Our introduction to colours has been primarily through science, and through a range of wavelengths, but colours also convey a range of emotions and moods !
Nakul Padave, our next pathbreaker, Freelance DI Colourist, colour grades shows during post-production stage for top media houses.
Nakul talks to Shyam Krishnamurthy from The Interview Portal about giving up his engineering career after realizing his passion for cinematography and later, colouring !
For students, all the obstacles in your path are opportunities waiting to be tapped. Don’t shy away from them !
Nakul, can you share your background with our young readers?
I come from a humble suburb of Mumbai in Kalyan where I had a very normal playful childhood and completed my HSC. I later shifted to Navi Mumbai in 2014.
Both my parents have been working for India Post. My paternal part of the family is full of amazing artists who can draw amazing portraits, paint, make handicrafts and do many more things. I inherited some of those good artsy genes. I’m fairly good with drawing and handicrafts, and I have been adept at learning new technologies and being creative with it. I ended up being a Videographer / Director of Photography for nearly 5 years and came to know of this profession around 2018 and took my chance on being a colourist when the pandemic hit.
What did you do for graduation/post graduation?
I’m a 3rd year Mechanical Engineering dropout since I realized my passion for the visual arts during this period.
What were some of the key influences that led you to such an offbeat, unconventional and cool career as Colourist?
I was strongly influenced by good cinema and classical paintings.
Some of my mentors are Ashish Ranjan from TAC (The Accidental Colorist), Walter Volpatto, Cullen Kelly
Some of my biggest turning points were of course the pandemic, and when I got the opportunity to work with well known brands such as Housing.com, Hotstar and many more.
How did you plan the steps to get into the career you wanted? Or how did you make a transition to a new career? Tell us about your career path
When I started as a photographer in 2015, I was told by my senior peers and fellow photographers that my work is more cinematic and not very image centric, and so I should try for videos. So, I shot a few weddings, met a few people that sky-rocketed me towards being a part of their grand projects showcasing my skills on the small ones.
I switched soon from shooting weddings to shooting live events and set oriented, scripted content. I ended up working for the largest concerts and music festivals. I met a director at one of the shows that I was shooting and ended up working for Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla on their largest and grandest fashion shows across the country. Many of the contacts that I’ve built up over the years are from the shows that I’ve been a part of or social media platforms such as Instagram and so on, or from creative meetups where we had similar creative interests that resulted in us working together.
I always used to wonder how the content we shoot looks something else on camera but looks way out of proportion and grand when the final film is done. The colours in it would be vibrant or gritty/moody as the film would demand it. It made me curious if it is the editor’s job who cuts the film or is someone else involved in it. Upon researching, I got to know that there’s a dedicated role to enhance the visuals of a film by adapting and narrating the story via colours and textures. But due to a very packed schedule for shoots, I could never indulge myself in learning it. I’d be away from home for 20-25 days a month and barely have the time to acquire a new skill until we all were hit by the pandemic. So, instead of cribbing and crying for no work, I chose to use this time to learn grading and be a colourist. Throughout my journey as a Videographer/DoP, I’ve operated as a freelancer and have been associated with no companies as an employee.
I enrolled myself for a competency based course offered by The Accidental Colorist (TAC) which went on for about 3 months. I also enrolled myself for masterclasses that TAC managed to arrange which had senior colorists from Hollywood such as Walter Volpatto, Jill Bogdanowicz and many more which was more than enough for me to get started out in the industry.
So, being a colorist is a small but integral part of the post production part that comes under filmmaking. As we all know, all the legendary artists and painters weren’t really taught the art of what they excelled in. They were either self-taught or taught about the basics and technicalities of the craft, and by practising the craft persistently and facing failures, they eventually found their style of what suited them the best. Similarly, no course can or probably will teach you how to be creative since creativity is very subjective. Let’s assume a room decorated minimally and with lots of empty space; for some, it’ll be beautiful and ideal to live in but some might find it boring, dull or something lacking and they’ll want to add things to make it perfect to them while some others might reject it or dislike it straightaway.
The colorists I named above are people I look upto for inspiration, and then there are plenty of movies an aspiring colorist should watch to understand why a particular color was used in a particular scene and what was the importance of the colour used. Bright joyous colours, usually in most cases, mean the scene is joyous, happy. The course I talked about is for beginners, for those new to the software. But someone who is completely new to the digital media should definitely pursue some formal education in filmmaking specifically before getting into this and see if they really have a knack for it or some other aspect of filmmaking.
You can be creative but not be aware of the technicalities needed to achieve your desired results or you could be well versed with the technicalities but clueless about what you want to make the best of the given content.
There are prestigious institutes abroad like the Prague Film School, New York Film Academy and Whistling Woods (India) and a few others.
If someone’s looking for a course online, then there’s a plethora of options and there’s offline education provided by Resolve in Mumbai by Digital Film School by Qlab that I’m personally aware of.
They’ll teach you consistency, tools, multiple ways of achieving a certain result and give you constructive feedback on your work, be it offline or online. Creativity will come from within and the kind of content you’ll expose yourself to.
How did you get your first break?
My first break came from an old client of mine who took a chance on me to work on his 5 Episode Masterclass by Shaan the singer and then an advertisement for CoinDCX which then got me enough credibility to approach for more work out in the market. I dropped cold emails, messages on LinkedIn and called all the previous clients that I could get work from as a colorist.
What were some of the challenges you faced? How did you address them?
Challenge 1: What could be creative and beautiful to me, may not resonate with the client or the Director/DoP of the film.
I addressed this issue by having a thorough chat or a call with the client/director to understand their needs, vision and purpose of the film.
Challenge 2: Many times I’d have a better approach to make sure the final product really stands out but the client would think otherwise.
I addressed this by showing them their vision and giving them an alternative of something I thought would suit the narrative and mood of the film in a better way. Most of the time, it’d be the alternate version since it suited the film’s narrative.
Where do you work now?
I work in a post-production company in Hyderabad which mostly deals with content from the Star Group, National Geographic Channel and a few such clients.
I colour grade a few shows for the Star Group that I cannot name due to IP laws by the company.
So easily put, let’s say a film is shot. It goes for an offline edit which is nothing but the flow decided for the film by the director. Setting the storyline basically happens in this stage but this isn’t the final output that is put out on the screen.
My work comes under the post production part.
A film has mainly 3 parts and those are Pre-production, Production and post-production.
Pre-production involves story-writing, screenplay, budgeting, finding the appropriate crew for the film and appropriate locations. Production involves the actual shooting part, lighting, recording sound. Basically everything that happens on a set comes under the production part.
Post-production is where everything comes together as a perfect amalgamation of everyone’s efforts put together into a a single piece of the film. The writer, director, actors, the crew and the post production artists are involved with the project.
The data goes to an offline editor who usually follows the script or sits with a director and makes a rough cut or an offline edit that basically gives an understanding of how the film is going to be. This offline cut and the data goes to the sound designers or the sound department. They deal with the audio part of the film, and the visuals come to us and the VFX team if there’s any. The films we see aren’t how they come directly out of the camera. They usually are dull looking visuals that hold data within them which needs to be manipulated in the post production stage. For example, there’s a visual of a house that was shot in daytime but the script requires it be shown in night time. To make the shot look like night is what comes in our scope of work. So, giving the visuals a look that suits the film’s narrative in the best way is what we do. To make engaging visuals to captivate the audience and keep them hooked onto it is what we aim to do. We closely work with the DoP (Director of Photography) and the director to make sure their vision aligns with ours and we achieve the best possible result. Sometimes they are fairly clueless, so we get to showcase what we can offer based on our understanding of the narrative of the film. To make lush greenery look like it’s autumn or to make dull skies look nice bright blue, is how we manipulate the visuals and make the best of it.
Once we are done and the sound dept is done with their work, it goes to an online editor and he takes the final output, adds the final touches to the film and then it goes out to the public.
What are the skills required for your work? How did you acquire them?
1) To be proficient with colour grading software such as Davinci Resolve, Baselight and others
2) A very good understanding of lighting, framing, mood, colour theory.
3) Thorough sound knowledge of technical terms of the extensions, codecs, methods of importing/exporting and the know-how of the node structure and such things.
What’s a typical day like?
A typical day would be me receiving the file which is called an offline cut along with a reference video since it’s only edited with the necessary “In Out” of the files (point a to b) of the videos put up together on the timeline. I analyze the offline cut with the reference cut comparing both which ensures that the offline cut matches with the reference cut end to end as it should. I proceed with colour grading and ensuring that the film looks uniform throughout.
This job is the perfect blend between being artistic and being very technical which is what I love about it. I’m always on the hunt for learning new techniques, ways of approaching the look and feel of the film.This is what I love about my work.
How does your work benefit society?
Good visuals invoke emotions in the viewers, enhance the narrative and captivate the audiences.
Tell us an example of a specific memorable work you did that is very close to you!
Working on a series of 9 Ads for an electronics brand within 4 days with all the films having a very different look to them was equally fun and challenging.
Your advice to students based on your experience?
Take career guidance before randomly pursuing any bachelors or diploma after your HSC exams and look at your likes and dislikes and then make a decision. Also gather plenty of practical knowledge before getting into any of the creative fields because theory alone isn’t enough. Plenty of practice and a strong foundation in theory will lead you to success.
Future Plans?
Be a senior colorist grading feature films (Movies) and be a Trainer for DaVinci or similar software.