Grading company

Freefolk

<h3>We talk to Marty McMullan, senior colourist at Freefolk, about his influences, inspirations and recent projects - including&nbsp;the hilarious new Warburtons ad with Samuel L. Jackson and the launch films for&nbsp;new superclub Drumsheds.</h3>Having joined London post house Freefolk less than two years ago, it’s been all change&nbsp;for Marty McMullan again recently. But this time&nbsp;it has been a big company move as earlier this year Freefolk moved from their old home&nbsp;in Soho and headed across central London, into a Grade II-listed 18th century building&nbsp;called The Weavers House,&nbsp;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&nbsp;– and McMullan up and running in his new state of the art&nbsp;and spacious grading suite.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;[imgtoken data:1]Above: Weaver's House, Freefolk's new HQ in historic Spitalfields, East LondonMcMullan hails from&nbsp;County Down in&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;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&nbsp;- 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!&nbsp;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.&nbsp;In fact, I wrote some of my dissertation on&nbsp;Grand Theft Auto&nbsp;– on&nbsp;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.[imgtoken data:2]<blockquote>I wrote some of my dissertation on&nbsp;GTA 4...</blockquote>After graduating&nbsp;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&nbsp;and let me tackle things&nbsp;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&nbsp;was when I really got going, doing commercials and music videos.On Marty's Dad, Gerry McMullan:[imgtoken data:3]Above:&nbsp;Marty’s parents, Gerry and Brigid McMullan, pictured in 1967My Dad was an amateur painter - watercolours, oil paints and things like that. He loved to do it and&nbsp;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&nbsp;Mad About The Bread&nbsp;- with Samuel L. Jackson:[vidtoken data:0]<blockquote>We wanted it to feel a bit like Hollywood in a really mundane, everyday setting.</blockquote>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&nbsp;video for which he won an MVA years ago, and Two Door Cinema Club,&nbsp;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.[imgtoken data:4]Probably the favourite music video of his that I've worked on was for <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2019/01/15/beirut-landslide-eoin-glaister/56805" target="_blank">Beirut's Landslide</a> - 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.[vidtoken data:1]Our latest collaboration is for&nbsp;two promotional&nbsp;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&nbsp;a caterpillar that evolves into a butterfly, and then into hundreds of&nbsp;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:[imgtoken data:5]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 <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2019/07/23/kid-kapichi-death-dips-james-green/59921" target="_blank">Kid Kapichi's Death Dips</a> (above) among them.&nbsp;It was&nbsp;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.&nbsp;[imgtoken data:6]Then there's&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbCv2ZsK9zE" target="_blank">21 Savage, KSI &amp; Future's Number 2</a> (above) - which was&nbsp;graded&nbsp;completely remotely with director Troy Roscoe.It&nbsp;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.[imgtoken data:7]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,&nbsp;Sumotherhood:[vidtoken data:2]<blockquote>They were looking for a music video grade in a feature film.</blockquote>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 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=912YaSKGdlo" target="_blank">Still Disappointed</a>. 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&nbsp;and in your face. They basically wanted it to feel a bit more pushed than a film, so we sharpened highlights in&nbsp;the skin tones, and made the&nbsp;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&nbsp;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:[vidtoken data:3]I worked on this a few months ago, not long before&nbsp;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:[imgtoken data:8]<blockquote>We wanted to convey every detail in their muscles and skin.</blockquote>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&nbsp;bodybuilder - and other bodybuilders -&nbsp;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.&nbsp;[vidtoken data:4]• Marty McMullan is based at Freefolk, see his reel <a href="https://freefolk.com/services/colour/marty-mcmullan/" target="_blank">here</a>. Contact Megan Hindle on&nbsp;megan.hindle@freefolk.com for more information.

Marty McMullan

Freefolk's Marty McMullan: "There's a hint of video game influence when I grade."

Warburtons Mad About the Bread

DRUMSHEDS - September 2023

Sumotherhood | Official Trailer | Paramount Pictures UK

LUMIX S5IIX | BIKES by Charlotte Regan

DRUMSHEDS | BIG IS BEAUTIFUL

Charlie Robins's engrossing video for Imanbek &amp; Goodboys slips gracefully from documentary to drama to full-blown surrealism in this story of a high-stakes horse race within the traveller community.With access to a hidden world, courtesy of the Frankham family, scions of the London traveller community, Robins chronicles the bond between a young man and his horse, and the conflict with a rival that leads to a thrilling event that could only happen within the community - a horse-and-trap race down an English country lane.&nbsp;Robins and his DoP Pieter Snyman deliver this action sequence with thrilling camerawork, and then add a layer of impressionistic visuals that elevates the piece to another level. That makes this a very rewarding, genuinely cinematic experience.

United Kingdom

Charlie Robins

Joseph J Goldman

FRIEND

Luke Tierney

Ash Teague

Chris Malin

Pieter Snyman

Josh Tue

Kitt Sullivan

Ryan Monteith

Jim Wright

Ark Studios

Paul Harrison

James Hackett

Ben Eeley

Dance

Imanbek, Goodboys 'Goodbye' by Charlie Robins

Imanbek,-Goodboys-'Goodbye'-by-Charlie-Robins

Matthias Lebeer directs a simple yet effective performance video for Hooverphonic's entry into the Eurovision Song Contest 2020.&nbsp;Representing Belgium in the competition, the genre-bending group perform&nbsp;the poignant&nbsp;track in a black studio space, mirroring the stripped-back vibe of the music with an uncluttered and minimalist set. Focusing solely on the musicians and their instruments, DP&nbsp;Patrick Otten utilises tracking shots and dramatic lighting to heighten the energy of the concept.&nbsp;

Belgium

Matthias Lebeer

Denis Leroy

Lebeer Studios

Patrick Otten

Wim Temmerman

Philippe Blondeau

Afterhours

Universal Music Belgium

Alternative

melodic

classical pop

Hooverphonic 'Release Me' by Matthias Lebeer

Hooverphonic-'Release-Me'-by-Matthias-Lebeer

Anna Meredith surveys the world, as her cool&nbsp;Saab 900&nbsp;Turbo goes through an East London&nbsp;car wash, in Simon Owens's video for Inhale Exhale.&nbsp;&nbsp;Shot in Bethnal Green, Owens creates an almost Hogarthian sense of&nbsp;London night life, viewed by Meredith&nbsp;from the security of her sudsy cocoon.The car wash's revolving brushes&nbsp;is also a great visual metaphor for the metronomic track, made more powerful by Rebecca Luff's edit. Wonderful, luminous&nbsp;photography too by Ben Magahy.

SIMON OWENS

Jerome Danvers

Ben Magahy

Jon Mitchell

Kian Altmann

Rebecca Luff

Cut+Run

Holly Greig

Rachel McWhinney

Moshi Moshi Records

Anna Meredith 'Inhale Exhale' by Simon Owens

Anna-Meredith-'Inhale-Exhale'-by-Simon-Owens

Max Luz and co-director George Barnett has created an impressionistic performance video for These New Puritans&#39; haunting Where The Trees Are&nbsp;On Fire.With the focus entirely upon TNP&#39;s Jack Barnett, the piece moves through three distinct phases: painterly reality turns into fractured reality, and then&nbsp;into full transcendence. It&#39;s beautifully shot throughout by Molly Manning Walker.

Max Luz

Aws Al-jezairy

Object & Animal

Dom Thomas

Molly Manning Walker

James Wicks

Mark Kozlowski

Ramsey Sabbagh

George Barnett

Ellie Grace Cumming

Anete Salinieka

TenThree

Duncan Russell

Infectious Music

Max Alsop

These New Puritans 'Where The Trees Are On Fire' by Max Luz with George Barnett

These New Puritans - Where The Trees Are On Fire (Official Video)

Actor Lena Headey makes her music video directing debut with this&nbsp;video for Freya Ridings -&nbsp;a story of strained family dynamics and personal resilience, featuring Headey's Game Of Thrones co-star Maisie Williams.&nbsp;We follow Maisie on her emotional journey within a troubled family situation, complimented by Freya Ridings' performance of You Mean The World To Me.“I had such an emotional response to Freya’s voice and the song," says Lena Headey.&nbsp;"We had a few versions of this video, some were considered too dark. I think we achieved a version that allows us to see Freya in a raw, emotional performance. And the family element is what the song is all about.”

Lena Headey

Anthony Fitzgerald

Rankin Creative

Nicola Kenney

Poppy Davies

Elaine Mackenzie

Tim Maurice Jones

Mark Anthony Bradley

Nik Buck

Maisie Williams

John Hassay

Good Soldier

Felix Elisabetta Forma

Rob Jelley

Ugne Ciesiunaite

Ruth Crawford

Claire McGonigal

Final Cut

Paul Gill

No.8

Freya Ridings 'You Mean The World To Me' by Lena Headey

Freya-Ridings-'You-Mean-The-World-To-Me'-by-Lena-Headey

It&#39;s the tennis duel of the ages, of the two best players anywhere, and possibly of all times. And forget Borg/McEnroe, or Federer/Nadal or even King/Riggs. This is the big one: Isaac Acey v Isiah Smash.Jackson Ducasse has concocted a classic (tennis) court encounter between the two sides of the super-competitive psyche of singer-songwriter Isaac Gracie, from an idea devised by both the artist and director. It manages to encompass deadpan comedy, existentialism, wistfulness, and a bit of half-decent play.Most importantly,&nbsp;both red Isaac and blue Isaac look very cool in their 80s tennis threads, so you don&#39;t even have to like tennis to like this.Game set and match to doubles partners Gracie and Ducasse.

Jackson Ducasse

Lisa Turnbull

Reblis Films

Elvis Scanlon

Jonathan Tarby

Ollie Craig

Mathew Rice

Georgina Roberton

Danielle Farrington

Thomas Rosser

Isaac Gracie, Freddie Sheed, Josh Weston

Marisa Garner Associates

Paul McKee

Virgin Records

Singer-songwriter

Isaac Gracie 'Show Me Love' by Jackson Ducasse

Isaac-Gracie-'Show-Me-Love'-by-Jackson-Ducasse

With the return of Tunng after a five year break with new album Songs You Make At Night&nbsp;- and back together in their original line-up - longtime collaborator&nbsp;James Moore revisits the story world of their 2006 single Jenny Again to create an absorbing nocturnal folktale for the song Sleepwalking.We rejoin reclusive Jenny (played by Louise Stewart) living beside the sea, plagued by troubling visions and unwanted sleepwalking. She has taken to boobytrapping her home in a desperate bid to avoid unintentionally leaving the house.But as her guilt grows, her inner demons manifest, calling Jenny down to the beach and a battle that she can no longer ignore...

James Moore

Ersan Beskardes

Jon Stanford

Make Films

Dave Miller

Nela Resler

Poppy Walton

Charlotte Ambrose

Pebble Studios

Louise Stewart

Full Time Hobby

Tunng 'Sleepwalking' by James Moore

Tunng-'Sleepwalking'-by-James-Moore

Rising star Sigrid&#39;s irrepressible charisma is given&nbsp;full rein in Ivana Bobic&#39;s stylish video for Strangers. It showcases&nbsp;the Norwegian singer&#39;s amazing performance within&nbsp;scenarios that are not quite what they first appear.

Ivana Bobic

Natalie Arnett

Dobi Manolova

Ghandi El-Chamaa

James Dyer

Tim Sidell

Doug Walshe

Rami Bartholdy

Melanie Jansen

Sarah Jenesson

Sadie Hewlett

Sara Gilmour

Jake Armstrong

Marshall Street Editors

Riff Raff Films

David Knight

Island Records

Billy Rae Smith

Tom Newman

Dimitar Itskov

Nelson Oliver

Sigrid 'Strangers' by Ivana Bobic 

Sigrid - Strangers (Official Video)

J.A.C.K have made a very enigmatic video for MØ&#39;s&nbsp;When I Was Young. In so doing, the French directing duo have captured&nbsp;the Danish popster&#39;s&nbsp;distinctive charisma in a way not previously achieved in her videos.In a deserted village, a solitary MØ is joined by two other versions of herself, one in white the other in black&nbsp;- the latter accompanied by a group of skeleton-clad ghouls. With a combination of artful choreography and visual effects, the original&nbsp;MØ allies with one of her duplicates to battle the other, and her ghouls.&nbsp;MØ has revealed that the inspiration for the video came from Edvard Munch, the Norwegian artist best known for The Scream.&nbsp;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m so happy to present this video because it feels very true to the song and to who I am,&rdquo; she says. &quot;It was inspired by a painting called The Dance Of Life [by Munch]...&nbsp;It&rsquo;s an illustration of three women &ndash; one in white, one in red and one in black &ndash; and tells a story about three stages of human life: youth, maturity, and old age.&quot;I was always drawn to this image as a kid due to its simple symbolism and emotion and have been dying to do a video that could reflect on it. Since When I Was Young is all about nostalgia and reflecting on life &ndash;especially the past, but also the now and the future &ndash; it just seemed like the perfect time to do it. J.A.C.K came up with the idea of me playing all three women at the same time, dancing the dance of life, seduced, intrigued and fooled by each other, and they took this whole idea to levels I couldn&rsquo;t even have dreamed of.&rdquo;[imgtoken data:1]&ldquo;With this video we wanted to speak about youth, and picture metaphorically how a girl becomes a woman,&rdquo; say Camille &amp; Julien from J.A.C.K, &ldquo;Karen [MØ] is such a talented artist, it has been a pleasure to develop this concept together with her: an everlasting circle of life choreography, with life and death dancing hand in hand.&rdquo;

J.A.C.K.

Benjamin Zorrilla

Caviar

Katie Dolan

Benedict Turnbull

Kristof Brandl

Christi Ciurea

Remi Quilichini

Holly Blakey

Aldene Johnson

Oana Draghic

Nicole Kahlani

Danielle Kahlani

FIRM

Manuel Coutant

Elizabeth Doonan

MØ 'When I Was Young' by J.A.C.K.

MØ - When I Was Young (Official Video)

Anton Tammi goes the full peyote with a video for Somewhere Else&nbsp;that gives full rein to the director&#39;s visionary and hallucinatory&nbsp;gifts. It&#39;s probably the most psychedelic, spaced-out Western since Dennis Hopper made The Last Movie.&nbsp;Shot in Mexico, Tammi taps a mystic vision of comradely&nbsp;cowboys (and cowgirls; all African-American) under blood-orange skies, with symbols of the old West, including mustangs and scorpions, shape-shfiting into other objects.It climaxes at the invisible saloon, and magically&nbsp;firing up the jukebox for a spot of dancing. And frankly, line dancing has never been so cool.

Anton Tammi

Billy Walsh

Iconoclast

Natan Schottenfels

Francesco Colombo

Erik Henriksson

Tim Montana

Gregory Hayes

Whitehouse Post

Tal Baltuch

Morumotto

Aleksi Tammi

Matti Ahopelto

Nayeli de Alba

Luis Luino

Rich and Tone Taluega

Alexis Piqueras

Emily Rudge

CineBuró

Somewhere Else 'Uh Huh' by Anton Tammi

Somewhere Else - Uh Huh (Official Video)

It&#39;s not easy to assume control over someone else&#39;s property and make it distinctive, but&nbsp;Noah Harris manages it with his &#39;Visualiser&#39; for Gorillaz.He puts them in a 16-bit Japanese arcade game with guest vocalist Little Simz and achieves the right blend of doom, comedy and graphic invention.&nbsp;Jamie Hewlett won&#39;t be disappointed.

Freefolk

Grading company

1 interview featuring Freefolk

20 videos featuring Freefolk

2021 (1)

2020 (1)

2019 (3)

2018 (2)

2017 (11)

2016 (2)

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