Jean-Clement Soret: Living Colour

The work of a colourist can make or break a project, and MPC London’s Jean-Clement Soret is one of the foremost proponents of the art. He reveals his true colours to Danny Edwards

“With the emergence of new technologies and greater access to increasingly numerous and powerful tools, the human value, talent and sensitivity of a colourist has become crucial and makes the difference now more than ever.”  Pah, you might be thinking, these colourists seem to think a lot of themselves, I mean nothing like understatement is there?

Except that the above quote comes not from any colourist but from director Bruno Aveillan. The general directorial consensus from people such as Aveillan and Joachim Back (“How important is a colourist? How important is it to have wheels on your bike, or a chain? Very important!”) states that colour grading is one of the most integral aspects of any project and can make, and possibly break, a piece of work.

One thing that all three of these directors have in common is their work with MPC’s creative head of colour grading, Jean-Clement Soret. This softly spoken, modest Frenchman has been working at MPC for 15 years, before which time he was a colourist in Paris, and seems like the last person to extol the virtues of his own creative input regardless of how virtuous it was. Soret is regarded as one of the foremost proponents of his art, and an art is exactly what it is. Apart from his work on Cartier and Louis Vuitton for Aveillan, John Lewis and The Temper Trap for Wilson, and Audi for Back, he has also worked on features such as Slumdog Millionaire, The Other Boleyn Girl and Hard Candy and his presence at MPC is what attracts other colourists to the company.

Soret himself though is much less grandiose about his role in proceedings, preferring to see it as a very collaborative process. “I listen to what everyone has to say,” he states. “The client, the director, the DP, the agency producer and the creatives, and I try to make a summation of all of this, give a bit of input myself, then try to see what is possible with the material I am given and try to make a nice piece that pleases everyone.” Invariably he succeeds.

Sound and vision

Soret didn’t plan on life as a colourist. He earned a Masters degree in audiovisual techniques and initially wanted to work with sound rather than image but by chance ended up working in a processing lab, and the rest is history. “I did have an opportunity to work in sound at one earlier point,” he admits, “but I had discovered something new and interesting in colour grading and I wanted to stick with that.”

It’s clear from talking to Soret for any length of time that he’s passionate about his role and what comes across is just how creative a process colour grading is. For the uninitiated it might seem colour grading is based more in technology than creativity but for Soret it’s more about understanding the needs of his clients. “Actually figuring out the hardware and software and how you use it isn’t that difficult,” he says.

“What’s difficult is learning to understand what people actually want from you and what you can do with the material that you have. You need a good technical base but it’s only a means to be able to carry out the artistic bit. What we are doing is so subjective, there’s so much of yourself that you can put into a project, which is why you have to make sure you’re in line with what the director or the client wants.”

More than once Soret likens colour grading to cookery. He explains that he is like a chef who might have all the ingredients for a fantastic meal but doesn’t necessarily have the recipe, which is when his creative free-wheeling comes into its own; “it can be a bit trial and error”.

Soret accepts the evolution of technology in colour grading but that doesn’t stop him being wistful about the old days. Like many music aficionados who mourn the demise of vinyl, Soret laments the passing of film. “I do kind of miss the old ways of doing things,” he says, “especially working with film. There are some things that are difficult to reproduce and even with all the technology we have now it’s impossible to replicate some old film effects. New technology isn’t necessarily better or worse, it’s just different.”

Top of the league

MPC has a colour grading team that seems to be the envy of many. George Kyriacou, an MPC colourist for four years, says he moved to the company because it is “the Manchester United of grading” and has a team that is “difficult to compete with”, and Soret is an integral part of that. “Beyond his aesthetic considerations and his innate sense of colour, Soret really knows how to serve the story,” says Aveillan. “That’s one of the main reasons why so many great directors want to work with him.”

Sitting at his desk, altering colours, shades and hues with the apparent skill of an Old Master, Soret gives one, final, self-deprecating insight into his trade; “I always wanted to do something that involved knob-twisting really, and if it wasn’t something to do with sound, then it would be this… it’s a guy thing.”