Colourist and Online Editor

Who are you? (about yourself and who you work for)?
I run East London Post based in Shoreditch, which is currently a single suite Colour Grading and Online Editing business based around DaVinci Resolve and Apple FCS3.
What do you do? What does your company do?
East London Post provides colour grading and online editing for a wide range of projects. We find that our clients tend to be PR and production companies that are creating web-based content. As bandwidth has increased, they’ve moved to HD and really see the benefits in getting projects professionally finished. The project we've just finished is a great example of this, which was five Sony PS3 ‘Resistance 3’ web commercials for Grain Media - shot and delivered at 1080p. We also see a steady stream of short films coming through the door at the rate of about three or four a month.
Tell me a little about your previous experience, what you've worked on up to your current position?
Back in the day I was in house video artist with pioneering audiovisual electronica band, Coldcut. I principally worked in Adobe After Effects and Sony Vegas as the studio was PC based. As a colourist, I've mostly graded music and fashion promos and short films but also have four features under my belt, including UK horror film Stormhouse and the very controversial Human Centipede II.
What specific project(s) do you have in the works?
We have a feature documentary and The Grind, A UK thriller starring Jamie Foreman and Danny John-Jules coming up in the next couple of weeks. Our mainstay of promo work tends to come in at quite short notice - a week in advance is usual.
What new technology are you working with?
Our suite is a Mac Pro 2010 with Panasonic BT LH2600W, Tangent Wave, Blackmagic Design Decklink Extreme 3D and DaVinci Resolve for real-time colour correction.
What new products/technology are you looking forward to the most?
A thunderbolt enabled Mac Pro would be a great boon to us. In terms of the next purchase for East London Post, we will be looking to add an external scopes box to our suite. Pricewise this will be either a Blackmagic Ultrascope or Hamlet BX softscopes as a dedicated hardware box is a too large an outlay for us.
During your career in post what was the biggest “turning point” into new technology?
Final Cut Studio 2 bundling Final Touch as Color was the big turning point that launched East London Post. To get a professional package at that price point was immense and made the company's business model possible, while opening the possibility of a professional grade to a market that until then couldn't justify the cost. Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve along with the Tangent Wave really upped the ante allowing us to give a client experience that is directly comparable with a Soho facility.
What is your favourite / least favourite things about working in post?
As a colourist I feel satisfaction in getting a promo in and making it look amazing, then it's out the door at the end of the day. It's the perfect combination of exacting attention to detail and fast turnover of projects that I love.
My least favourite thing about working in post is that as 'the last thing in the chain' we are often not brought into production workflow discussions until the last minute. I'm sure all post professionals have had to deal with projects where they could've saved the production a whole lot of time (and money) with a quick chat earlier.

What gets you out of bed in the morning to go to work?
I love what I do and I love grading. That and really strong coffee.