Full-service creative studio Carbon has bolstered its roster in Los Angeles by welcoming acclaimed, multiple award-winning colorist Aubrey Woodiwiss as Sr. Colorist/Director of Color Grading.
With a portfolio that canvasses the creative spectrum in spots for Dulux, NBA 2K17, Coors, and Honda, to music videos including Beyonce’s groundbreaking “Formation,” Jay-Z’s “On to the Next One,” and the Calvin Harris/Rihanna smash “This Is What You Came For,” Woodiwiss brings his own brand of versatility and vitality to Carbon’s dynamic West Coast studio. “I’m always prepared to bend and shape myself around the requirements of the project at hand, but always with a point of view,” says the new Carbon LA Sr. Colorist, who honed and wielded his craft at The Mill and Electric Theater Collective during his career. “I am fortunate to have been able to collate various experiences within life and work, and have been able to reapply them back into the work I do. I vary my approach and style as required, and never bring a labored or autonomous look to anything. Communication is key, and a large part of what I do as well.”
Woodiwiss’ focus on creativity began during his adolescence, when he experimented with editing films on VHS and later directed and cut homemade music videos. Woodiwiss started his professional career in the early 2000s at Framestore, first as a runner and then as a digital lab operator, helping to pioneer film scanning and digital film tech with box-office hits including Harry Potter, Love Actually, Bridget Jones Diary, and Troy. Along the way, Woodiwiss has parlayed his craft into multiple Best Colorist nods, a D&AD Black Pencil for his work with Film4, British Craft Arrow shortlists, and UK Music Video Awards.
While he’s traversed creative mediums from film, commercials, music videos, and onward on over 3,000 projects, he maintains a linear mindset when it comes to each project. “I approach them similarly in that I try to realize the vision set by the creators of the project,” adds Woodiwiss, who not only co-creative directed the immersive mixed media art exhibition and initiative, ‘mentl’, with Pulse Films director Ben Newman and producer Craig Newman (Radiohead, Nick Cave , Chris Cunningham ), but has worked with other renowned filmmakers including Emil Nava, Chris Hewitt, Seb Edwards, Sam Brown, Melina Matsoukas, Scott Lyon, Andreas Nilsson, Marcus Söderlund, and Jamie Rafn throughout his career.
According to Carbon LA Executive Producer Matt McManus, Woodiwiss brings a keen vision and breadth of experience to further elevate the West Coast’s creative output. “The caliber of work from Aubrey is truly extraordinary. Bringing such an elevated talent to Carbon LA is a great way to expand our services into a full color operation and to integrate that with the compositing talent we have is really very exciting. Could not be happier with such a wonderful team.” For Aubrey, the decision to join Carbon was based on its potential, saying “many factors attracted me to sign with Carbon, but what I am most excited about is the growth potential for color and the benefits that will have in making Carbon a leading VFX company.”
Now at Carbon, Woodiwiss will be reunited with CD/Lead Flame artist John Price who he collaborated with on notable projects including Beyonce’s “Formation” video. “The two possess diverse skill sets that complement one another and they represent an unparalleled level of talent that will be beneficial to all our clients,” said Carbon Partner Frank Devlin. “Bringing Aubrey on board dramatically increases our visibility in LA and enhances the Carbon brand overall. With his commitment, we are aggressively pursuing color grading with a great offering,” he adds.
Carbon’s addition of the Baselight color system and Woodiwiss as Sr. Colorist to its well established VFX/Design services marks a significant investment by offering its clients a complete post solution in Los Angeles. The new state of the art color suite in turn allows the studio to stay creatively competitive while providing opportunities to service other segments of the marketplace including feature films, broadcast, and cable projects. Plans are in the works to offer remote grading capabilities from any of the Carbon offices in NY, Chicago and Los Angeles to further capitalize on the immense talent the company has to offer nationwide.
