I have recently worked on two international projects, both of which are TV series completed entirely locally from principal photography to sound, final mastering and deliverables. We also provided dailies services to various productions.

The core of our facility consists of two Baselight ONE stations with Blackboard Classic panels, one Daylight station with Slate panel and two FLUX workstations with a total of 600TB of capacity. 

All workstations are connected to fibre network-controlled by a 100G switch. Also, a 10G connection is available through the entire facility, providing access for other units like ingest or conform workstations.

For monitoring, we have two Sony X300s and one Sony X310 monitor. Our grading theatre is equipped with a Sony 4K laser projector and 7.1 Dolby sound. With display systems calibrated to industry standards, 247HUB is capable of delivering the relevant 4K UHD HDR formats at best possible quality.

Firstly, from the colourist’s perspective, Baselight is our first choice because of sophisticated colour grading tools and a ‘colour grading first’ approach in the GUI and operational design.

The second very important factor is the support. I couldn’t imagine how we could pull this off (set-up and operate 247HUB) without help from FilmLight’s Baselight support team.

At the beginning, there was a bit of a learning curve to understand the logic behind the interface, but all operators quickly felt natural and responsive after utilising the system. Using Blackboard Classic with all commands and options at hand allowed this transition to happen very quickly, and I was soon working much faster on Baselight than on the system I’d been using for years.

Each project brings something new, such as a technical challenge or cultural differences to overcome. As a facility, we need to stay on top of the standards for international distribution in every aspect of the delivery. From editorial, conform, VFX and colour grading, every department needs to be ready to manage complex tasks and demanding client requests. For colourists, working on VFX shots from different vendors is confusing without colour managed workflows. This is where Baselight really shines, with its colour space journey and sophisticated colour management tools.

That’s a difficult one to answer. I don’t use fixed stack/node presets and I am not a fan of LUTs and plugins. The shapes I use are often very soft and I’m always trying to get the maximum from one tool, like Base Grade or Film Grade, before stepping into other tools.

I am careful not to create images that are disconnected from what we can see around us every day (real life). But don’t get me wrong, I will gladly break the rules and technical limitations if the resulting images shine and work for the story.

At the beginning of the digital era, colour correction as the post-production stage was proprietary to film labs and companies with expensive gear, engineers and talented artists. It was not easy to get onboard and learn the tools of the trade. You had to work hard to get a chance in any sector. And second chances were rare.

Nowadays things are profoundly different. Anyone can get basic gear with software tools and start right away. Content production skyrocketed – not only for TV, but for many new platforms and formats. The changes in the industry are so fast and it is tricky to stay relevant.

But for colourists, one thing will always remain: we aim to produce beautiful imagery.

The film and TV industry in Serbia has changed significantly over the past five years. From relatively small production capabilities, relying on facilities in the neighbouring countries, we became an interesting shooting location. Since introducing the incentives, Serbia is an equal competitor to its neighbouring countries.

Recent productions include Net­flix ’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022), starring Daniel Craig; the UK-Ireland crime series, Miss Scarlet And The Duke (2020), and Legendary Entertainment ’s The Machine (2023), starring Mark Hamill and Bert Kreischer.

Local productions are also on the rise as they take advantage of the incentives and Serbia is currently one of the main content producers of scripted content in local languages in the region.

This opportunity was recognised, and 247HUB was initiated to take a leading role in post-production, offering top quality services. Additionally, it contributes to the local industry and community by providing the best technology to support local talents and productions.

We switched to Baselight 6.0 right before we kicked off the colour for The Ark, Season 2. I love the new Curve Grade interface and, of course, X Grade. This tool is so intuitive and natural to use either with the panel or the stylus.

I was involved in the look development early in the preparation stages, thanks to DoP Igor Šunter, with whom I’ve worked with on many projects.

The task was to create a distinctive look for the show, which takes place in a spaceship. The entire set was built inside three sound stages.

First, we worked on light reflections on the walls, floor and other materials that the ship was built from. You can tell whether material is soft, hard, elastic, made of metal or glass just by looking at the reflections. We made a choice to make all surfaces soft, sometimes silky. At the same time we decided not to use practical diffuse light sources, but to create this effect in post-production. That way we could achieve a contrast/difference between the texture of interior surfaces and characters in the shot.

The second task was to create a colour contrast between skin tones, costume and the ship. This was done by adding colour casts to the background and mixing back warm tones to the skin. At the end we narrowed down the colour palette and defined three core looks for the entire show.

The show LUTs were created and used in-camera. All dailies were processed using an entire stack of layers and operators, resulting in pretty nice looking dailies.

The core look was achieved using Base Grade, Film Grade, and Look operators with a combination of three core looks – Texture Equaliser, DFuse and Colour Crosstalk.

Since The Ark, I’ve worked on The Librarians - The New Chapter (2024), by the same client.