Color Assistant

Although an Assistant defaults to the Senior Colorist, the Assistant must also have the confidence and ability to deal with clients and their requests and to work on jobs without supervision. Assistants are not expected to have their own client base; they are expected to build one by developing and working in tandem with young and upcoming creative talent. Many of these projects are music videos, which allow a greater experimentation in creative and visual approach, allowing the assistant to apply the skills learnt whilst working with the Senior Colorist.

The Colorists and Assistant Colorists must develop a highly developed sense of color imagery coupled with a strong creative and aesthetic sensibility and an in-depth knowledge of the whole post-production process including current technical specifications of film, video and data formats. They support the Colorists in communicating ideas to the Director and advise on the effects that can be achieved either in-camera or through the Telecine process whilst ensuring the final grade remains within the required technical specifications – if the grade is too dark, at the next stage of the post process the Flame Operator will be unable to add special effects or remove/add people and backgrounds. Once they have mastered the techniques and have found their own client base they can go on to become a Colorist.

Responsibilities:

• Communicating with the Color Producer to ensure the correct film, data and video and the EDL relating to this material (Edit List) is delivered for each job
• Loading in the EDL, copying the required source files, conforming all the required material as per the EDL. Ensuring that the Colorists can work with the specified media.
• Transferring the graded and exporting them as data on a hard-drive or any format the client requires
• With reference to the Senior Colorist the assistant is also responsible for keeping the software up to date and ensuring they are proficient with this and any new hardware.
• Preparation of data for the Color Grading suite • Export graded data from the Color Grading suites
• General assist duties for all Colorists and Color Producer
• Color correction on additional shots for completed projects
• Projects fully prepared in readiness for the Colorists session with clients
• Successful completion of tasks within the set timeframe and within 100% accuracy
• Projects assisted by the Color Assistant are delivered on budget and on time

Qualifications
Required skills, knowledge and experience:

• The Color Assistant must have an understanding of the principles of film, video and data production
• A degree in media or equivalent experience
• At least three years as a junior in the post production industry
• They must be diligent and exhibit good attention to detail
• Previous experience of MCR operation is required and a knowledge of the principals of post production is expected.
• Photographic interest and experience desirable.
• A very solid understanding of operating systems and codecs is required.
• Flexibility and adaptability in working hours is expected