Meet the Colourists: Tom Cairns
After honing his craft at prestigious facilities like Molinare, Twickenham Film Studios and Dirty Looks, Tom Cairns is now one of the go-to guys for beautiful and varied grades for some of the most exciting directors and DoPs in the game. He recently launched Brick and Mortar, a new boutique facility in Glasgow, where he heads up the colour department and continues to work on a wide range of content.
Colour credits include Chris Andrews' Bring Them Down (2025) for Mubi, led by Barry Keoghan and Christopher Abbott, Moin Hussain's Sky Peals (2023) for BFI & Film4, and Rapman's Blue Story (2019) for BBC & Paramount.
Q> Tell us about your journey to becoming a successful colourist?
Tom> I realised very early on that I was not going to be able to pursue a career in something that I wasn't passionate about. My obsession with film led me into film school, where I pretty much thought I would go and see what stuck. That was great and I learnt a huge amount, but when I left I was still really none the wiser about what to do.
I had one or two false starts in London before I found myself as a runner in a big broadcast post house, Prime Focus, where I had the vague hopes of becoming an editor. Here I was very lucky to be guided by some truly excellent management and colleagues, who all put a huge amount of time and effort into the support, training and progression of their staff. I made my way through offline, then online assisting – progressing, but still unsure what direction I was going. Then, one day I got introduced to the grading suite, helmed at the time by Alex Gascoigne and Kevin Horsewood, and my eyes were opened to the possibilities of what could be achieved. It was a ‘stars aligning’ moment for me.
From here I joined Molinare’s world class DI team, working on projects like Ex Machina, The Crown, Dr Who, and Brooklyn. It was a big step up and further solidified that this was what I wanted to do. The colourists there like Asa, Gareth, Andrew, Jat and Chris are regarded as some of the best in the world to this day and I was very lucky to learn from them. I spent every moment I could sitting in on grades, training, and grading as many shorts or music videos as I could get my hands on.
I was then trusted with a colourist position at Twickenham Studios’ new Picture Department. It was a baptism of fire, but being thrust to the front on some wonderful films with some incredible filmmakers like Catherine Goldschmidt, Andrew Dunn, Ari Wegner, Nanu Segal and Nick Cooke was amazing.
After some great years at Twickenham and Dirty Looks, I made the decision to move to Glasgow, and shortly after meeting some like-minded people passionate about Scotland’s potential we decided to set up Brick and Mortar and launched at Berlinale in 2024.
So far, I think I have graded close to 40 films, but I still feel I’m just at the start of my career, and very excited about what is yet to come.
Q> Can you tell us about Brick and Mortar?
Tom> Brick and Mortar is a boutique, artist-led post-production company based in Glasgow, focusing on offline editorial, colour grading and picture finishing for feature film, drama and commercials. The facility recently benefited from substantial investment in new suites and infrastructure, including the crucial addition of Baselight grading systems and Scotland’s first and only DCI-compliant grading theatre.
After working at a couple of the most well-known, large and smaller scale post houses my takeaway has always been that the common thread to successful and enjoyable work is a very personal, collaborative approach, that breeds the best creativity and results. For this reason, BaM is an intimate, scalable and powerful editorial and colour team, promoting a tailor made, personal environment where directors and DoPs can put their images in safe hands and create their best work.
Q> Tell us more about Scotland’s only grading theatre?
Tom> On coming to Scotland one of the things that hit me, aside from the incredible wealth of talent in production and post, was the glaring omission of a grading theatre to service all the wonderful film work that is made here. As we explored the potential of a new post house, and pairing it with top of the range film and commercial talent as well as Scotland’s only grading theatre, we realised we could not only give the talent in Scotland the option to finish locally, but also offer a standard that encourages creatives around the country and the world to bring their grades here.
Q> Tell us about your role at Brick and Mortar and the type of content you work on?
Tom> I head up the colour department at BaM and take the creative lead on all things colour, workflow, development, and bringing on new colour talent. I am lucky to be able to work on a wide range of content including features, drama, documentaries and commercials.
Q> Why Baselight?
Tom> I've been grading on Baselight for just over 13 years and I've come to take for granted the rock-solid colour management, and incredible support from the FilmLight team.
Ergonomically and functionally, with both the interface and the controls, I've always enjoyed the experience of grading using Baselight. It always feels intuitive and efficient, with endless scope for new ways to push things. This breeds confidence in the operator, which, in turn, relaxes the experience for everyone in the room – no matter how demanding the grade can be.
To this day I am still experimenting with new tools and combinations to enhance the storytelling and experience of the image. The involvement of the FilmLight team to push the possibilities forward brings an exciting feeling of originality and exploration to every project.
From the point of view of a boutique facility, much like our adoption of the grading theatre, Baselight is a beast that lets us punch well above our weight compared to other similar-sized facilities.
Q> How/do you think colour shapes the way an audience perceives an image?
Tom> I think colour is more influential than ever. Modern audiences are so much more educated with colours' role in image consumption. People today are used to capturing and manipulating their own media, which makes you wonder how the aesthetic of TV and cinema may change, but also means they know more than ever what is possible.
So, our responsibility is a fun tightrope of pushing the envelope, exciting people, while remaining invisible, and still honouring a love of the cinematic language which makes people comfortable enough to suspend their belief for two hours in a dark room. Our role of manipulating colour will first and foremost remain to aid in the power of the story and to create an emotional response without being noticed.
Q> Thoughts on the Chromogen look development tool?
Tom> I have been so impressed with the Chromogen tool so far. I feel I am only scratching the surface of the possibilities, but within moments and in just a small number of stages, you can create such powerful looks that roll off without any harshness. The possibilities do truly feel endless. Including Chromogen look development as a norm in the look setting stage with DoPs is something I am very keen to push for and I think will be very exciting for them.
Q> Tell us more about your work on Leonora in the Morning Light – the first feature film you graded in your DCI theatre?
Tom> This is a film about the life of the famed surrealist painter Leonora Carrington, and was a number of firsts for us – it was our first feature at Brick and Mortar, the first project in our brand new theatre, and my first time working with all the new tools in Baselight 6.0.
The film includes locations such as early 20th century surrealist house parties in Paris, the Mexican jungle, rural France, and hospitalisation in post-WW2 Spain. I worked with the brilliant DoP Tudor Vladimir Panduru, who had already painstakingly created striking looks in Filmbox on set for the dailies to represent the period and different locations around the world. These went beyond just the palette, but also included key elements of the texture. We wanted to honour this and used print and negative LUTs output from Filmbox for the show looks for the different locations, then created a Chromogen look to take it further and to ground the narrative into one world which rolled off naturally. Finally, we rebuilt the textures to have maximum control of fairly complex grain structures, halation, glow, and used quite a lot of texture equaliser.
The X Grade tool immediately became a favourite for me. It is incredibly powerful, but most importantly intuitive with the way its display lets you get hands on with selective and non-destructive colour manipulation.
Q> What advice would you give to aspiring colourists?
Tom> First and foremost, as always, is just grade as much as you can, on whatever you can.
Secondly, know that the relationships that you form in the industry are invaluable – whether that's with clients or colleagues. Work hard for them and always be dependable.
Finally, it is very important at the start to focus on shot matching and the basics, and developing looks can come later, but I would also always encourage them to be bold, experiment and make mistakes. Go too far and learn how to bring it back. Find what bit of image manipulation excites you the most and keep at it.
Q> What are you working on now/next?
Tom> I’ve just finished up on a heist and psychological thriller film starring Sam Claflin and Eddie Marsan called All The Devils Are Here, directed by Barnaby Roper. Followed up next by Paul Wright’s new film, set here in Glasgow and starring George MacKay, called Mission. I have no idea how to fit this one into a genre, but it looks a huge amount of fun to work on.
Read more of the Meet the Colourists series here.
