Meet the Mentor: Pablo Garcia Soriano, Head of Digital Imaging, Mission
Q. Pablo, how did you start your career?
A. It’s a bit of a long story…I studied Civil Engineering and Technical Architecture. After finishing my studies, I found out that the real world of construction was not really for me, so I started working as a graphic designer and later as a motion graphics designer.
As head of motion graphics in the company I was working, some requests for video editing came along which I took, even though I had never edited before. I really loved it so I went back to school and became an Avid editor. I developed this professional career in broadcast and later in film.
While working in a Spanish/Argentinian co-production, the in-house colourist gave his notice and I was offered to quick learn colour grading from him. Had a week of training and straight on to an interview/grading-test with the cinematographer (Rafa Roche AEC). He did not just give the green light to work with me, but decided to take me under his wing and train me in all the technical (cameras, lenses, lighting, etc…) and artistic (colour theory, psychology, etc…) topics to become one of the first DIT’s in Spain (this was around 2006).
After that, I decided to get out of the studio and started to work on set, where I had the chance to work with some fantastic cinematographers from whom I did learn a lot. I’m incredibly grateful to what life has put on my path (the good and the bad things…you always learn something).
Q. You’re Head of Digital Imaging at Mission…what are your responsibilities?
A. I look after all project’s Colour Pipelines, liaising with the cinematographer’s requirements and Post-house’s requirements during the preproduction stages and filming process.
That includes colour management; review of camera/lenses/costume test; look development and lots of R&D.
We also provide colour consultancy services for large broadcast sports events and major broadcasters for them to achieve multiple deliverables (SDR-HDR) from a scene-referred approach.
Q. Can you give a few examples of shows where you used ACES.
A. I’m happy to say that nowadays about 75% of all shows we have helped producing are done using ACES. To name a few would be Downtown Abbey, Cats, His Dark Materials S2 and S3, Criminal, and more.
Q. What do you think are the most compelling reasons for a production to use ACES?
A. The ease of communication between all departments from on-set, to VFX, and DI. Plus creative freedom and future-proofing of creative intent.
Q. How much does the Cinematographer need to know about ACES?
A. He needs to know we’re using it and for what reasons, like consistency of creative intent regardless of delivery. The technicalities of set up are usually handled by others, and by the science behind ACES. It is there to help him/her to be free to create.
Q. What’s your advice for someone that wants to try ACES on a project…who do they need to pull ‘into the loop’?
A. It’s pretty straight forward if someone understands well the principles of scene-referred workflows. If not, a workflow consultant will guide you through on first couple of projects, after that it’ll become second nature.
Q. What inspires you?
A. All the amazing people I’ve had the chance to work with.
I’ve been lucky enough to witness (and be part of) some of the most important developments in image creative technology over the last years. That’s a privileged position to meet with incredibly talented people.
Pablo Garcia Soriano is Mission’s Head of Digital Imaging. He has worked as a colourist, both on-set and in facilities. Prior to joining Mission, he worked at Sony Europe at the DMPCE UK as a 4K/HDR workflow specialist, training over 2300 people every year and running masterclasses all over Europe. In 2018 he oversaw the HDR and SDR delivery for the Football World Cup as HDR Image Supervisor. Pablo was also heavily involved in the design and delivery of the Sony Venice camera.
At Mission, his roles include developing robust colour pipelines and supervising HDR deliverables. He works with Mission’s technicians to deepen their knowledge of colour science and ACES so that they can better serve the needs of cinematographers and runs many workshops and seminars around Europe.