Making the Grade: Amy Besate on Guiding Eyes and Falling in Love Through Colour
Amy Besate joined the creative team at Ambassadors over three years ago as colourist, after having worked in film post-production in London for the past decade.
With a passion for storytelling through colour, Amy possesses the rare ability to evoke emotion and enhance narratives through their craft. Having worked with brands & artists such as Fila, Nike, The New Originals, and Sevdaliza, clients appreciate Amy’s commitment to precision, ensuring that every frame tells a compelling story with a vivid and captivating palette.
Amy was the first colourist to be awarded a silver lamp for ‘I Don’t Know Where to Start’ at the Dutch Creativity Awards in 2024.
LBB> Amy, 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?
Amy> My first experience with colour grading was when I was a runner at Molinare, I used to work at the bar that was surrounded by the theatres (full cinema) where you had the grading suites.
I asked one of the assistants what they were doing, and she just started showing me things like changing people's eye colour and a number of other adjustments. I was so impressed that I asked one of the colourists, Andrew Daniel, for some tips and he showed me how to turn day into night which I thought was immensely cool. Even though I found it interesting I was not fully converted.
It wasn’t until I went to Rushes and began bugging Simona Cristea and watched Side by Side that I felt “this is for me”. I would try and catch her to show me how to do certain things, and she would usually respond with “I’m busy babes”. But I didn't give up! It was surprising how she somehow didn’t think I was mentally annoying, but she saw something and started showing me the ropes. Once that started I dropped any idea of being a producer for colour grading.
LBB> What was the project that really changed your career?
Amy> Well, funnily enough, actually, I think it was the 'Hamster Love Story', my first Christmas campaign and first Hamsters project! Before then, people thought everything I did was nice, but that project was when literally everyone, all the colourists - and I still get that today - told me that it was a really nice grade. Obviously it helped that the animation was that freaking good, but nonetheless, the grade was good as well.
LBB> How and where did you hone your craft? And did you have any particular mentors?
Amy> There's three people who have taken a chance on me.
One of them is obviously Simona Cristea who was a big mentor for me. She really is the one that started it all for me. The one who really took the time, sat down and started teaching me everything, she would tell me to match this and then explain how I did it wrong. That's the best way, at least for me, I don't learn by watching tutorials, or working on random stuff. I have to have a specific task and that's how I learn.
Number two was Jacqui Loran at FilmLight, who not only is one of the directors but a colourist herself, she takes interest in supporting and training others who are interested in grading. She's always very keen about helping women out in the industry, because there's so few of them. She's very knowledgeable and has been in the industry for a long time. I learned tons from her on a more technical level, like how to make your grade more “expensive”.
Lastly, it's Halbo, the founder of Ambassadors. When I was in conversations to join Ambassadors, I was told by his team that he was unreachable, he then reached me from a random boat in the middle of Greece. He was on holiday and asked me if I wanted to join as a full-time colourist instead of an assistant.
I was really honest with him and showed him my reel. I've freelanced as a colourist but have not yet been hired as one. I told him that I don't have a load of clients but I do have experience, but a different type of experience which could still be useful. He then said not to worry about it and “we will get some beautiful images in your face and you'll make them better.”
LBB> Tell us more about your creative process. For example, when you get a project, how do you go about developing a look?
Amy> It depends on how it comes in.
The first thing that I’d like to do is look at the deck and edit. The deck is likely to give me the direction of what they were intending to create. About 50% of the time, there might be some words about grading in there as well. Before the client arrives, I want to watch it a bunch of times, be familiar with it, so that when they do come in, I've already had a chance to play around with the footage, but then before we actually get going, it's about sitting with the client and discussing what you want.
I want them to explain their vision, what inspired them, what their process is, as well as what they’re aiming to achieve. It’s also important to know what potential issues could arise.
Sometimes they can't explain it though so we will sit there and have a nice little chat and it can be very organic. It's my job to pull out that information from them, the more you talk with your client, the better. Clients sometimes find it hard to sit in grade, I think they find it difficult to be in a dark room for that amount of time. There are some who absolutely adore it and I can't get them to leave. I get it, it’s a wonderful space, I love my cave!
LBB> From experience, we found that colourists often love art and photography. When you're out of the studio, or out of the cave, What inspires you?
Amy> My cat is a constant source of inspiration. She's a legend, I would not have moved to Amsterdam without her! But seriously, I go to loads of concerts, music and gigs are still the only things I find the same joy that I did when I was 16.
I'm a little bit disillusioned with TV and film, other than films like Poor Things (Yorgos can do no wrong!) and Love Lies Bleeding. I think the budgets have gone down an immense amount since the 2009 crash, you have fewer and fewer gems coming out each year. Where TV and cinema used to be a great source of my inspiration, nowadays it comes more from exhibitions, also people watching. I find the observation of people in different environments immensely useful and interesting.
LBB> Colour grading is largely a digital affair, but there's also been a resurgence of film over the past few years in commercial 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 feel?
Amy> The texture that film gives is what everyone wants their work to look like. Film is a really interesting medium, because somehow before the turn of the century, not the last but the one before, we figured out how to capture light in the same way that our eyes do. In it’s base it receives light in a logarithmic fashion, the same way that our eyes do, and because of this, in my opinion, it’s the best medium.
That's what makes it have such a great feel about it. I remember as a child thinking that my vision was made out of 1000s of little dots, that’s grain, maybe this should have been a hint already at what I wanted to do later on. Working with digital footage to emulate that vintage feel can be tricky but super satisfying. I have some LUTs, scans that I like to use, but it really depends on what footage I get to begin with and what tools I'll decide to use or not.
LBB> When working in commercials, what role can colour and grade play in enhancing a brand's assets? And what sort of conversations do you have with creatives and clients about that? For example, is there often a strategic consistent look for a brand? Can these be too heavy handed?
Amy> Well, the sign of a good grade, much like it is with good visual effects, is that you don't really know it’s happening, especially if you can convince your viewer that this is reality. Someone who has no idea of what we do, probably just thinks that it's all shot, put together and makes sense, but they don't understand that there are so many other processes and those are hidden.
As for the role that colour and grade play in enhancing brand assets, let's say if it is a big client, the first thing that I will ask is what are brand colours? Do we have colour codes? There are some brands that have to have, for example, a specific shade of blue that you can't vary from, but sometimes you can get more flexibility.
Colour is extremely important. Edit will tell you a story, visual effects will make you believe it, colour will guide your eye and make you fall in love with it. If I want you to look somewhere in the image, I know how to do that without you noticing it, until I turn it on or off.
To talk about the simplicity of it all, I create a very loose feathered shape, I won’t touch the inside but I might slightly lower the contrast if something is a bit softer, your eye will be drawn to the bit that is sharper, If there is less contrast on the outside, your eye will be drawn to where there's more contrast. Quite simply we can act like manipulators of light and colour, wish it was my line that I’ll have to give to Andrew Daniel, who’s a master not only with light but with words too.
LBB> How do you ensure that each colourist's director partnership is a success?
Amy> Talk less and listen. You have to hear what they have to say, this is not my baby, it's theirs. There's something immensely satisfying about people leaving the grade and just saying you really nailed it.
Colour is subjective, so there's nothing really right or wrong about it, it's just what you like and tastes can vary.
You become friends with your directors and your DOPs because you need to understand them better and they need to understand you. If they like you, they enjoy working with you and they can see that you can do what they want then you're in. If people don't know what they want, then also good, I have a bunch of art and photography books in my set that are there for references, or we'll go on the internet and start having a look at things, can be moving or not, so graffiti, paintings are also fair game, anything that gives you inspiration.
LBB> What advice would you give to budding colourists?
Amy> Watch as much as you freaking can, I mean it, consume as much media as possible, you never know when that internal brain library might come in useful.
Learn about photography, because it just makes sense. The process of how film started and was shot is similar to photography, so it's going to teach you a lot of technicalities. Do you need to go to uni? No, not at all. If you are somewhere like the UK, then get in touch with as many post houses as possible. Tell them you will make them their tea, talk to people, understand and listen.
Make yourself seen, make them like you with your passion, then they’ll be likely to actually show you stuff. There are free versions of the industry standard software, download them and get familiar.
I do still think that it isn't something that you just learn all by yourself, it is worth talking to professionals. They can just tell you where you might be going wrong and how to change it. You don't want to learn bad habits, it's a bit like in anything that you learn. You might be doing something in five steps, and they can turn around and say "you know, you can do it one, right?".
LBB> In your opinion, what's the difference between a good grade and a great grade?
Amy> You're reminding me of my art course where I could not explain my process and I lost an entire grade because of it! It's weird because it's such a subjective thing. Right? I might think that something is a great grade, while someone else might not.
What makes a really good grade? There are grades that are technically good, but I just don't like that palette. I'm personally bored of really orange skin tones. That's not my preference. But even I can be swayed if it hits just right, like that CK ad that broke the internet earlier this year!
A great grade is what I already said, when you don't realise it's graded, if you can hide the work and make people believe that it was literally what came out of the camera. I think that many might not agree with that, because it's usually the cooler, really punchy work that stands out to them, but I think the really unnoticeable subtle thing is ever so slightly cooler. I want information in my highlights and velvety tones in my blacks. I much prefer a darker grade, but I don't want it to disappear into a black hole.
LBB> How is the craft and trade of colour grading changing?
Amy> It really has to do with the fact that it is no longer a hidden black art because it’s being made more accessible. I think it was a major turning point in photography as well when they were free versions of Lightroom coming out. Same goes for editing. At one point everyone edited on Avid, and that is an expensive piece of kit and hard.
But then ‘final cut’ from Apple came out and the craft was made accessible again. Like, why do you have so many new nuke artists? Everyone had a crack at nuke when I was like 21. It's because so many people figured out how to get free versions of these really expensive software, but once these software actually released free versions, they made more money. I think it's a good turn of events that it's becoming more accessible to everyone and not only rich white kids that can come out of film school and can do it.
I think it's an amazing thing that this industry is opening up to everyone, the arts are not just for the rich, they are for everyone. Interesting stories don't come from money.
