From Freelancer to Facility Owner With Senior Colourist CJ Dobson, CSI

How to build a unique colour grading facility
in a male-dominated industry

Today we talk with CJ Dobson CSI, a Melbourne-based colourist who has turned ten years of freelancing into the launch pad for running her own shop. A respected colourist in her own right, CJ has graded numerous Australian features, commercials, and TV series:

• Deadloch
• The Portable Door 
• Crazy Fun Park 
• Petrol
• Love Me
• Escape from Pretoria

In this in-depth interview, CJ shares how her recently opened colour facility, Moodlab Film Looks, offers her clients new solutions to old workflow problems. We discuss CJ’s journey from being ‘queen of the conform’ at Digital Pictures to freelancing for a decade to becoming a business owner, some of the unique future-facing services Moodlab offers, and the challenges of succeeding as a woman in a male-dominated industry.

Topics in this discussion include:

• The trajectory of a career as a colourist from in-house to freelance to business owner
• Moodlab’s unique approach to providing colour grading services
• The importance of finding a facility you can trust as a freelance colourist
• The challenges of being a technically savvy female colourist in a male-dominated industry
• Growing a team and apprenticing younger colourists

Timestamps

Key takeaways from this Insight

By the end of this Insight, you should understand:

• The importance of finding other colourists to learn from in developing your career
• What to look for when selecting a facility to bring your clients to as a freelancer colourist
• How CJ has developed a cloud-based colour grading dailies workflow to offer her clients
• Considering how best to integrate colour into the entire post-production pipeline
• Why partnering with “the competition” is more valuable than competing with them
• CJ’s philosophy on investing in an HDR monitor
• Why hiring junior colourists is a win-win-win for them, you, and your clients
• Handling the different hierarchies of advertising clients vs directors and DPs

External Links and Significant Mentions

• Moodlab Film Looks
• Moodlab Limited Edition Merch – Some nice swag!
• Blue Collar Post Collective Industry Survey – Insights on gender and regional salaries.
• CJ Dobson’s IMDB Credits
• Kali Bateman CSI Portfolio
• Podcast Interview: Warren Eagles interviews Kali Bateman
• Color and Consciousness at the Wheeler Centre
• Eizo HDR ColorEdge PROMINENCE CG3146
• The Portable Door Trailer

Related Mixing Light Insights

• How Do You Succeed Running A Color Grading Business?
• Looking Forward To 2022 – Improving Myself, My Grading, My Business
• What Type of Dailies Is Right For Your Production?
• Talking Dailies Colour Grading With Renowned Colourist Fergus Hally CSI

Questions or Comments? Leave a comment!

Did you enjoy this Insight? Let us know! Mixing Light is all about community discussions, and we’re curious if you found this helpful, if you have something to add, or if you need more questions answered.

– Kali