Aidan Farrell, industry-renowned colourist, was delighted to receive a special BAFTA. He was given the honour at the 2012 British Academy Television Craft Awards on Sunday 13 May.
Dublin-born Farrell scooped the Award in recognition of his outstanding creative contribution to the industry. He has done extensive work and had many accomplishments in the field over the years.
These include working as a colourist on hit period drama Downton Abbey, BBC documentary The Planets, detective series Wallander and critically acclaimed indie film Boy A. He’s also contributed to concert films from stars like Adele, The Killers and Rhianna.
As an in-demand colourist, he’s responsible for designing a colour scheme to complement a film’s mood and tone. This usually means working with specialist filters. But in his more than 25-year-long career he’s harnessed everything from Vaseline to sweet wrappers and tin foil to achieve the right effect.
“I have been lucky enough to work on some fantastic programmes over the years and have worked with the best directors and creatives in the business. I hope that any legacy of my work will be the fact that British television is now the most beautiful and stylish in the world!” – Adrian Farrell
The art of film
Farrell’s career kicked off in Ireland after his dad gave him a camera when he was seven. He started to learn his craft at RTE’s camera department before joining veteran Disney animator Don Bluth’s Dublin studio. He says his four years working there “were probably the best education and training I could ever have got anywhere” – helping him develop his renowned attention to detail.
“From being young,” he says, “I never cared much about whether things were ‘technically’ right. It’s always been about looking good and feeling right. For me there’s really no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ with this. This is an art form to me, not just a technical process – a pure art form.”
