Finding Artistry in Everyday Moments with Jules Wileman

Jules Wileman infuses her versatile portfolio with a distinctive artistic sensibility, effortlessly spanning advertising, fashion, beauty, automotive, and promotional work.

Her impressive collaborations include projects for Samsung, Burberry, Aston Martin, Expedia, and adidas, and she’s worked with talented directors like Riff Raff’s ‘Fan and Fon’, Hot Icarus, Stephen Pipe, Benedict Spence and Rosie May Bird Smith. Notably, her work with director Sindan Agha on ‘How to Be a Person’ earned a BAFTA for short-form drama on E4.

LBB> What was your first experience with the world of colour grading – and when did you decide that being a colourist was a role that you wanted to pursue?

Jules> Photography has always been a hobby of mine, since I was able to hold a camera really, and a huge part of my enjoyment was colour-correcting the photos.

Once I hit my teens I started using Premiere Pro to edit holiday videos, torturing my poor family with endless viewings – but again, a large part of what I loved about it was using the Lumetri Colour page to play around with the grade (even if I didn’t know what a grade was at that point).

Finally, I was lucky enough to have the option of media GCSE at school. That’s where I actually discovered colour grading as a career option, and I was instantly set on it.

LBB> What was the project that you felt really changed your career?

Jules> It’s difficult to pick one, as I think all of the projects I’ve worked on have had an impact in some way!

In terms of finding my feet with the craft, I worked on 10 short films across two months in 2020 for Goldsmiths MA students, each 10 minutes long. They were all completely unique with each look, and all had an attended session to finalise the grade. It was very intense, but a huge learning curve!

Another pivotal job for me was Allianz x Women's Aid ‘The World's Strongest Women’ – with the talented director Fern Beresford and director of photography Murren Tullett. This job got me a nomination for the Young Arrows in 2022, which ultimately helped get my name out there!

LBB> How/where did you hone your craft and did you have any particular mentors?

Jules> My first job in the industry was at Absolute Post, where I started out as a runner. From day one I made it very clear which department I wanted to end up in.

Four months later, I was colour-assisting, which really means pestering Matt Turner to shadow him daily, or show him grades for feedback and advice.

For the entirety of my time at Absolute, his suite door was always open for me to nip in and chat to him about something, whether that be discussing recent work we liked (or disliked), making and testing out LUTs, how my session had just gone…the list could go on. I’m incredibly grateful!

On top of that, I was also fortunate to spend some time with David Ludlam (or Luddy), Adam Clarke, and an evening or two with Felipe Szulc before he moved onto Nomad!

LBB> Tell us more about your creative process – (e.g.when you get a project, how do you go about developing a look?)

Jules> The wonderful but also difficult thing about commercial grading is that every project is completely different, and often with a very fast turnaround. Therefore, it’s always important for me to read any treatments, as well as look over the director and DOP’s previous work if we haven’t worked together before.

I always love to get some sort of brief or reference; it really helps to sign-post the direction we may take the grade.

Once we’re into the swing of the session, the main thing I want to know is what the client wants to convey with the work.

Colour is so nuanced it’s almost impossible to verbalise what look they’d like, whereas explaining the emotion behind it really gives me an insight into the intention of the work.

LBB> From experience, we’ve found that colourists often love art and photography - when you’re out of the studio, what inspires you?

Jules> The cinema is a huge passion of mine; being able to completely shut off from the outside world is an absolute treat.

I do also love photography and art, taking photos of anything that catches my eye or doing (awful) watercolour painting. Crochet is another passion; I find doing something with my hands, away from a screen, incredibly fulfilling – how the project ends up looking is a completely different story!

However, I think many things inspire me day-to-day; going for a walk in the park, or reading a good book, or sending my mum a silly haiku I wrote about the family dogs. It’s important to try and find artistry in everyday moments.

LBB> Colour grading is largely a digital affair, but there’s also been a resurgence of film over the past few years in commercials and music videos. What are your thoughts about working on film versus digital formats like 4K? And what are your favourite techniques for capturing a vintage or tactile feel?

Jules> The formats are so different, it’s difficult to compare them. It really depends on the project! However, I love that more and more work is being shot on film; you just can’t beat the beautiful colours and texture.

There’s countless ways to emulate film now; Resolve recently added the ColorSlice Six Vector Grading tool, for example. It uses subtractive colour processes to adjust colour density, saturation and hue, which really helps capture the richness of filmic colours.

Nonetheless, all of these tools work best when the footage has been purposefully shot with film emulation in mind. Good lighting and art direction are the key!

LBB> When working in commercials, what role can colour and a grade play in enhancing a brand’s assets and what sort of conversations do you have with creatives and clients about that

Jules> Obviously I’m biased, but the grade is integral to commercials. Some brands have a very clear visual identity, so it’s important to maintain that consistency across campaigns.

You don’t have long when holding audience attention, so the product really needs to stand out. Any colourist worth their salt will be perfecting brand colours before the client even thinks of mentioning it!

This also means you can focus on the more artistic parts of the grade, and work with the creative team to enhance all their hard work from production.

LBB> How do you ensure that each colourist-director partnership is a success?

Jules> Whilst it’s imperative to have taste and an opinion as a colourist, we’re really just a creative partner to the director. It’s not about what we want, but about working together to create their desired look whilst doing the footage and story justice.

Whether you’re trying out multiple looks, or matching to a specific reference, it’s all about collaboration and respect.

Every partnership will be different, which is one of my favourite things about being a colourist – you’re exposed to huge varieties in preferences and ideas!

LBB> What advice would you give to budding colourists?

Jules> Grading is a craft; learn from those who came before. Spend as much time as you can shadowing other colourists, and show them your work. Get feedback, apply it, then go back and get more feedback! You can never practise too much; it takes years to train your eye, so you need to be committed to practically living in a dark room.

On top of that, you need to work on your people skills – it’s all good and well doing a lovely grade, but how you conduct yourself will make a huge impression on a room full of clients.

This doesn’t mean you have to be everyone’s best mate, but patience and understanding is essential. One of the lovely things about this industry is how diverse it is, so you will meet people from all walks of life. This applies to your colleagues too; as much as grading can be a solitary role, we can’t do what we do without colour assists, or editors, or MCR ops, or schedulers, and so on. Treat everyone with kindness.

LBB> In your opinion, what's the difference between a good grade and a great grade

Jules> Colour is so subjective, what someone sees as a great grade, someone else might hate…!

However, I think all great grades are almost unnoticeable – they won’t distract from the image as a whole, but instead enhance it. Perfect matching is a must, and no clipping or crushing!

LBB> How is the craft and trade of colour grading changing?

Jules> There has been an alarming surge in the use of AI. Many more grading tools are incorporating it, which personally I’m not a huge fan of. Currently, AI is used to speed up the grading process within tight deadlines, but it will potentially evolve beyond that.

Environmental issues aside, I think a human touch is vital to colour grading, as well as full control of your grade nodes.

AI aside, the actual craft of colour grading is timeless. There will always be visual storytelling, as it is so very human to make art.