Colorist Paul Harrison: Winning Awards on both sides of the Atlantic
Welcome to the Color Timer Podcast. I am your host
Vincent Taylor. This is a
podcast we speak to professionals who work with
color. Today I am gonna do my
best not to sound like Roy Kent from Ted Lasso
because I've lost my voice so
please forgive me. Today we are
speaking to Mr. Paul Harrison, a veteran
colorist based at Resident Pictures in the UK.
He's got over two decades of
experience as a colorist so I can't wait to pick
his brains. It's gonna be a
great conversation. Let's go. Take your seats
because the hourglass is about to
turn. We are entering the world of the micro
podcast. Explore the craft,
creativity and science of professionals who use
color to tell stories. Welcome
to the Color Timer with Vincent Taylor.
Paul, welcome. Welcome to the Color Timer. Cool.
Nice. Thanks for having me on.
No man, absolutely. It's awesome. Now it's a big
one. This is the end of season one
so you're like the headline guest
or the ending guest. You'll have to
excuse my voice. It's barely holding
on so it's all that talking I'm doing.
Alright, oh I've got to start my timer because I
always forget. Start the game
show. Alright so you're a colourist and you have
been a colourist for a very
long time, a couple of decades. If there was a
colour, if there was a colour you
could do without, which would it be? Oh my god.
Well I won't say green because
everybody says green and I actually quite like
green. So I would say yellow.
Yellow gives me the most, it's the most
problematic colour because some
people see it as green. They see a
bit of a green in there or something and it just
gets into everything and then you
don't, the systems can't quite
see what we see when you want to try
and dial a little bit of that out. It just starts
to affect, other things get
affected. It's that yellow green
thing, that boundary is not quite
defined enough for my liking. You know what, I'm
gonna agree with that because the
biggest thing that I'm always chasing is green
grass. Because people are going
oh it's too yellow, oh it's too green, oh it's too.
Yeah yeah yeah, it's like walking that
tightrope and then obviously everyone's eyes were a
little bit kind of different
and I see it. Yeah that's how I would say that. It
might be a weird looking world but you know.
It would be interesting to see. Now I'm gonna ask
you a question that you're
probably so bloody sick of but I want to know how
did you start, how did you get
into this crazy world? Yeah it's weird. I kind of
by accident through a friend
working on like as a runner, production
runner. Yeah. And my friend's girlfriend was like,
she'd got me into it and after
I'd be on that, doing that for a little while,
ended up helping out on video,
doing the sort of video techy kind of side of
things. Yeah. And a friend of
mine, he's the boyfriend of the girlfriend, you
know, his girlfriend who got me in,
rather than using names, he said you need to come
and look what I'm doing. I'm
working in the post-production house
and I was like what the hell was the
post-production house? Yeah so went in there. How
old were you? I would have been
about 24 or 5, around about then.
about 24 or 5, around about then.
I think at that point. So I went and had a look at
what he was doing and it was all
the same equipment. I was just lugging around and
you know taking on shoots
and rigging up on shoots and using that stuff. Well
this will be a, this will be
easy. I could just sit down all day and press
buttons. I don't have to actually
carry this stuff around. So and then I started
doing a bit more digging into
post-production and found Telecine and it just
kind of, it was an article in one
of like Broadcast or one of those
magazines and it had a whole write-up
about Telecine and about grading and what it was
all about and I just looked
at this and thought my god this is amazing. You
know this is like, you know,
so I liked photography. I was always taking
photographs and this was like, my
god, you know, I could do this for a living. So I
just kind of went and hit up all the
London post-houses and I just took my CV round to
them and made sure I got in the
door and got to actually see somebody and not just,
you know, send it in and I
ended up with The Mill as a runner and
made it very clear that Telecine was
what I was after and what I wanted to learn. I saw
the Pogle, did you ever go out of Pogle?
Yeah, that's what I started on. Yeah right, okay.
So I looked at that and that just looked like wow I
need to know how this works.
Even though there was nothing written on any of the
buttons pretty much. I've got
to know how to use this thing.
So after being a bit of a pain to
the guys, they said look go and get a
roll of film. We'll teach you how to use it so you
won't break it and that was it
for literally from like the get-go. I was doing
short films and music videos for,
you know, no money jobs and I was
kind of earmarked for Telecine. So as a
result of that, my training within the
post-production world, like in The Mill,
was machine room learning all about, you know,
basically building on what I already
knew. Yeah. But using, you know, D1 machines and I
just just about missed the
one-inch tape, didn't need that. But it was U-Matics,
Digi-Betas, you know, D1s and all
that kind of thing. So I had to
learn what timecode was used for and
how you, in Telecine, that the
importance of getting everything
right and making sure that you had the timecode was
correct and you punch up.
You know all of that stuff that we... There was
obviously something at, you
know, the fact that you glimpsed what was going on
with Telecine and that whole
world of color that just hooked you in because you
sounded so focused that that's what I wanted to do.
It was... The initial interest was that I really
liked the idea of working on film and
working on images and creating something from that,
you know, from, you know, just
being a part of the film business from that
respect. But once I actually got in
there and I started using the
equipment and learning what I could do
with it and the possibilities of it and how, you
know, what I did on that screen
was just made me feel something and so when it's
gonna make other people feel...
You know what I mean? That was the thing that I was
just like, "Wow, this is like magic."
This is, you know, I don't, you know, sort of
tinker around on the guitar a
little bit but this was like
something else. This is kind of like a dark art
that I was learning, you know,
these guys, they were sort of teaching me...
but not not teaching me.
I totally get that I remember
that feeling of just being excited.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. You'd go to work, you'd
sit down, you didn't know what
you were going to do that day.
how you were going to do it but you just did it. So
fast forwarding two decades
or longer probably that you've been doing this.
I've got a nasty question
for you it's so broad. What do you think is the
most challenging thing for you as
a colorist? Oh my god. I think coming up with
interesting grades...Keep me up...
because I think you know that after lots of years
you get to you're comfortable
with people you know that's not the
thing and and you're you know you are
grading for them but you're also grading for
yourself and and it's to constantly
be pushing yourself and not resting on your
laurels. I'm thinking oh yeah I've
got this I can just do this all day long you know
stand on my head but and it is
and it's keeping that that driving that interest
going and obviously I mean we
you know we learn constantly because everything's
changing you know has been
for years and all the technology has changed and
the cameras have changed on
the other side on the production side of things but
I think staying interested
and and and just keeping that kind of spark alive
in you that you that after
spending you know decades sitting in a dark room
looking at images that you're
you're not fed up with it that you're still
interested and you're still
pushing yourself to do something
different to you know to try that and
then also selling that into your client. Do you
know do you have any inkling as
to how you do keep that spark alive or is it just a
conscious thing that you're
conscious of doing that? I almost try what is
straight away comes you know in
you go right okay let's let's do
something park it let's try something
else you know park that so it's a case of not just
going with your first instinct I think it's seeing
how you can turn it all on its
head and do something else with it.
I think that's the that's the thing
but it's also you know trying to find
something that works for the show or the commercial
or the film you know whatever
it is you're doing that's going to work with images
but giving it a little bit of
a twist that's more interesting than
just doing you know because you might
clients be happy with a decent balanced look won't
they a lot of the time yeah
you know DP certainly a lot of them that's what
they like they like their
their photography on the screen but
it's giving it a little bit of extra
something yeah but I think is the
thing and it's not just being happy
with everyone says oh that looks great and it's
like well yeah but let's try
something else and let's put it all to pieces again
and then let's try and push
it a little bit more but but not in a outlandish
way but somehow that that
takes it up a level compared to everything else
that you're seeing at the
moment this out there it doesn't look like it's
just had a LUT put on it and
yeah do you know like next kind of thing you know I
mean it's just it's you know
just just I think it's just pushing
yourself a little bit more in terms
asking a little bit more from your clients
somewhere we've kind of been
touching on this idea of being you
know making sure you don't get stuck and
doing you know and always growing yeah you work on
BaseLight yeah and there's
a new release of BaseLight that's
that's coming out at some point and
everyone's very excited about that yeah and how do
you you know there's some new
tool sets coming out yeah how do you
dip into those how do you break out of
habits of things that you're
comfortable with in your software and go
I'm gonna try this I think a little bit at time I
think is probably the short
answer to that is is you know
constructing a grade in the in the way so
I have used new software I'm one of the beats
testers for it and and it's got a
lot loads of new toys and I mean they
are they do work in perceptual color
space so you have to you have to run the system in
a certain way you know you
can't work in necessarily work in a traditional
like a log workflow because
it doesn't really like that it doesn't work that
way you have to try using a
color-managed workflow but I think it's a case of
using it in a way that just
just kind of you know tweak round the edges first
to make sure that you don't
dig yourself into something that you
that is gonna cause you problems later
on and gradually kind of introduce them into your
your your workflow if I think
you know when you're if I'm working on this on a
film I've got a lot of shots
to get through it not a lot of time so you kind of
don't want to be having to
like fiddle around with like 200 parameters you
know just to get your look
together so I think is a case of just you kind of
you you figure out what you
need.
think a lot of it is experimentation
when you're not actually working and
having to dig around and have to play
with these things and see what they do and then
just sort of store in that and
think when you if you come up against something
that you like a problem when
you're grading or something you
particular look you want to try and find
if they are actually what I can you know go through
the old Rolodex in your
head go yeah I can use that tool on that and and
and then start trying it out
and see what it does.
How do you ... short form versus
long form projects yeah how do you
approach those jobs differently well
approach those jobs differently well
that yeah that's a good question
because they are very the they are very
different in terms of client
expectation and also the you know the way you
approach it as a as a colorist I mean
you've got to I think mentally you've
almost got to be prepared to be sitting on a shot
for half an hour grading a
shot over and over lots of
different ways you know like really kind of
fiddling with the minutia of it or you've got
you know a thousand shots to
get through in a couple of days and
you've got to get your look nailed for
each scene and then go but there's also all the
workflow stuff that that goes
with that I mean the short form workflow is much
simpler than the long form
And your kind of
expectation from your client will kind of flex
accordingly in regards to
clients how would you say client
expectations have changed over the years
when I think back to when I started
grading and I was working on a much
simpler system you know the Pogle system had what it
had and that was it didn't
have any more it had its six windows if you were
lucky and its various primary
corrections that it had yeah you know
depending on which machine you're on
you had maybe it's an extra set of primaries I
think that when we had that
we did a lot more we pushed the grades a lot more I
think when I look back to
some of the work that we've doing I don't know
whether it's just because we
were working on we certainly had
prints to work on back then and we had a
obviously we were working on film yeah for the bulk
of the time and a lot of the
time 35mm there is an inherent quality to film
that you have to kind of really
twist digital around to get to it to get to that
point that's just kind of
there in the in the film even when
you're working on a scan on scan film
weirdly I find it's there's something but but I
think that there was more
expectation back then to come up with something
different when you sat down at
your desk and your clients come in and they sit
down and they wanted they
wanted to be kind of wowed a bit more I think
and I think it kind of--
gradually got watered down over the
years I think as clients got more I'm
talking about end clients not not
directors and producers and I think
gotcha yeah we're actually been worn down by the
end clients saying oh no we
don't like that that's too that's too much why
doesn't it look like the you
know we used to say the one lights
yeah why doesn't it look like the the the
edit which has just got a flat LUT on it kind of thing.
When I worked in the States it was all
quite everything was quite
bright and colorful a lot of the
time a bit more contrasty then
generally the European grade would have been so I'd
say you know you kind of do
what you think you like kind of thing and then I
can just turn it all up a bit
but I definitely think that the end
clients are the ones who are calling the
the shots and they want to be safe more so
than they ever did before I
think the agency did have a look more power yeah
it's interesting isn't it yeah
as per usual my my color timer's run out and I'm
supposed to stick to the rules
but I want to throw one last one at
you yeah and I don't normally do this
question but I because of your
experience I think it would be a valuable
one and again it's hard but as a young colorist
coming up is there any advice
you might throw at them right now God
yeah try and try and get in with with
trying to get into a place where there's going to
be somebody there who can
mentor you yeah like you know an old
fart like me or or someone else who
actually cares about bringing talent
through and and and recognizing that
talent as well yeah you know it's very hard to do
this in isolation you know
coloring is a it's a team sport should we say
and and I think you need to have
the the eyes of your peers on your work to to push
you really and and help you
on that journey yeah because a lot of
time you know your clients happy with
what you're doing great but you're gonna get more
from another colorist saying
why did you do it like that why don't you try this
why don't you try this next
time why don't you try that control
who understands you know how you got to
where you got but giving you that little extra
nudge to to kind of up your
game yeah that's that's I think getting in
somewhere with good colorists where
you like the reels look at and just do your
damnedest to get in there by
somehow that's that's just like just like you did
just like I did yeah yeah
there's a bit of luck involved but I think sure
distance helps and I know
there's there's a particular who was an old
assistant of mine he used to come
in as a freelance assistant and he's
hammered away it and it's just been
nominated for an award in I think the MVAs over
here so you can do it you just
got to be persistent at it I think yeah you don't
get disheartened because it's
not easy it isn't easy I'm not easy it's a it's a
quite a niche job and not
everybody can do it a lot of people
think they can do it but to do it well
you've got to have a very certain special set of
skills I think special be
in the opposite word because I think we're all a
bit special aren't we I'm not
commenting on that one Paul thank you so very much
and and I'm really delighted
that you were the the last guest for the season it
just seems kind of perfect
actually thank you mate.
Paul thank you so much
thanks for putting up with my bad
voice that's it that's the end of season one I
can't believe it that's 12
episodes yeah this is the first one
you've listened to go back and binge I
would like to thank my executive producer
mixinglight.com. Now mixinglight.com
it's a it's a heck of a resource like everything
color so please check them
out they can really really help you out whether
you're on resolve whether you're
on baselight whether you're on
nucoda it doesn't matter they're there to
kind of assist you and it's such such a great kind
of library of things to dip
into I would like to thank my friend of the show
filmlight thank you so much for
supporting me through this has been
awesome and my producer Caleb and thank
you thank you so much for listening and watching
and and all the comments, likes
subscribes, all of that there is a
chance we are going to do a season two
so stay tuned all the best see ya the
color timer a micro podcast experience