FilmLight Colour Awards 2024: Jury Insight with Jose Francisco Neto

Jose Francisco Neto – senior colourist and founder of DOT in São Paulo. His work spans a wide range of projects, from short films and feature films to major episodic productions like Disney's Aruna's Magic.

Q> What appealed to you about being a judge in the FilmLight Colour Awards?

Jose> The award itself is a unique opportunity for the filmmaking community to celebrate achievements, connect and delve deeper into the colour grading process. It's also a rare opportunity to see a variety of work from around the world, offering unprecedented diversity of cultures applied to visual arts. This is important to understand how our work may be received by the global audience we reach today, not only through streaming platforms but also through traditional distribution and festivals, which have become more globalised, too.

Q> Do you think it’s important for colourists to be recognised in awards like these?

Jose> Sure! To put it into context, the work of the colourist is extremely difficult to evaluate since it is part of the overall cinematography. One may argue that it is a very important part since it produces the final form of the photography, but on the other hand, it is inseparable from other elements that contribute to the final visual outcome. 

The collaboration with different DoPs results in varying levels of contribution from the colourist, so the artistic input can modulate significantly from project to project. 

Colour grading is a blend of technical and artistic skills. Sometimes it’s an 'art under demand' where we meet the project's needs, while in others we have complete creative freedom to propose and heavily influence the final look. Colour has this amazing ability to communicate or induce emotions directly to the heart, much like music does. All these aspects make evaluating the work of colourists a very challenging process.

Interestingly, in my view, having a winner is not the most important aspect. Of course, we need to have a winner who will always deserve the accolades. Just look at the latest winners - absolutely amazing work. But I believe the true importance of the award is larger. It’s about shining a light on many talented professionals who have significantly contributed to the outstanding visuals of countless pieces of art and thrilled audiences worldwide. Honouring and celebrating them, as well as the craft of colour grading itself, is something we missed for years until the FilmLight Colour Awards were established. And we are very grateful for that.

Q> What are your thoughts on the Spotlight category?

Jose> What a great name for a category. A single word that explains it all. The Spotlight category is extremely welcome for the reasons we’ve just discussed. Talents emerge everywhere, even in places where the filmmaking industry is small or non-existent, but there are colourists with rich cultures and unique visions. To embrace those is essential to enrich and evolve the colour game.

Q> As a senior colourist and founder of post-production DOT, what is your advice for young and aspiring colourists?

Jose> In my country, as colour grading professionals and enthusiasts spread more and more, there is a heavy dependence on online tutorials. I notice young professionals focusing their time on learning how to do things rather than understanding why they do them. They don't spend enough time focusing on art and expression through images. I come from a background that bridges arts and science (engineering), where we could learn from labs as well as from DoPs. Labs always follow the book, while cinematographers push limits and distort reality. Each one has a distinct philosophy to conceive the image they seek and a different approach to lighting. It’s an extremely rich environment in creative terms.

Modern workflows are distancing cinematographers and colourists, through remote sessions, excessive tutorials, or production constraints. My advice is: gadgets are amazing, but try to put them aside and give more time to develop your artistic soul. Buy a watercolour kit and dive into painting. Learn to mix your own palettes to better understand colours as a form of expression. Even if your resulting art is not great, it doesn’t matter. What matters is the time you spend carefully choosing colours and growing your perception of the meaning behind the images you grade.

Q> Coming from Brazil, would you say that the grade changes depending on the culture?

Jose> This is a tricky one… I’m not sure, but I tend to believe so. The visual culture of a society is built by a wide range of experiences, including iconic artwork, traditional festivals, costumes, architecture, mainstream TV, fashion trends, and more. Let's not forget the predominant light that people are exposed to. This visual culture can act as a common base where the director, art director, and cinematographer build the desired look of a piece, and the colourist would not be an exception.

Generally, there is an observable appreciation for higher contrast and saturation in societies with tropical light, while films from northern countries often use softer tones. Cultural preferences are clearly noticeable regarding skin tones, but I'm not sure if there is evidence in other aspects. The advent of the upcoming award is an excellent opportunity to observe this phenomenon more closely and learn from it.

Q> How do you prefer to work with the DoP on colour?

Jose> Over the years, I have had the opportunity to work with many different DoPs, and the process has never been the same with any two of them. We must adapt, absorb, and learn from them as much as possible. But to answer the question, one method stood out – the DoP gives no briefing whatsoever and asks me to propose three looks. He then chooses one as a starting point and makes his considerations.

This approach gives us both a significant level of authorship and helps the work proceed delightfully because the final look is built upon convergence of ideas and trust. It’s a very smart strategy. No need to say we’ve become very good friends.

Q> Any final thoughts?

Jose> The future of our craft is always a hot topic. I’m very curious about how the market will respond to AI tools that will certainly arrive. How much will automation shift from being an aid to becoming guidance or even entirely replacing decision-making? It’s a very interesting time to live in, don’t you think? From my standpoint, I’d say the vast majority of the work done today will be replaced by automated tools, opening space for a new kind of colourist. Technology has the power to change the way we do things, and we have to adapt, but I’m confident that whatever happens, there will always be space for human creativity, including our amazing capacity to transform errors into an entirely new creative trend.

Q> What are you working on now/next?

Jose> I’m involved in several projects. Among them is a new course for beginners focusing on look development and I’m very excited to be utilising FilmLight’s new look development tool, Chromogen, to demonstrate my process of building a look. I think it will be a huge step forward in education to work directly on image perception instead of just tweaking buttons, which usually results in undesired effects. 

I’m also working on improving and promoting VFX workflows that make better use of grading to enhance results in complex compositions. 

Last, but not least, I have a new feature coming in a few weeks from that very good friend, where I’ll happily propose three different looks.