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Senior Colorist Abe Wynen shares his insights on moving from Melbourne to Toronto
Abe Wynen, a senior colorist at Red Lab in Toronto, has built a reputation for crafting striking visuals across commercials, music videos, and, more recently, long-form content. In this in-depth conversation, he shares his experience transitioning from Melbourne to Toronto, refining his workflow, and navigating client relationships in a new market.
Throughout our discussion, Abe offers technical insights into his evolving approach to building node trees, the balance between using LUTs and CSTs, and how he adapts his efforts to different color spaces. He also delves into the creative aspects of color grading, from achieving rich contrast in music videos to handling VFX-heavy commercials.
To anyone wanting to find the right color grading projects, Abe’s advice is:
“It’s about finding the work that you would like to facilitate. Go out there and look for all the other artists that are creating that kind of project and be the big support that they need to make the most of that opportunity and that story, and make it as pretty as you can make it.”
Abe Wynen
Building client trust from scratch
One of the projects Abe discusses is the music video Healing by Gordo X Drake, where he manipulates his contrast curves to achieve soft, chalky blacks.
Abe’s journey from Melbourne to Toronto highlights not only the technical mastery required to succeed as a colorist but also the importance of adaptability, collaboration, and community. Recognizing the lack of an established Colorist Society International (CSI) chapter in Canada, Abe took the initiative to launch one, fostering a new community of fellow colorists who share their knowledge with each other.
Key takeaways from this Insight
Dive into our discussion to pick up insights on:
External Links
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