We talk to Marty McMullan, senior colourist at Freefolk, about his influences, inspirations and recent projects - including the hilarious Warburtons ad with Samuel L. Jackson and the launch films for new superclub Drumsheds.

Having joined London post house Freefolk less than two years ago, it’s been all change for Marty McMullan again recently. But this time it has been a big company move as earlier this year Freefolk moved from their old home in Soho and headed across central London, into a Grade II-listed 18th century building called The Weavers House, in Spitalfields in the East End.

“The new place is great," says McMullan. "But it has meant that if you want to put in a plug socket, somebody from Heritage England has to turn up to give you permission. So the move has taken a bit longer than we hoped.”

After a sumptous 'retro-fit' into the Weavers House, Freefolk are now fully operational in their new home – and McMullan up and running in his new state of the art and spacious grading suite. As the company's senior colourist his workload is dominated by commercial work, for the likes of Nike, Virgin Media, Skoda, Specsavers and many more - plus longforms, including feature films, and the more occasional music-based project. 

Above: Weaver's House, Freefolk's new HQ in historic Spitalfields, East London

McMullan hails from County Down in Northern Ireland. After studying in London, his career progress over the past 15 or so years has taken him from Todd AO to Soho Images, Rushes, and to Bubble where he spent several successful years. “Then Freefolk called early last year," he says. "They just do some great work. So it was a no-brainer, really.”

It has been borne out by the work he has undertaken this year, including the Warburtons commercial featuring Samuel L. Jackson, and the British feature film Sumotherhood. And he has recently reunited with director Eoin Glaister, for whom he has graded numerous music videos, to work on two new films for the launch of North London superclub Drumsheds. All these projects have given him scope to be characteristically bold in the use of colour, a preference that he puts down to his longstanding and continuing love of video games. 

During a very pleasant hour in his company, Marty talked about his journey, from a small town in Northern Ireland to a grading suite in historic Spitalfields - and his favourite work from the past couple of years.

On getting started, getting stuck in - and video games:

I've always been good technically, I enjoyed messing about on computers - and interested in video games. Originally I went to do software engineering at university, but then realised that software engineering is just basically maths, not video games! 

So I came over to London to the University of the Arts and did a degree in Sound, Art and Design. That had some film stuff in it as well – although we didn't really cover grading or anything like that. In fact, I wrote some of my dissertation on Grand Theft Auto – on GTA 4. I remember when I was going to do my dissertation, thinking 'oh god, I'm going to have to write something'. So then I thought: Why don't I just write about video games? Then I have a good excuse to play them!

I think there is a hint of video game influence when I grade, because I particularly enjoy projects in which I can push in a bit of vivid saturation. It has to suit the vibe of course.

You can implement a look which is quite digital. As we moved into using digital cameras [in the Noughties], I think I was lucky that I had the background to understand the technical side of it.

I wrote some of my dissertation on GTA 4...

After graduating I joined Todd AO in Camden Town. There was a guy there called Ray King, who was head of colour, and a bit of an old school legend. He offered me the role of his assistant, and within a week I was just grading things, on old telecines, with wet gates and weird chemicals.

Ray gave me a chance. He let me on the kit and let me tackle things immediately, so I learned on the job. Soho Images was part of the Todd AO set-up, so then I got an assistant job there. And after that I moved to Rushes - which was when I really got going, doing commercials and music videos.

On Marty's Dad, Gerry McMullan:

Above: Marty’s parents, Gerry and Brigid McMullan, pictured in 1967

My Dad was an amateur painter - watercolours, oil paints and things like that. He loved to do it and I think that was a big inspiration for me. Just looking at objects and nature, the light and colour, and realising that things like trees don't have to be be stereotypical green. It was about thinking about images differently.

He would just give me a bit of paper and I would have a go as well. This is when I was a kid, but thinking back, it opened the doors to an artistic way of approaching my work. It was always a creative house when I was growing up.

He was very down to earth, and lived in a little town in Ireland. It’s nice to think that him taking that time all those years ago has led me here.

On the Warburtons ad Mad About The Bread - with Samuel L. Jackson:

We wanted it to feel a bit like Hollywood in a really mundane, everyday setting.

Declan Lowney was the director, and we had a few chats beforehand where the thing we kept saying was that we wanted it to feel a bit like Hollywood, but in a really mundane, everyday setting. Samuel L. Jackson needs to look like a movie star, because he’s Hollywood Royalty, but he’s in a bread factory in Bolton.

I rewatched Pulp Fiction again and tried to take little bits and pieces from that. It doesn’t look like a bread commercial. It’s got a filmic, cinematic look to it. And I think that lends itself to the comedy of it.

On his working relationship with director Eoin Glaister - and his favourite Glaister video:

I've worked with Eoin Glaister quite a few times over the years – we go way back. I did the Aquilo video for which he won an MVA years ago, and Two Door Cinema Club, and one for Danny Brown that had Big Keith from The Office chasing his own brain down the street. Eoin is brilliant for telling a story within a music video.

Probably the favourite music video of his that I've worked on was for Beirut's Landslide - about the knight in the desert who is having real problems with his horse.

Shot in the vast desolate scenery of the Karakum desert in Kazakhstan, we channelled the westerns of Sergio Leone, paying particular attention to eyes to help convey emotion, and skin tone to help the actors stand out in contrast to the dusty yellowish hues.

Our latest collaboration is for two promotional films for Drumsheds - the new superclub in the old Ikea in Edmonton, North East London - that Eoin directed. The first one, which we completed a few months ago, features a caterpillar that evolves into a butterfly, and then into hundreds of butterflies that are all on the dance floor of the club, representing the birth of a new dance venue.

This took a while to finish. Making a butterfly visible in the vast cavern of Drumsheds is quite a job. But ultimately it looks great, with fantastic sweeping shots of the new space.

On his recent work in music videos:

I don't get to grade that many music videos any more, and I would love to do more. But there are a few that I have done in the past couple of years that I'm really happy with.

I'd certainly include James Green's video for Kid Kapichi's Death Dips (above) among them. It was shot on beautiful Kodak 16mm 500T neg. There was a very strong nod to 70s horror and B movies with warmer tones and vibrant saturation. This all helped achieve a really lovely grainy retro aesthetic. 

Then there's 21 Savage, KSI & Future's Number 2 (above) - which was graded completely remotely with director Troy Roscoe.

It was a really interesting one to grade as it had to feel like it was inside a video racing game. So it had lots of strong neons and heavy contrast.

The video for Kojey Radical's Time For A New Season, directed by Kev Evans (above), was graded in the middle of lockdown from my spare room.

Kojey has some brilliant facial expressions that are a joy to grade. Lots of coloured gels allowed me to push the saturation and make an impact.

On grading the new action comedy movie, Sumotherhood:

They were looking for a music video grade in a feature film.

Adam Deacon, the director, writer and star of the movie, and Finn Bruce, the producer, those guys got me involved because they saw the Stormzy video that I graded for Still Disappointed. It’s the one where he has a call and response thing with Wiley. They really liked that.

Generally they wanted something that felt like a music video – a music video grade, but in a feature film. So quite contrasty and in your face. They basically wanted it to feel a bit more pushed than a film, so we sharpened highlights in the skin tones, and made the colours punchy and powerful.

It was great. Adam is very creative, Simon Stolland was the talented DP and we got on really well, and Finn is absolutely brilliant. Just listening to what that guy had to put up with to get that film over the line, is enough to make me think I'd never want to be a producer. Those guys deserve a lot of credit because they made it work.

On the short film Bikes with Charlotte Regan:

I worked on this a few months ago, not long before Charlotte’s movie Scrapper was released, and it's really cool. An enchanting story about two kids on their bikes in the city – and very little dialogue.

It was promoting a new Panasonic camera, and tells a love story, conveyed through the camera movement, against the backdrop of rundown English towns. It's a beautiful film, and it was great to work with Charlotte.

On the brilliant new promo for Drumsheds, Big Is Beautiful:

We wanted to convey every detail in their muscles and skin.

It's the second of the two videos I've worked on for Drumsheds with Eoin Glaister. In this one Eoin has used an incredible female bodybuilder - and other bodybuilders - to connect them to the club, to make the point that Big Is Beautiful.

For this film I played a lot with contrast and sharpness in the highlights to enhance the bodybuilders' physique. We wanted to convey every detail in their muscles and skin. In essence, like Drumsheds, a bit grotesque - yet beautiful. 

• Marty McMullan is based at Freefolk, see his reel here. Contact Megan Hindle on megan.hindle@freefolk.com for more information.