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Swapnil Patole is a senior colourist based in Mumbai. Since starting his career 14 years ago, he has graded a plethora of commercials in all genres and for brands such as L'Oreal, Garnier, McDonalds, Honda and Nivea, to name a few. He has more recently worked on feature films, festival short films and music videos, including a project for SONY Music India.
Today he is senior colourist and DI Head of Department (HOD) at Famous Studio in Mumbai.
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Having originally studied commerce, what brought you into the world of colour?
Everything started in 2003. I finished my studies and was not too sure which direction I wanted to take for my career. One day a friend, who had just started working for one of the most reputed post-production houses in Mumbai, took me to his new work place: Prime Focus. I was totally new to this and I remember being simply mesmerised by the whole work culture and the look of the studio. I visited the grading suite and, I must say, it was love at first sight. I gazed at the telecine grading suite with multi-monitors all around it, just like a big space ship. From that moment, I knew I wanted to work there. Even though I was clueless about the industry and the technical side of it, I just knew.
A few months on, I was fortunate enough to join Prime Focus and started working as a machine room operator. As I now had a goal, I worked hard, learned and slogged day and night and slowly but surely made my way up from machine room to tape operator, telecine negative loader and telecine assistant to then telecine junior colourist. I finally became a colourist in 2007 when I joined Pixion post-production studio. Since then, I haven't looked back. To be where I stand today took hard work, dedication, passion and, most importantly, my love for colour grading. I am, today - as Senior Colourist and DI HOD for Famous Studio - a very content soul.
What did you learn from your past jobs that you are grateful for today?
Each day and every new job helps you to learn and become more skillful. It forces you to be better than before, more creative and productive for your clients. I am extremely grateful that every day I work on two to three commercials, which helps me understand rapidly about treatments, palettes, directors, the visions of DOPs and mixing colours to deliver the best possible grades.
Do you see things with a different eye now than when you began?
Yes, my eyes are more analytical now compared to when I started grading. I now understand better visual treatment, the nature of earth and its light, its people, as well as culture and different aspects of life. I read about colour science, started a black book' for grading reference, followed cinematographers work worldwide and worked with the best technicians from India and overseas. I invested these experiences into my grading craft and my work has been significantly fine tuned over the years. And, for the last few years, Baselight has played a significant part in making my work look sharper.
Could you tell us more about Famous Studios in Mumbai and your role there?
Famous Studios was set up in 1946 and has evolved to become one of the finest post-production houses in India for TV commercials, international broadcast channels, film makers and advertising agencies all around the world.
It is a creative, innovative and experienced studio, which also possesses all the necessary tools and workflows for execution/processing of all types of audiovisual content. With more than seven decades of experience in the industry, trust and flexibility is a given.
With this vast experience and global reputation comes a lot of hardship and responsibility for me as Senior Colourist and DI HOD. I am driven to maintain and build a respectful colour grading (DI) business and workflow platform with a set of clients around the globe.
You switched grading systems in 2016, to Baselight. What advantages have you discovered?
Up until 2015 I had been grading on all kinds of grading hardware and software systems. Then I switched over to Baselight, and since then my experience of grading has become sky high.
For example, with multiple format camera timelines from ALEXA, RED and Canon to Sony A7s or DJI, Baselight handles it beautifully with colour spaces and real-time playback. This gives me spectacular speed and flexibility to grade and finish jobs in time. And this is all mostly because it is so customisable.
I use a Blackboard panel because of its design and interface and, with Baselight, it allows me to work for long hours without being exhausted. Lets say a colourist can usually work eight hours a day - Baselight lets me work 12. Clients in India adore Baselight as it is better than any other grading system and it can handle bigger jobs in just a click of the fingers.
It has many advantages, and to mention just a few is not fair of me as a colourist. Having said that, what I love most about Baselight is the colour science behind it and how smoothly it operates with the colourist's vision and the control of the Blackboard to achieve a look for a film. On top of this, there are constant Baselight updates and upgrades for its colour spaces, the plugins and the keying and shape tracking tools, which somehow make everything seamless. There is no option for me but to grade all my jobs on Baselight.
You've worked on a variety of projects commercial, narrative and music videos. How do they differ and what do you enjoy most?
As a colourist I have raised my bar by grading a couple of feature films. This trained me to create and visualise colour palettes in a different technical and visual way to how I would on a commercial grade.
When it comes to grading a commercial, there is more scope to experiment with colours and it can be really creative. Feature films require m
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