Top colourist Peter Ritchie joins Toybox

Internationally renowned colourist Pete Ritchie has joined the fast growing Auckland post house Toybox. Ritchie, who joins Andrew Brown (Lotto, Bell Tea, Glassons) and Stevie Hight (The Cult, Smashproof), brings to the Toybox colour team a wealth of experience after many years in top positions at various post houses in Australasia.

“This is a very exciting time for Toybox. We’ve not only lured one of the world’s top colourists to Toybox but we’ve also added Da Vinci Resolve to our colour arsenal,” says senior producer James Hudson. “Resolve is the latest non linear colour grader from market leaders Da Vinci and I think clients will be pretty impressed by its performance. High speed Bright San storage has also been added to run alongside Lasergraphics 2k Film Scanner, creating a world class colour chain that will offer Pete’s clients all the bells and whistles.”

“Data grading 2K log images in a commercial workflow is a colourists ideal situation,” enthuses Ritchie. “Working this way gives the colourist the maximum dynamic range to further enhance the images.”

The Resolve R-360, is the first of type in the world and the newest non-linear data grading system in the Da Vinci family. Featuring a new graphics and processing architecture, the toys in the Resolve are nothing short of amazing with unlimited “windows”, trackers that would impress most compositors, and image blur / mist effects providing the world’s most powerful toy for colour grading in a commercial workflow.

Clients will quickly see the benefits of working in this non-linear environment on Film or Red or any of the other quickly changing formats. Quantel Pablo, which has recently had additional 4K multi media engine cards added to double the processing power, will remain in place giving Toybox two leading non-linear colour grading suites.

Freelance colourist Clare Burlinson, who’s recent credits include “Tui Truck”, “Woodstock”, and John Woo’s “Red Cliff” is also available on either Pablo or Resolve bringing her huge experience on both Feature Films and TVC’s to Toybox.

“With the growth in long form work we’ve experienced with programs like “The Cult”, demand for colour work has also grown and it makes sense to add another suite. Resolve is the best commercial workflow choice” adds Hudson.

Pete Ritchie along with Da Vinci Resolve look set to take Toybox Colour Grading to another level again. www.toybox.co.nz