{"id":79905,"date":"2016-08-23T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-23T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/?p=79905"},"modified":"2016-09-13T10:54:19","modified_gmt":"2016-09-13T15:54:19","slug":"evolving-role-colorist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/evolving-role-colorist\/","title":{"rendered":"The Evolving Role of a Colorist"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is a digital colorist? What are they responsible for? Let’s take a look at the ever-changing duties of\u00a0colorists in film and video production.<\/h2>\n

Top image Colorist Jennifer Mendes<\/a> via Alexis Van Hurkman<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The role of a colorist<\/strong> has changed dramatically over the past two decades. Much like the evolving role of a Digital Imaging Technician<\/a>, the job has transcended from a role with fixed responsibilities to one with constantly changing duties. Not only has the colorists job<\/strong> changed, the role has also fallen upon video editors<\/strong> to learn the basics of color correction<\/strong> and color grading<\/strong> for their own edits.<\/p>\n

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Colorists: A Brief History<\/h3>\n

You don’t have to go far back to realize how different a colorist’s job<\/strong> was about twenty years ago. The job was much more of a broadcast television role. To keep the same look on a variety of different color televisions, as well as meeting FCC public broadcasting standards<\/a>, jobs like colorists, color timers,<\/strong> and telecine operators<\/strong> were crucial to productions.<\/p>\n

\"Broadcast_Colorist\"<\/a>
\nImage via Shutterstock<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Colorists<\/strong>\u00a0also worked out of multi-million dollar color suites<\/strong> that used industry standard color grading<\/strong> tools. A job in color would also require an apprenticeship; newcomers would start off in roles like tape operators before working their way up to junior colorist<\/strong> working on grading dailies and night-shift work. By the time they became senior colorists,<\/strong> they could have easily worked in the industry for a decade. Many longtime colorists<\/strong> and senior colorists<\/strong> would soon see major changes once technology caught up.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0the 1990s, new cameras were created to capture accurate skin tones of people of color. In this video from Vox<\/a>, you’ll see how the new cameras were embraced by the likes of Oprah<\/a> and BET<\/a>. No longer was caucasian skin the standard for color, but whole new categories of Shirley cards<\/a> were created for several other skin colors. This was one of the first major advancements in digital color.<\/strong><\/p>\n