From Commercial Colorist to Dailies – How Does the Job Change?

I have trained people for dailies before, and one thing I’ve warned them is DON’T EVER RELAX. Don’t take things for granted. You have to constantly check everything, and that means timecode windows, metadata, file names, color, sound sync, backups, the works. There’s so much potential for getting things wrong, it’s a real challenge. Dailies are a marathon, not a sprint, so the key is to use precisely the same workflow every day for consistency. And don’t ever forget that they judge the DPs work on the basis of how the image looks. I have been reminded many times by DPs that “if you don’t make the effort, they yell at ME, not you.” Very tough job, but I agree, there’s always satisfaction in doing it right.

I agree with you 100%, Marc. Dailies can be very stressful at times. And the kicker is, you’re only as good as your last day. You need to be on the ball 24/7. If you think to yourself, “ah, they’ll never notice that”, it’s almost certain that they will. Even if it sets you back an hour or two, it’s in your best interest to fix any problems and get things right before the footage goes out into the world. Everyone has their guard up and is looking at the footage so critically. You have to make sure you put out the best possible product day after day.

I know a dailies colorist who worked with Roger Deakins during the early days of the Alexa. The images were stunning, but there were still some kinks to be worked out by Arri. It was of no fault of the dailies colorist, but he caught a lot of flack over the image looking a specific way when in actuality it was an issue with the camera. Thankfully it was during camera tests. But after that movie he swore never to work on dailies again after all the stress it caused him. And quite frankly, I don’t blame him.

I do a lot of dailes and the one thing you must have is a proven workflow, not just with the data but a physical one as well. On my cart data and cards flow from left to right. This way if you are in the 13th hour and someone distracts you with questions or pulls you away from your cart, just one glance as you return should tell you exactly where something is in the process. A successfully proven workflow is key.

After reading your post, Rob. It’s hard for to envision how being a dailies colorist is worth it, especially at the level you are. Sounds like there’s so many opportunities to make a mistake and not a lot of payoff or credit. One thing that made me curious was whether doing dailies work then helped you as a finishing colorist, either in terms of skills gained or whatever.

Quite honestly, it’s not. High risk, no reward kind of situation. I will say that it has opened a lot of doors for me, though, which is exactly why I took it on. Is it something I want to do long term? Definitely not. But it has broadened my horizons and introduced me to things that I don’t normally see in the commercial world.

Very good point, Rich. Moving footage, wiping drives, and just organization in general is paramount.

As a finisher, I’d like to add that it is very important the get the framing correct from day one. Have a discussion with the D.P. and agree to the exact extraction area (get it in writing to CYA). And for goodness sake, have them shoot a framing chart!! Oh, and don’t delete camera cards until you are sure you got it backed up. How many stories I can tell where they created Avid media and then lost the raw media.

And can I add… if you are shooting with multiple GoPros/drones/whatever and they all name the files the exact same, go ahead a rename them at the beginning of the process so that you don’t have the dreaded duplicate tape and timecode. Everyone will thank you later.

This is pure gold. All of it. Our natural instinct is to never rename a source file. But in an instance like this, I’m all for it. You just have to make sure everyone knows and it happens across the board. Communication is everything.

OK, that makes a lot of sense, the opening doors part. I suppose we’ve all taken projects because of the people we’ll get introduced or whatever. Thanks for the reply.

Thanks for this great insight, Rob! Glad to see you’re getting the opportunity to get out of the commercial world!