Many filmmakers put forth colour grading as an essential part of the film making process. For some, it’s simply a way to get the shots within a scene to match cohesively. For others, it can help tell a story beautifully. But for Metin Okutay it has several connotations together rolled into one deep diving process. For him, grading commercials is like playing with pixels as monotony never creeps in here."One always finds a way to reach to a best outcome while keeping the client briefing intact. It is as exhilarating as solving a puzzle," he explains. However, Metin feels grading for feature films is like expressing the emotions and the story with your colours. But, for music videos, he goes beyond the limits, as he describes in his own words, "you can go as much funky as possible, mostly you have freedom in abundance."

After years of colour grading as a seasoned colourist, he blissfully considers his journey as a great learning experience. As a cinema student at Bilgi University, Istanbul, he was attracted to filmmakers who express emotions and the story with colours. Post his graduation in 2010, he was fortunate enough to find a telecine assistant position to some of the colourists of international repute in one of the most prominent post-production houses of Istanbul. Later, he had a chance to work on a couple of remarkable movies that proved catalyst in his career as since then, he never looked back.

For Metin Okutay, Nube Studio happened as a surprise in 2017 just when he was thinking of moving out of Turkey and follow his career internationally. Nube has been, so far, a great decision in his career as he exclaims, the experience he gained here is priceless. He specialized in commercial grading here in Nube Studio, and graded more than 2000 commercials nationally and internationally for brands like Mercedes, Apple, Airtel, Royal Stag, Bajaj, Harley Davidson, Amazon, Hyundai, Honda, Toyota, Ikea, and many more along with several short films and music videos.

As an international colourist, Metin sees a univocal approach to colour grading process in most of the countries. An appealing and authentic look that emphasizes your product or your story is what everyone wants irrespective of countries, he shares. However, he experienced a few differentiators and explains these with examples, "in Turkey there were more demands for the detailed work in the grading suit for beauty and car commercials, but in India it’s mostly done with VFX and only the passes that he does for them. Also, here in India, there’s this certain vague and elusive demand for grading commercials in stylish, desaturated international look which is an attempt to move away from the vibrant and saturated Indian festive colours." Metin takes inspiration from the environment that surrounds us as he feels, to be able to discern tonal differences and to create realistic and convincing looks, the nature helps us in the right direction. He elaborates, when you go to a tropical forest in Goa you can see a thousand different tones of green, likewise, if you go to a Mediterranean island, you witness an array of blue tones, from turquoise, to navy blue. These kinds of observations help to enrich your colour palette and add glamour and sophistication to your grade, he exclaims.

For Metin, no matter what the genre is, he strives to be coherent and consistent. He chuckles as he concludes, "A good colour grading necessitates a good production design and art direction combining with skilful cinematography. A client can be indecisive or finicky sometimes, but if a project leaves a mark on the audience, one feels successful."

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