MakeMake's Jonny Thorpe On the Art of Color Grading

Jonny Thorpe is a lead colorist who grades advertising, music videos and short films at MakeMake, a multi-disciplinary creative studio offering production, editorial, visual effects, animation, color, finishing, music and creative development. Thorpe’s work spans advertising campaigns for brands including Prada, Nike, Apple, Google, Porsche and Heineken and music videos for artists such as The Beatles, Stormzy, Kali Uchis, Slowthai, Metronomy and Sigrid. He has also graded short films such as The Golden West, Baba and the internationally recognized Fire Drill.

Let’s hear from Thorpe…

As a colorist, what would surprise people the most about what falls under that title?
I’m not sure if this would come as a complete surprise, but I think it’s often overlooked: My role is often a bridge between the creative and technical sides of filmmaking. We spend a lot of time managing complex color pipelines and HDR and SDR workflows, checking display calibration, and ensuring the creative intent carries through every stage of post and final delivery. As technologies continue to evolve and the types of deliverables grow, this technical background work becomes ever more important.

Are you sometimes asked to do more than just color on projects? Has your job evolved at all beyond color?
Definitely. While color is still at the heart of what I do, the role has expanded quite a bit, especially as grading platforms like Baselight have become so much more powerful. These days I’m often using the software for tasks that go well beyond traditional color grading. This is usually simple cleanup, compositing, etc. Working so closely with a world-class VFX team means we can often help with each other’s workloads.

What are some recent projects you’ve worked on?
I’m almost always grading a fashion campaign, which I like because they tend to sit at the intersection of commercial, narrative and experimental filmmaking. I graded the Hodakova AW26 runway show earlier this year. It was all shot on 35mm, which is unusual for that format, but beautiful and distinctive.

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