Colorist Inspiration – UK Music Video Awards 2018

The best color nominations 2018 are out!

It’s that time of year again where we look at the nominations 2018 for one of the few grading awards available to us colorists has come around.

This year I actually have a new angle on these nominations as I was a first-round judge.

Unfortunately, I was booked up on the day the main discussion so missed out on which grade has won and why it won.

The biggest shock I had when judging this year is how many good entries there are.

There were so many good grades I had to keep detailed notes and recheck videos again and again.

I think the hardest part to swallow as a colorist is that I fell into the trap that we always worried would happen.

I found myself ranking jobs with the best cinematography the highest.

I know cinematography and grading go hand in hand but I think the fact that is no firmly fixed in my head is that you can’t have the “best grade” without amazing cinematography.

It’s not entirely a negative thing but it’s good to remember that when you don’t pick up a nomination for something you worked incredibly hard on.

We are the finishers and polishers in the process and to quote something my dad has told me a million times “trash in = trash out”.

If something has been shot perfectly it’s always going to look better than something you have had to use a million nodes to rescue.

Let’s take a look at this year’s entries!