighter, brightest thing in the frame, that will push that black down naturally.

00:27:18.361 --> 00:27:21.375
So I think in that sense you do get more in the shadows.

00:27:21.715 --> 00:27:27.218
That is a very interesting way of approaching it huh I'm gonna have to think about that for a couple minutes.

00:27:27.778 --> 00:27:28.761
So You're wrong too.

00:27:28.849 --> 00:27:33.162
So please reach out if I was like you're completely batshit crazy, john, You're wrong.

00:27:33.750 --> 00:27:36.480
Always open to heated debate about color nerdness.

00:27:37.471 --> 00:27:38.817
I'm definitely going to try that out later.

00:27:39.349 --> 00:27:45.352
So, on that subject of how you approach different content, you've worked on some archival projects like Dear Mama.

00:27:45.593 --> 00:27:47.638
You've also had to master that in HDR.

00:27:47.980 --> 00:27:58.471
How do you approach projects like that, where you're dealing with a huge variety of content from everything from 8mm film to VHS to I don't even know what else you were doing that you?

00:27:58.510 --> 00:28:02.385
had video, yeah, from like old flip phones, from like the early 2000s.

00:28:02.567 --> 00:28:07.416
The idea is actually very similar to the Seabees conversation, if you think of that as well.

00:28:07.436 --> 00:28:10.162
The medium was always just this this was the range.

00:28:10.442 --> 00:28:20.057
So the first thing to do is to compress it to that you don't want to map the brightest thing in an SDR picture and have that map across to, like you know, 300 nits or something.

00:28:20.117 --> 00:28:20.900
It starts to break apart.

00:28:20.920 --> 00:28:22.310
It looks really weird and awkward.

00:28:22.632 --> 00:28:36.700
By flattening that and compressing it first, that gives a vintage feel to it, right or not vintage, even just acronystically correct for that time period of whatever that was, you know, late 90s, early 2000s and land that in where it needs to land.

00:28:36.900 --> 00:28:59.621
The other thing that that does, at least in that project, was it really made the interview stuff that was, like you know, shot contemporary really pop right, because now it's like well, this was, this is the time capsule, and then this is going to wow, look at this, look how good this looks right with 8k and anamorphic glass and like just sharp as hell, and it really does really kick in.

00:28:59.661 --> 00:29:03.138
And cinematography looks killer in those in those interview scenes.

00:29:03.519 --> 00:29:12.084
So it's kind of cool to have that juxtaposition of telling the story almost feels a little bit kind of dreamlike, in a weird way, like a remembrance of it.

00:29:12.163 --> 00:29:14.134
That's kind of cool to separate those two worlds like that.

00:29:14.616 --> 00:29:15.941
That was something that I was noticing too.

00:29:16.230 --> 00:29:21.622
It does almost technically have this separation effect that helps with the narrative.

00:29:21.962 --> 00:29:31.683
I was noticing that it wasn't distracting in terms of noise and artifacts which, with that type of material I was thinking you might have a lot of trouble with.

00:29:31.825 --> 00:29:33.835
No, no, neat video is a hell of a tool.

00:29:33.875 --> 00:29:34.657
I know we all use it.

00:29:34.789 --> 00:29:40.897
I've been looking my entire life to find something that is better, stronger, faster than that thing and honestly, it's like that's the best one.

00:29:41.009 --> 00:29:41.872
Vlad, and whatever.

00:29:41.892 --> 00:29:45.981
He's done with those fast Fourier transforms and knocking out high frequencies Holy moly man.

00:29:46.001 --> 00:29:48.104
He's done with those fast Fourier transforms and knocking out high frequencies holy moly man.

00:29:48.124 --> 00:29:48.644
He's got it figured out.

00:29:48.663 --> 00:29:51.865
Even the things that I've tried to write myself don't even come close to as good as that is.

00:29:51.905 --> 00:30:01.073
I've even worked that into some, which is unfortunate because then I have to leave my Python pipe and go into some little chingadera to process that and then bring it back into some of my Python code.

00:30:01.634 --> 00:30:02.998
I still use that religiously.

00:30:03.038 --> 00:30:05.423
It's like the best thing for managing.

00:30:08.964 --> 00:30:18.157
Well, that's a great tip because I know a lot of us use that, even though it's quite processor intensive, but it's great to know that it's used on even larger budget projects.

00:30:18.945 --> 00:30:24.553
Yeah, I tell you, man, I don't want to burn us out on this one, but yeah, I mean, what you get for the price for that plugin is out of control.

00:30:24.834 --> 00:30:26.086
He could raise that price, I'd still pay it.

00:30:26.767 --> 00:30:28.750
He could put it to a subscription and I would still pay it.

00:30:28.890 --> 00:30:30.092
But yeah, please don't do that.

00:30:30.172 --> 00:30:31.434
We would all be really sad.

00:30:31.454 --> 00:30:32.036
My boss rejected.

00:30:32.056 --> 00:30:34.038
We're air-gapped man, we're very secure.

00:30:34.058 --> 00:30:34.680
I can't get out.

00:30:35.365 --> 00:30:42.204
So tell me a little bit about ways that you approach collaborations with filmmakers like David Sandberg.

00:30:42.464 --> 00:30:53.180
So David, I know, came from independent filmmaking and immediately sort of struck big with his feature Lights Out and then jumped into films like Animal Creation.

00:30:53.201 --> 00:30:56.345
Struck big with his feature Lights Out and then jumped into films like Annabelle Creation.

00:31:00.006 --> 00:31:04.721
I'm curious how you approach working with filmmakers like him in terms of do you work any differently than a filmmaker like Steven Soderbergh?

00:31:04.741 --> 00:31:04.981
who's done I?

00:31:05.001 --> 00:31:06.286
mean probably hundreds of films.

00:31:06.907 --> 00:31:07.409
Yeah, no doubt.

00:31:07.469 --> 00:31:07.630
I mean.

00:31:07.650 --> 00:31:10.276
I think that I think that people are people, right.

00:31:10.336 --> 00:31:16.490
Everybody's slightly different, especially in their creative process, but also just in their personalities and way of working and what they're going for.

00:31:16.509 --> 00:31:17.349
Also in skill sets.

00:31:17.430 --> 00:31:26.817
And I remember in Annabelle Creation we had this particular vendor we won't name names that was struggling a little bit with the last sequence of the film, trying to get this visual effects right.

00:31:26.958 --> 00:31:32.561
Right, david just said no more notes, rolls up his sleeves and just goes home and does it.

00:31:32.761 --> 00:31:38.153
Right, and seeing a, seeing a guy that's that that hands on is absolutely incredible.

00:31:38.232 --> 00:31:43.131
As a matter of fact, the only guy that I've ever really seen like that was was Soderbergh, so it must be something with a Berg in the name.

00:31:43.532 --> 00:31:52.452
Right, because ultimately, the filmmakers that I gravitate towards the most are the kind of the jack of all trades Right, that can shoot, edit, direct.

00:31:52.712 --> 00:31:58.192
Because I think that, at a certain point, the biggest asset a director can have is communication skills.

00:31:58.273 --> 00:32:05.990
Right, and being an artist of all disciplines really just gives you that many more tools in the tool chest to be like no, I want it like this.

00:32:06.551 --> 00:32:11.868
And then they start doing it like that and you're like oh yeah, okay, I got you and I've worked with a few people like that.

00:32:11.989 --> 00:32:17.577
Devin Crane's, another one that can just not only articulate it but be able to draw it out.

00:32:17.617 --> 00:32:24.798
If the words fail, then here, like this, and that's a super cool power, superpower that a director can have.

00:32:25.085 --> 00:32:33.198
The other thing about David was that there was the first encounter which was really just hey, this is a new line show, I do a lot of new line work, nice to meet you, right.

00:32:33.557 --> 00:32:41.251
But then over, you know the next few films, right, you start to build a shorthand and then all of a sudden, it's like coming home.

00:32:41.432 --> 00:32:49.145
A lot of the getting the band back together creates efficiencies in the pipeline and when you do that you can really just get to the storytelling and get to the film creation.

00:32:49.165 --> 00:32:50.407
Because there is none of that.

00:32:50.548 --> 00:32:51.670
Oh, you don't know what I'm talking about.

00:32:51.789 --> 00:33:06.609
It could just be a grunt, it could be a sigh, it could be like an arms cross, like this, and they're like, okay, hold on, I'll try something else, and you start to get that shorthand together and there's no substitute for that and there's no replicating that, unless you just have the time, the time put in in the dark.

00:33:07.050 --> 00:33:18.821
There's something funny up a film with somebody and I after two sessions I was able to develop that shorthand about the sigh and I could pick up that sigh and I knew immediately it was too much magenta.

00:33:19.444 --> 00:33:24.040
So it's funny how time in a room can help you develop that with somebody.

00:33:24.301 --> 00:33:28.180
But we're in a world a lot of the times where you don't get to be in the room with every decision maker.

00:33:28.480 --> 00:33:35.759
So my question for you is I'm sure you work on a lot of films where you don't get to be in the room with everybody but you need that shorthand.

00:33:36.105 --> 00:33:45.839
How can you develop that shorthand when you in today's world where you're working on films with people remotely or you might not be ever in the same room with somebody a stakeholder?

00:33:46.525 --> 00:33:47.787
Totally, and I actually I hate that.

00:33:47.907 --> 00:33:48.930
I'm going to be the first one to say that.

00:33:48.970 --> 00:33:51.294
You know, working remote is kind of a necessity.

00:33:51.334 --> 00:33:54.078
I mean, if you flashback mid-pandemic time, we had to do that.

00:33:54.105 --> 00:33:55.490
That was the only way that we were getting things done.

00:33:56.125 --> 00:34:02.092
Even if you were on the lot, we still we'd put you in a different theater and I was in the theater next door and that was weird, right, it was weird.

00:34:02.384 --> 00:34:17.360
I think that now the tools have gotten a lot better, right, you look at Evercast, you look at, you know, clear kind of get remote to a better place, obviously, stream box and the color function solution, being able to really get high quality picture to theater, to theater.

00:34:17.539 --> 00:34:18.961
So that box has been checked.

00:34:23.344 --> 00:34:24.148
So I'm not so worried about that.

00:34:24.168 --> 00:34:25.072
That, like, what are you looking at, right?

00:34:25.092 --> 00:34:26.177
So, like, I'm glad that that's removed from the equation.

00:34:26.217 --> 00:34:30.309
There still is no substitute for just being in the room, because even this is great, right, this works.

00:34:30.369 --> 00:34:33.456
I see, I see box, I can see facial expressions.

00:34:33.536 --> 00:34:36.429
That goes a long way, but it's the little things.

00:34:36.530 --> 00:34:45.565
It's the little things of just maybe shifting in a seat right, where you can start to pick up on little nuances, leaning over in a whisper to somebody, right?

00:34:45.967 --> 00:34:48.994
Those things I do feel like are lost when it's not in person.

00:34:49.034 --> 00:34:59.755
The other thing, too, is that I feel like if you are in the room, room, and often I like to have my filmmakers sit right next to me, right Only because, let's say, they're in front of the console or whatever.

00:35:00.405 --> 00:35:04.025
One thing good about that is you don't have monitors blasting in your face, so your color perception is a little bit better.

00:35:04.085 --> 00:35:20.853
But I think that often people get you'll give a note and then there'll be some time where the notes being executed that's like watching paint dry Start to get you know like, and then there'll be another note that's on the same shot while you're finishing the first one.

00:35:20.873 --> 00:35:24.833
And if they're next to you, if they're in the room and they see what you're doing on the GUI and they see you, you know furiously.

00:35:25.074 --> 00:35:27.824
There's something about that where that's engaging for them.

00:35:28.045 --> 00:35:33.273
And now it's a different sort of process than I asked for something and I'm waiting 30 seconds for it.

00:35:33.614 --> 00:35:37.641
And that collaboration there's no substitute for that.

00:35:37.661 --> 00:35:39.063
You have to be together.

00:35:39.583 --> 00:35:40.788
It's a communal thing, right?

00:35:41.028 --> 00:35:45.465
The whole reason that we make theatrical content is because it's a communal thing.

00:35:45.806 --> 00:35:47.251
You need to be in the same space.

00:35:47.672 --> 00:35:49.347
You know you want to laugh together, you want to cry together.

00:35:49.467 --> 00:35:52.498
You know it's not something that should be in isolation.

00:35:52.659 --> 00:35:57.653
So I think that if we're making it for that, we should, while we're making it, be together as well.

00:35:58.255 --> 00:35:59.405
I couldn't agree with that more.

00:35:59.686 --> 00:36:07.452
It's really difficult to work in different rooms and it's is really about the little you mentioned about the way somebody moves in their seat, that's.

00:36:08.373 --> 00:36:12.150
It is about the tiny, uncomfortable movements that people make.

00:36:12.711 --> 00:36:14.764
But all that said available in London and New York.

00:36:16.429 --> 00:36:30.871
If filmmakers are not able to collaborate with the director in person, like some people are like people might work with a colorist remotely what is one tip that you might give them to try and sort of set the stage with their client?

00:36:31.152 --> 00:36:38.851
So the first thing I think is the most important right is you have to put in the time to test and make sure that what you are sending is what you are seeing.

00:36:39.425 --> 00:36:50.351
If you do not have 100% confidence in that, you should not start a session, and that requires whatever measurement device on the other side or potentially calibrating something and shipping it out right.

00:36:50.746 --> 00:37:01.949
Whatever that situation is, that needs to be 100% dialed in, because what you don't want to do is be questioning the setup and that will spiral a session out of control faster than you'll ever know, right?

00:37:02.349 --> 00:37:09.735
So number one is make sure you know what you are targeting, make sure you are sending the right signal, make sure it is getting to the other side correctly.

00:37:10.525 --> 00:37:15.166
So once that's set up, right, that removes a lot of the guesswork and a lot of that you can.

00:37:15.347 --> 00:37:16.449
You can speak with confidence.

00:37:16.489 --> 00:37:19.155
Then right, and that's so important, I think.

00:37:19.195 --> 00:37:22.211
Then the next step is no different than if they were in the room, right.

00:37:22.393 --> 00:37:32.469
It's just you don't get some of those little subtler cues, but you're still interacting, and so much of it these days, and I think that maybe it's just a familiarization with the process and with what the tools can do.

00:37:32.909 --> 00:37:33.831
So much of it is.

00:37:34.231 --> 00:37:34.893
Here's some notes.

00:37:35.293 --> 00:37:38.356
I'm going to go off to sound mix now I'll be back and then it's.

00:37:38.637 --> 00:37:42.961
You know, keep, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat, get the director back in and present.

00:37:43.184 --> 00:37:50.489
So I think that in that case, whether they're here or remotely, the steps in the job stay the same, right, I think?

00:37:50.528 --> 00:37:56.030
As far as color, like look development goes, I think there is a lot of things that you can do upfront, right?

00:37:56.070 --> 00:38:19.034
One of the things that I do I have a web portal that you can log onto and it basically shows the steps of the evolution of the look, because often what will happen is you start, and here's your V1, right, and this is, you know, a mix of this look that we used on the last movie, but we're doing something with oranges and yellows in this one, so these are enhanced and some of the blues are put there to support it.

00:38:19.536 --> 00:38:20.177
So, all right.

00:38:20.224 --> 00:38:21.389
So this is where we're starting from.

00:38:21.530 --> 00:38:23.251
Okay, but now the skin tones look wacky.

00:38:23.525 --> 00:38:26.474
So now here's a key on the skin tones and a swing back the other way.

00:38:26.514 --> 00:38:27.016
That's V2.

00:38:27.496 --> 00:38:33.840
And then V3 might be oh, and now we've taken cyan and desaturated that quite a bit, or whatever right, and you start working it down.

00:38:34.000 --> 00:38:35.440
Now here's the texture addition, all right.

00:38:35.481 --> 00:38:36.760
Now here's some halation on top of that.

00:38:37.001 --> 00:38:39.922
So this is the LUT that you'll use in camera, and then this will be the final look.

00:38:40.385 --> 00:38:44.911
And if you see all of that down, more often than not you can see the evolution.

00:38:44.951 --> 00:38:45.891
You know 100%.

00:38:45.972 --> 00:38:48.534
Yes, where we are is better than where we've been.

00:38:48.755 --> 00:38:59.436
At a certain point you say, okay, this is the language of this film, we're going to stop here, right, but sometimes somebody will say, hey, but for this scene I actually liked our V4.

00:38:59.876 --> 00:39:03.161
I'm like, no problem, we have that in the chamber and we'll go ahead and throw that on.

00:39:03.461 --> 00:39:06.255
So that's a really good way to build all that stuff up front.

00:39:06.375 --> 00:39:14.858
So you're not doing it in the room while people are, you're burning two theaters worth of cost and you're spending the remote time doing that.

00:39:15.465 --> 00:39:19.396
So all of that stuff can be kind of done up front, and I think that's a good thing.

00:39:19.744 --> 00:39:22.994
When you're working interactively, you should be working interactively.

00:39:23.054 --> 00:39:27.494
It should be let's you have a note, let's hit it on the fly, let's do it right now, let's address it.

00:39:27.635 --> 00:39:31.371
If it's over arching notes, well then you say, okay, I got it.

00:39:31.451 --> 00:39:32.291
I got it for the scene.

00:39:32.311 --> 00:39:32.992
I'm going to move on.

00:39:33.253 --> 00:39:34.355
You'll let the paint dry.

00:39:34.375 --> 00:39:35.077
You'll see it tomorrow.

00:39:35.536 --> 00:39:39.309
And, as we start to get towards the end of our time, what is your favorite part of the job?

00:39:39.771 --> 00:39:43.907
Favorite part of the job Everything I honestly, I couldn't imagine me doing anything else.

00:39:44.387 --> 00:39:48.891
I love what we do, right, this is like pixels are my life, no matter what.

00:39:48.911 --> 00:39:49.592
The thing is right.

00:39:49.612 --> 00:39:55.297
Like I really like emerging type of media, right, you know super early, early money on the 3D stuff.

00:39:55.478 --> 00:39:56.119
I really like.

00:39:56.278 --> 00:40:00.592
Spherical projection right now, I think, is like going to start to become a new thing.

00:40:00.652 --> 00:40:03.081
Vr without the VR headset that's awesome, right.

00:40:03.262 --> 00:40:10.355
So whether it's, you know, emissive displays or, like Evans and Sutherland, you know D3D kind of three projectors sort of set up.

00:40:10.514 --> 00:40:16.503
It's funny because each job when I start to work on it, I'll get a little like bipolar and weird manic about it and be like I need to learn everything about this.

00:40:16.784 --> 00:40:25.235
I remember when I was working on my first stop motion jobs, I got, you know, a dragon and like started like tinkering with a slide mount and like building my own little stop motion stuff.

00:40:25.724 --> 00:40:35.219
When I started to do a lot of ride films, I built a gimbal in my house that kind of attaches to some VR headset do like a little like well, this is like a crazy roller coaster thing that's all matched up.

00:40:35.539 --> 00:40:36.561
So I always tinker with this.

00:40:36.581 --> 00:40:37.646
This is what I do for fun.

00:40:37.746 --> 00:40:45.027
It's a blessing to be paid for what you would do if they didn't pay you, and that's how I feel like my whole life's been.

00:40:45.467 --> 00:40:46.947
It really is a blessing man.

00:40:47.088 --> 00:40:48.909
You're one of the few like me.

00:40:49.050 --> 00:40:52.811
You wake up every morning, it sounds like, and you're just happy to do exactly what you do.

00:40:53.492 --> 00:40:54.052
Super grateful.00:40:54.672 --> 00:41:02.059


If we wanted to find out more about your work, more about your website, more about your fantastic blog, where could we find you online?00:41:02.378 --> 00:41:07.963


So go to johnderocom, right, and if you'd like to come do some work, go to watertowercolorcom.00:41:10.965 --> 00:41:16.152


We just launched and we're open for business, so come by and check us out, even if it's just for a tour to kick the tires and see what we got going on over here.00:41:16.266 --> 00:41:19.853


We'll have all of those links in the description for the episode.00:41:20.005 --> 00:41:21.572


Thank you so much for your time, John.00:41:21.664 --> 00:41:23.750


I really appreciate you coming on for the episode.00:41:23.971 --> 00:41:24.572


Thank you, Jason.00:41:24.592 --> 00:41:25.072


I appreciate it.00:41:25.112 --> 00:41:26.115


Man, I'll see you soon.00:41:26.577 --> 00:41:27.077


See you soon.00:41:27.565 --> 00:41:30.929


Thank you all for joining us for this episode of Color and Coffee.00:41:31.048 --> 00:41:33.773


We'll see you guys for the next one, and happy grading.00:41:35.894 --> 00:41:40.139


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