Ayumi Ashley
"I also became interested in photography at an early age and always had a camera with me. Before long, I realized that I was more interested in the Photoshop side of things than photography; which looking back now, was definetly a hint of things to come."
“I didn't see myself in a photography career, so, at the recommendation of my photography mentor, I decided to study film at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. If I’m being honest, I thought going to film school could be the best way to someday meet Tim Burton and Danny Elfman, which were serious life priorities at the time! I majored in editing, because I didn't know about color grading yet."
“I dove deep into editing and I worked hard. I found editing to be quite fun, but when I learned about color grading, it was immediately clear that was what I wanted to do. However, my school didn’t offer a colorist track and there was only one color class. I signed up for every course that could have been even slightly relevant to color, like lighting, cinematography and classes on film processing. I took every class offered by Dave Taylor, a fantastic editing teacher, because I knew I would gain the technical knowledge from him that would strengthen me as a colorist."
"There was a DaVinci 2K and Philips Quadra telecine at the school to process student films, so I talked the administration into creating a course on running the system and grading dailies. There were only two students in the class, and we studied under colorist Paul Cope. Paul gave us tons of hands-on time and taught us in depth about digital color science."
"There was an Assimilate Scratch system in the room as well, so while one student was in the driver’s seat of the telecine, the other would switch gears to Scratch. I signed up for online classes at FXPHD, followed blogs, read books, listened to podcasts, and constantly devoured information. It was challenging to do all this while being a full-time student and holding a day job, but I was completely hooked!”
“I was a big fan of PrepShootPost, a blog by award winning filmmaker and colorist, Eric Escobar. I met Eric through Kontent Films, a production company and directors bureau in San Francisco. He took me on as his 'digital sidekick,' and we were constantly shooting, experimenting, and talking about color. He believed in me as a colorist and did everything he could to help me establish myself. Eric, along with several other industry professionals I became friends with around this time, showed me the ropes on how to navigate the industry. I'm very lucky that I had such a strong support network at this time in my life."
“Later, as Eric started to do more directing and writing and moved away from color grading, he redirected a lot of his clients to me as their colorist. I began doing color work for Kontent, and it’s all taken off from there. I’m incredibly grateful for Eric and Kontent for the opportunities they’ve given me. This was the starting point of my career. I still had two years of University to complete, so I switched my classes to nights and online in order to be able to work.”
“In the beginning, I filled the days between my color jobs working as a data manager and eventually a DIT. I was constantly trying to learn about new camera formats and recording devices, so this was a natural step for me. Eventually, I found that I wasn’t able to dedicate myself to the knowledge base and equipment necessary to be a colorist and a DIT, so I started focusing strictly on color. I still love being on set, so I recently started producing small projects to get my fix.”
“It was at Kontent, that I met editor and designer Matt Notaro. I was grading in Apple Color at the time. When Blackmagic Design purchased DaVinci, Matt had the foresight to see an opportunity for me to be an early adopter of Resolve in the Bay Area independent colorist scene. Also being an IT whiz, Matt helped me build a system that took great advantage of the performance of DaVinci Resolve. We went onto opening a post production shop together in San Francisco’s Mission Film District, where we’ve been working as creative partners ever since. He was absolutely right, I’ve been exclusively working in DaVinci Resolve and it’s been an invaluable asset to have in my color suite.”
“I think that I entered this industry at an interesting time, when a lot of things were changing. There has been this huge shift in the power and affordability of technology and it created this democratization of filmmaking. Although I didn't have the opportunity to go through a traditional mentor system, there are more resources to learn from than ever before. Also, there has been this shift from huge post production facilities to smaller independent shops. I think it’s an empowering time to be a creative professional like me, and I feel very lucky to have had this timing.”
“To me, color is the perfect convergence of science and art. So I was surprised to learn that my favorite part of the job, has nothing to do with color. As a freelancer, I have the opportunity to work with a huge variety of people. In many cases, I’m being trusted with something that the director cares about deeply. Being given the reins to express someone else’s perspective, all while making the work my own, is an intricate relationship that I highly enjoy."
"Color is such a subjective thing, but at the same time it's universal. Getting to know someone’s aesthetic and vocabulary and finding different ways to collaborate makes every job meaningful. And of course, it’s great to be able to meet so many creative and inspiring people.”