By Sarah Priestnall
At this yr’s SMPTE 2025 Media Expertise Summit in Pasadena, I had the chance to take part within the “Ask the Colorist” panel offered by the Colorist Society, which introduced collectively among the most revered names in shade at the moment: Natasha Leonnet (Image Store), Rory Gordon (FotoKem), John Daro (Warner Bros. Water Tower Coloration) and Gareth Prepare dinner (The Basis).
Over an hour of candid dialogue, one factor grew to become clear: The position of the colorist is evolving, not simply creatively however culturally, and collaboration stays at its coronary heart.
Coloration and AI/Machine
The primary subject was one everybody’s speaking about: AI and machine studying. Opinions various, however the consensus was refreshing. As Natasha Leonnet identified, most of the “new” AI options on grading platforms are merely long-standing automation instruments which have been rebranded. AI may take over sure repetitive or technical duties, however it’ll by no means replicate the instinct, style and communication abilities that outline nice shade work.
John Daro highlighted among the extra sensible alternatives. Machine studying and perceptual fashions can help with tedious matching duties, comparable to analyzing a reference shot and making use of a constant look throughout a sequence. This doesn’t exchange the artistry of shade grading; it amplifies it. By letting algorithms deal with the iterative groundwork, colorists and DPs can give attention to refining the temper, shaping the story and making these nuanced, human-driven selections that outline the ultimate look.
Translating a director and DP’s imaginative and prescient requires empathy and belief. Whereas automation can help, it’s no substitute for that human connection.
Studying the Room Nonetheless Issues
Subsequent got here a subject near my very own work at RePro: how distant workflows have reshaped artistic collaboration. Three of the 4 panelists stated they like being within the facility at any time when doable, even when shoppers are distant. Given the visitors in Los Angeles, this was a standard incidence.
That stated, hybrid work has discovered its steadiness. Gareth Prepare dinner described his strategy: He’s within the suite when working with shoppers and distant when solo. For distant critiques, iPads have develop into the usual — constant, color-accurate and acquainted to shoppers. Rory Gordon even talked about travelling to a shopper’s dwelling to calibrate their gadget, underscoring simply how important it’s that everybody sees the identical picture in actual time.
Actual-time collaboration know-how has made it doable for filmmakers, colorists and supervisors to take care of that artistic dialog throughout continents. However because the panel reminded us, instruments alone aren’t the reply; it’s how they’re used to protect belief and readability that counts.
Preserving Artistic From Set to Display
One other recurring theme was artistic continuity, making certain the cinematographer’s intent carries by means of from dailies to ultimate grade. The ASC CDL was celebrated as one of the crucial useful instruments for sustaining that thread. It permits the DP’s look to be mirrored in dailies, carried into editorial and refined in ending. Because the panelists famous, administrators spend months immersed in dailies imagery — consistency issues.
In a great world, a lot of the look work occurs early, with ultimate grading turning into a technique of fine-tuning moderately than reinventing. More and more, colorists are being introduced in from the beginning, collaborating with DPs on lookbooks and dealing with shade scientists to design present LUTs that outline the artistic language from Day 1.
The dailies colorist and DIT are additionally important crew members who assist to make sure that the DP’s imaginative and prescient is communicated from the beginning.
HDR: Potential Nonetheless Untapped
The group additionally touched on HDR. Regardless of its artistic potential, many DPs are nonetheless not lighting or capturing particularly for HDR — actually because they don’t have entry to HDR reference screens on-set or in editorial. Till that adjustments, the total expressive vary of HDR will stay underused.
ACES (the Academy Coloration Encoding System)
We additionally mentioned ACES (the Academy Coloration Encoding System). Whereas not common, it stays a strong framework for making certain consistency throughout your complete picture pipeline. Within the age of HDR and hybrid supply, ACES offers a predictable and constant picture show throughout a variety of units — essential for preserving artistic intent from on-set monitoring to ultimate supply.
It’s significantly useful when a number of VFX services or digital camera programs are concerned and there isn’t a devoted shade scientist on employees. Main studios and streamers — Netflix amongst them — suggest ACES as finest observe, cementing the system’s position as a spine for contemporary shade administration and cross-platform consistency.
The Function Of The Colorist Is Shifting
As know-how advances, the position of the colorist continues to shift from problem-solver to artistic companion. As an alternative of spending hours correcting publicity or matching cameras, colorists will more and more lean on know-how to deal with these technical steps mechanically. Which means extra time spent grading and fewer time “fixing.”
The colour suite has all the time been an area the place artistic intent turns into actuality — a spot the place visible storytelling takes its ultimate kind. That received’t change. What is going to change is how colorists collaborate, talk and share that house, each in particular person and on-line.
The Craft is Collaboration
For me, the most important takeaway from SMPTE’s “Ask the Colorist” panel was how deeply collaborative shade stays. The connection between colorist and cinematographer — typically constructed over a number of initiatives — is among the most trusted partnerships in publish manufacturing.
Even probably the most superior know-how can’t exchange that dynamic. What it will probably do is assist it, serving to groups keep aligned, whether or not they’re on-set, within the suite or working remotely.
Trade veteran Sarah Priestnall is Sarah Priestnall of the Colorist Society Worldwide and director of Market Improvement at RePro Stream.
