Aidan Farrell, co-founder of The Farm in London, recently won a BAFTA Special Award for his long career as a colorist. This is the third in our series highlighting the World’s Greatest Colorists. Mike Seymour talks to him about 90’s music videos, cutting edge documentaries and period dramas.
Farrell is a gifted colorist. The Dublin-born artist is one of the founder’s of Soho Square’s The Farm, an international post-production company founded in 1998. For more than 25 years, Farrell, who began in music promos and commercials, has, “often using a bespoke mixture of different glass, filters, Vaseline, tin foil and even the odd sweet wrapper” artfully manipulated and enhancing programs and stories for both British and International Directors.
His documentaries range from The Human Body, The Planets, and This is Modern Art. While his episodic work includes The Devil’s Whore, Wallander, Boy A, The Shadow Line and, most recently, Downton Abbey, (which he has just started working on the new Series 3). Farrell uses the Digital Vision Nucoda’s range of grading and mastering solutions exclusively, but sees himself more as an artist and collaborator than a technical wizard.
The latest recognition of his art and craft comes from the BAFTA, where he received the Academy’s Special Award at the British Academy Television Craft Awards last month in London.