New technologies such as HD, in conjunction with more sophisticated color correctors, are making skilled colorists even hotter commodities as some directors and directors of photography begin to favor post-production solutions over in-camera approaches.

‘They are asking us, as colorists, to do a lot more because the tools of the industry have changed and it’s possible to do more,’ says Colin Moore of Toronto’s Magnetic North. ‘There’s always a worry about where new technology is going to leave people working in the production business. If you’re a good colorist you’re going to be worth your weight in gold.’

Chemical effects such as bleach-bypass, which when done cannot be altered, can now quite easily be approximated in the transfer, allowing filmmakers more room to experiment with looks.

‘I think that directors of photography are now starting to realize that there’s a whole lot more we can do in the transfer suite during color correction,’ says Rob Evans, one of Toronto-based Manta DSP’s top colorists, who tends to work on dailies. ‘I think it’s becoming the norm for films to reserve filter F/X for transfer. If they shoot it in-camera, they’re really married to the look. If they just shoot it straight-up, it gives us the opportunity to try different looks.’

Many Canadian post facilities use da Vinci color correctors, which range from the new da Vinci 2K datacine to the top-of-the-line, all-digital Renaissance 8:8:8 or the classic analog Renaissance. One of the more important technological advances in the newer 8:8:8 is the ability to work with power windows, which allow colorists to position variably shaped windows around a section of an image and manipulate its attributes in isolation of the rest of the picture.

At Manta, there are four transfer suites for Evans, one primarily used for commercial production, two for dailies equipped with da Vinci Renaissance 8:8:8s and Manta’s newest innovation, an HD transfer suite, which Evans says is busy round-the-clock.

Salter Street Digital’s Doug Woods, one of the country’s busiest colorists, says he is expanding his responsibilities with the improved technology.

‘I’m able to do all of the onlining, the titling, basic Avid F/X and color correction in the same box. So I wear many hats,’ he says. Before moving to Halifax, Woods worked as an online editor at Toybox West in Vancouver.

He recently completed the final transfer of imX communications’ Love that Boy from sophomore director Andrea Dorfman, and the fifth season of Salter’s Made in Canada. Woods also worked on the Trudeau miniseries from local prodco Big Motion Pictures.

Working with an Avid Symphony, rather than telecine color correctors like the da Vinci, is an advantage for Woods because it allows him to break down an image into different layers. Once the picture is separated into its various elements, he can color correct each one independently. ‘It allows me to have greater control, but possibly it’s harder because you have to do so much more,’ Woods says.

The Symphony has additional advantages, including AniMatte and PaintFX, which allow you to isolate certain parts of the frame using a pen tool. It is especially useful when working with DV projects with a greater depth of field. Woods is able to go in and animate around the source that’s supposed to be in focus and then graduate the focus out into the background, helping to achieve a more filmic look.

Digital filmmaking tools are part of the reason more post work is staying in Atlantic Canada. ‘Because the technology exists,’ Woods says, ‘more shows are now staying here and being posted in the Maritimes.’

Although Woods enjoys the challenge, working with DV is not without its trials. ‘A lot of the material on the East Coast is lower budget and there seems to be a direct relationship with budget and how much color correction is needed,’ he says. ‘There are scenes in productions now that would normally have been left on the editing room floor, which are now being left in the films and we’re being asked to make them work.’

Gary Shaw of Vancouver’s Toybox West, who has worked as a colorist in both spots and long form for more than 20 years, says that although emerging technologies are vital, one of the essential skills of a good colorist is still the ability to communicate effectively with clients.

‘Essentially, the job of a colorist is to act as an interpreter for the material and work with the DOP, art director, producer and whoever else has a say in what the project should look like, then take those impressions and try to come up with something everybody loves,’ says Shaw.

The major advantage of digital technology is ‘the ability to do more to the picture without sacrificing the quality of it,’ he says. ‘Since the initial image is now much cleaner, you have more flexibility in changing it.’ And at Toybox West Shaw has access to some of the most advanced equipment in the country and works in a variety of formats including standard definition, HD and data.

In addition to three suites equipped with da Vinci 8:8:8s and one with a Pogle color corrector from the U.K.’s Pandora Internatioinal, the shop also has a Primal image processing device from First Art in the U.K. Among the only examples of such technology in Canada, Shaw describes it as providing realtime Photoshop F/X, enabling him to create an instant cross-processed or bleach-bypass look.

As colorists’ tools are changing rapidly, so are the skills required for the job, making editing and transfer less divergent aspects of the post-production process. According to Shaw, today’s colorists have to be much more knowledgeable about the ultimate use of the material. ‘In the next five years or less, there will absolutely be a revolution in the way things are color timed,’ he says. ‘It may evolve that colorists will become more editors and editors do more coloring.’

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