Building ‘Crayon’ – An Artist-Focused Color Grading Boutique

Full episode notes and links: https://mixinglight.com/color-grading-tutorials/color-grading-interview-daniel-stonehouse-crayon/

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Experienced colorist Daniel Stonehouse owns and co-founded the boutique color grading studio Crayon in Melbourne, Australia. Throughout my detailed conversation with Dan, he shares a wealth of experience and practical insight on the art, craft, and business of color grading and what it takes to run a successful modern boutique shop.

During our conversation, Dan emphasized adaptability, continuous learning, dedication, and a holistic approach to becoming an effective colorist.

To this point, Dan offers some excellent wisdom to anyone managing color grading clients from ‘discovery to delivery’. You should consider perfecting the grading session and the lengthy discussions, negotiations, and planning preceding it. Plus, there are after-session processes, such as invoicing and generating visuals for promotion.

• (00:00) - Introduction
• (03:09) - The democratization of color grading
• (05:32) - The impact of Apple Color software
• (07:59) - Inspired by BEAN
• (10:25) - On being self-taught
• (13:25) - Dan's philosophy on grading
• (17:31) - FX Phd, Mixing Light, and online training
• (19:38) - You are a colorist until you tell yourself you're not
• (21:20) - It's not about the tools
• (24:25) - How did Crayon get to its current form?
• (27:22) - The end of the Post House era
• (33:26) - The Covid effect
• (34:33) - About colorist Abe Wynen
• (36:47) - It's not about being local anymore
• (38:31) - Remote freelance work vs a solid infrastructure
• (39:56) - Colleagues, competition, and self-confidence
• (46:57) - The blessing of limited time
• (48:56) - Getting into a flow state
• (53:13) - Paintings and photography as references
• (54:15) - Daniel's thoughts on 'Look creation'
• (56:08) - Grading under the look
• (01:04:10) - Don't get trapped by your workflow
• (01:08:04) - Matching shots
• (01:08:54) - Working on commercials
• (01:11:07) - Growing into the craft
• (01:15:04) - Evaluating a colorist's tendencies
• (01:17:47) - The trickiest color to work with..
• (01:19:35) - What is next for Crayon?
• (01:22:35) - The importance of Producers
• (01:25:15) - Being a 'facility colorist' vs freelance
• (01:31:11) - Wrapping up...