Kali Bateman and Emily Reid: How a Senior Colorist mentored her assistant

Welcome to the Color Timer podcast. I am

your host Vincent Taylor.

This is a podcast where we speak to

professionals who work with color.

Today I am speaking to

Kali Bateman and Emily Reed.

I worked with Kali

many years ago in Australia

and she has gone on to

work with amazing projects.

Very recently of course she graded the

Elvis picture, the Baz Luhrmann picture.

Emily came on board with her as an

assistant to start off with

but is now a colorist in her own right.

I am going to have a chat to them about

what it is like working as

a colorist and a color assist

and then what it is like

to set up your own suite.

As per usual I will be

using my 15 minute sand timer

to keep things focused, to keep things on

track and yeah, 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.

Kali and Emily, welcome.

Welcome to the Color Timer.

Hi Vincent, thanks for having us.

You might suspect that I am really

terrible at forgetting to

do the color timer thing.

So let's just do that straight away and

we can start asking questions.

Yay!

So yeah, it's working, it's working.

Okay, everything is in place. We are

rolling, we are recording.

Take a breath. Okay.

About 30,000 years ago,

Kali, you and I worked together.

Back in those days you were a color assist.

These days you are well and truly a full

fledged colorist and then some.

And when you started working with Emily,

Emily was an assist but I believe these

days that's not so much the case.

Emily, you are doing

a lot more color work.

Yeah, kind of leading a lot,

not a lot of but a few projects.

I think a lot of.

Alright, a lot of projects.

Projects myself.

You can talk yourself up.

Okay, alright.

Yeah, you have to.

When the relationship started with you

guys, it was as a colorist and an assist.

And I wanted to ask you the question

about how that works, how that

relationship works between a

colorist and a color assist.

Yeah, when Emily first started with me,

it was really important to have her in a

traineeship position.

Because I get frustrated when I see color

assists go in and do a conform and then

get ushered away as

soon as the action starts.

And probably, you know, put in a

different department to do something

that's not meaningful to the color trade.

I think you can get a job as a colorist

now without actually being exposed to the

things that you want to be exposed to.

So Emily was assisting, but she was also

being exposed to every aspect of the

grade and actually grading alongside me

with clients from a

very, very early stage.

And it's been been very quick.

I think you were very competent when you

came, but now you're also able to manage

a room at the same time as coloring and

basically doing the full job.

So what's it like from

your perspective, Emily?

Well, it's kind of been invaluable to

like hold traineeship kind of model that

you've worked from, especially, you know,

coming out of uni and stuff.

There was like a gap between that, you

know, crash course that you kind of get

that uni between that and then actually

working as a colorist.

And it's it's been really, really great

to have just someone there constantly to

help bridge that gap.

It's so true, isn't it?

I mean, the the the using the machinery

and grading, that's that's just one part

of the puzzle, isn't it?

And being able to work with people and

and do that successfully is is such a

huge part of the job.

Yeah. And so, you know, the way that our

suites are set up, they're side by side

with an adjoining door.

And so I can always sticky beak in the

first few times I was starting to put

Emily in situations.

I'm like, oh, let's see how

she goes with the clients.

I'd pick one that was, you know, someone

who I thought wouldn't be too too crazy.

You know, some clients you think they

could just throw anything at you.

And I'm like, no, I'll

save Emily from that.

I'll just give her a few nice,

nice, easy ones to begin with.

And I think the most important part to me

in terms of nurturing someone is not

putting them in a situation where it's

too sink or swim too early.

Because I also think that

that can be a real drawback.

If you get one of the color assist roles in

some big facilities, it's you can only do

small technical parts of the process.

And then one day it's, you know, somebody

is not available, sink or swim.

Yeah. And I think it's you've got to kind

of go a little bit more gradually than

that, because it's not fair.

You know, someone might be having an off

day on that day that they finally get a

chance and, you know, to have their whole

career hinge on that one

session is just unfair in my mind.

Oh, 100 percent. I agree.

Emily, do you do you remember a situation

where you've been in the suite where you

were, you know, you were still trying to

work out how it all came

together and how it all worked?

What you did if you were up against

something that you didn't know what to do

or how to handle it, did you just kind of

bluff your way through and

then debrief with Kali?

Or how did you approach that?

I think the good thing about this space,

it's never like felt bad or I think

hasn't looked bad if I've just gone, hey,

Kali, can you help me

with something real quick?

Oh, I see. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's

only happened a couple of times where,

you know, there's been a challenge and

you've tried a few things and gone, I'm

still not happy with those results.

But yeah, we've always made it very clear

to people I'm just in the next room and I

can, you know, come in and

offer another set of eyes.

And, you know, Emily does the same thing

for me. You know, if I'm in a session and

I'm going like, oh, I'm really struggling

with this shot and I can't work out.

I've looked at it for 10 minutes now and

I've stopped being able to see it.

You know, I'll get Emily to pop in, even

if I've got a client in, I'll just say,

do you mind if I get

a fresh pair of eyes?

And usually the client's super happy with

that. You know, we're not trying to

pretend that we know everything.

You know, if we if we need to pull in

some reinforcement, then we will.

I think that speaks volumes about both of

you. You know, the fact that you just go,

you know what, let's push the stupid ego

to one side for a minute and just

actually focus on the job.

Very much. Sometimes you need just need a

fresh pair of eyes, no

matter who it's from.

Yeah. Now, you have both.

In fact, by the time this recording comes

out, the wheels will be

well and truly rolling.

But you've just started a new venture.

Can you tell me about that?

Yeah. So we've just officially launched

as "The Colour Suite", which is really

exciting because when I first got Emily

involved in that sort of assistant

capacity, I didn't know what it was that

I was really doing with it.

Eventually, I just said, oh, my God, I

can't deal with this. I

just need you full time.

You know, can you can

you come and work for me?

So we've actually been working in this

configuration for a year now.

But as we went, we saw the potential and

we started to gel and understand each

other's workflows to to a point where

we're like, this is

something more than me.

Like I was branded as Kali

Bateman, freelance colorist.

We have turned it into

something much more than that.

So The Colour Suite is the brand new color

and finishing service in Brisbane.

And our whole our whole vision is to have

our overheads low enough that we can put

everyone's budget on screen.

And now being artists run, our whole

interest is in the quality of the images.

So we're kind of not interested in

literally anything else.

Being two of us, we're just sort of a

little bit bigger than a freelancer, but

smaller than a facility.

So right in the middle. And we have a

producer, Isobel, as well, who looks

after us and does all of the

stuff that we're terrible at.

How how does how important this is a set

up question in a way.

How important is a producer? Oh, my God.

Oh, it's so important...

Such a set-up question.

Oh, she's just the best.

So she's really tenacious and tough and

she'll go and have a

fight on your behalf.

Like, you know, when you're in that mode

of like, I just want to give you

everything that I can, like we're we're

always in a generosity

mindset when we're grading.

Yeah, it's so true.

You know, you need somebody there who's

looking at it going, oh, wait a minute.

You can't grade an extra four hours today

because you've got

something on early tomorrow.

Somebody who can see that bigger picture

and who can remind us of the kind of

logistics that we get bogged down in the

process and enjoy it so much that, you

know, we'd kind of just do

everything for free forever.

And we'd do it until midnight every day,

you know, because we just

want to be doing it so badly.

So yeah, she picks up the phone so

easily. Oh, my God. So easily.

Like I cringe every time the phone rings,

probably from my assistant days, because

every time the phone rang when I was an

assistant, there was a drama like,

oh, Adstream have rejected something or

you have to come back and do this.

And now, like I get

PTSD when the phone rings.

I'm like, oh, but Isabella is just - yeah,

She's easy with people.

It's the best. It's it's interesting.

So so this podcast is is talking to

professionals who work with color and,

you know, colorists, color assists.

It's it's an obvious

conversation to have.

And I'm also extending it outside the

world of of our industry as well.

But something that we don't talk about

often is the way a producer is integral

to this relationship of of of getting the

job in and out the door,

you know, keeping

everyone happy along the way.

And you know, because it's

it's it's not just one person.

It never is. No, definitely not.

And, you know, we also are so busy when

we're doing the job that we can't be

checking our emails.

We can't be answering our phones.

But people need that, like very quick

feedback and very quick

responses to to messages,

because, you know, quite often we'll do a

job on a Monday and we'll be on to

another job on the Tuesday.

But then Monday's client will ring up and

say, oh, we've just got one more shot.

And if we can't take that phone call

because we're in Tuesday's job, they're

going to be panicking.

So having someone who's available to do

that and say, oh, look, they're in a

session at the moment, but

they can do it at five p.m.

or whatever, you know, it just

keeps all the wheels turning.

I mean, this is this is a nasty question.

And but I want to ask each of you.

So let's let's ask Emily first.

What's the hardest part of your job?

My God, that is a nasty question.

And it's a nasty one.

And it's also not fair because now it

gives Kali chance to think about it

while you're on the spot.

I reckon was after a day that you spent

with three really energetic

guys on the couch in here.

And you were grading all day with them.

And it was a job that I

had very little to do with.

You were definitely leading it.

And afterwards you came in and said to

me, I don't think I can talk all weekend

because I've used it all up.

It was just like a

neurodivergent fever dream.

That room that was like three of us in

the room with ADHD and was just like,

it's it's remarkable, isn't it?

You use these different parts of the

brain when you're working, you know, when

you're when you're conforming,

you're prepping the job, then when you've

got the client, you're kind of

entertaining as well as being creative

and then getting it out the door as well

with handles and all the rest of it.

And and again, I think this is why it's

so important to just not be a solo act.

It's not to say people can't do it

because people can do

it and hat off to them.

But to be able to focus on the job in the

moment is so important.

Yeah, it's what I call the

hairdressing part of coloring.

We have to like work, but also have some

chitty chat and keep it

light and keep it fun.

But meanwhile, you're like madly working

away on the on the actual work.

You're going to have that

other part of your brain going.

And yeah, I remember it from when I was,

you know, first starting

running sessions on my own,

just that sense of I

have used up all my chat.

There's none left. And I'm going to go

have like a silent retreat somewhere to

recover from the past week.

You know, I think that's what's great

about like our offering is the color

suite as well as that.

We often like co-color things.

And so we'll be sitting in the two

separate rooms, but coloring the same

project at the same time,

like in the same timeline.

Oh, no way.

And so there can be one of us, you know,

in with the clients doing all that chit

chat and then someone

else in the other room,

you know, doing the handles, tracking all

the shapes, all that kind of stuff.

Yeah, Michael Keaton,

Michael Keaton, multiplicity.

I know the film. That's great to be.

But but, you know, I said, there's a

joke, but that's brilliant that, you

know, you can be doing, you know,

one person can be

focusing on this and the other.

And you're both driving toward the end of

the job. That's fantastic.

Because when we started this, I thought

what would be my ultimate wish list?

Like if I could have anything in the

world, what would I want?

And the answer is more time.

Well, speaking of more

time, what a nice segue.

Yeah, my time is finished.

Look, I and I'm I'm so

naughty because I always do this.

It's starting to become a habit. And

maybe maybe I need to be slapped.

But I do have one last question, which is

a bit of a heavy question.

But it's something that I I think it's an

important question as well.

Being in an industry that has been for so

long, so male dominated,

do you find that you have to either

tiptoe around things or do

you just go, you know what?

F*** it.

OK, we're just going to be us. And you

know, but is it something that comes into

your day to day environments?

I think it is. I mean, I just don't think

that you can avoid it because, you know,

where a lived experience like this is a

suite full of women like.

But I don't think it's always a negative

thing. It's just always kind of there.

I know that, Emily, you started off in

the camera department and you probably

experienced a little bit more overt

moments where you were uncomfortable or

not happy with the way things were going.

Do you want to talk about that at all?

I mean, the thing that I always like

always sticks in my brain was that I like

did a water run and was just going around

giving the ACs because I was a camera

attachment, just like bottles of water.

And one of the first ACs I had like

handed him the bottle of water and he

just he didn't even look at me

and didn't even say thank you.

And I always got the like if I lifted

anything that was like slightly heavy, it

was "Ohh muscles, ohh muscles".

Yeah, yeah. When you're

dealing with all that gear.

And I mean, I've definitely experienced a

couple of like really overt moments.

One of them that comes to mind was I was

setting up for a remote grade and the DP

was in London and she

was in at a facility there.

So we were doing a port forwarding

situation and I said to the post sup,

also, do you need me to set up the port

forwarding or are you going to do that?

And he just straight up said, well, I

would have expected

that you couldn't do that.

Right. You just say that.

Opportunities in there too.

And then I guess I guess to to finish off

on something that is more instructional

for those that are either experiencing

that or for men in the industry.

Any words for advice?

I think it's just that you

shouldn't really comment.

Like even if you have that thought, just

keep it like keep it to yourself.

Because it's usually around technical

things or physical strength.

There's nothing about being a woman that

means that we aren't technically minded.

And, you know, I think that people can be

a bit binary about colorists as well.

And I'm sure that there are men out there

who get this as well.

You're either

creative or you're technical.

So you're either like this, you know, a

free flowing energy.

Let's just feel the images or you're a

you know, what color space is this

captured in and you know, what three by

three matrix do we need?

And like I think that it's more about

where you are on that continuum, whether

you're male or female.

But it does tend to get a bit gendered

that, you know, women are so

so creative and men are so technical.

And I just don't think that

it's that straightforward.

I don't think that men are necessarily

more technical or that women are

necessarily more creative.

I think either way

you cut it, it's unfair.

to most people's experience.

So, you know, maybe just in

in this field we're blending the creative

and the technical all the time.

So, you know, maybe we're

gonna be a little bit stronger

in one area or the other,

but it doesn't mean that

we're one or the other.

- Yeah. - Yeah.

- Kali, Emily, thank you

so much for taking time out.

I so wish you all the

best for the color suite.

It sounds amazing.

- Thank you so much, Vincent.

Absolute pleasure to talk to you.

Thanks for having us. - Same.

Kali and Emily, thank you so much

for having a chat to me.

The Colour Suite sounds amazing.

If you wanna check

out what they're doing,

you'll find their web

address in the show notes,

but if not, it's thecoloursuite.com.au,

color, spelt the

Australian way or English way.

Thank you to my executive

producer, mixinglight.com.

If you're watching

this or listening to this

on their website, you

already know what they do.

If you don't, check

them out, MixingLight.com.

They can help you with all things color,

whether you're a colorist or an editor.

Thank you to my friend

of the show, Filmlight,

and to my producer, Kayla.

And thank you, thank you for listening,

and like, subscribe, do

all that kind of stuff.

Sign up on the Instagram page.

I think we're up to,

oh, it's a sad number.

There's not that many

followers, but it doesn't matter.

Look, take care, and I'll

see you on the next one.

Keep coloring outside the lines.

See ya.

- The Color Timer, a

micro-podcast experience.