Co-director/founder and Cinematographer of Orillo Films. Richard will be on the Colour in Design Award judging panel for New Designers Part 2 2018. Based in York, Orillo specialise in films, documentaries, commercials and creative content for leading brands including Red Bull, Toyota, Panerai, Tinder and Akzonobel,
So Rich…
What role does colour play in your work?
“With filmmaking you are constantly aiming to recreate the colours of real life in a celluloid or digital fashion. Literally every aspect of filmmaking is focused on making the right colours work for the right feeling, even to the point where new sciences are being created to make more colours available on screen for the eye.
From lighting departments creating night for day or day for night, costume departments having to pick specific colours to create the right colours in black and white films (yes colours matter in black and white films!), all the way to the editors and colourist creating a Hollywood palette that tweaks every pixel to give the emotive look of the finished image; colour plays in every role.
Every film, from short to long, fictional to factual strives to create an emotion for the viewer and colour or lack of, is an equal partner in all the aspects of filmmaking to produce that”.
Highest creative point?
“I’m lucky to have so many creative times to draw upon…
One moment that stands out was being on a stage in an old 1900s cinema in Notting Hill. Behind me on screen was the first feature documentary my company and I had ever produced and it was my job to present it for the first time to a live audience. The documentary contained footage from 34 days filming where I followed three runners on a peddle bike from Odessa to Dubrovnik. I had my peers who had produced it with me in the front row and the last smug feeling of the whole event was learning that the entire project had raised over £250,000 for a charity.
Hardest Creative Lesson
The hardest thing I’ve learned is that pure creativity doesn’t always pay… Now that’s not to say people can’t make a living from being creative - or work in a creative industry and be successful at it. One thing I have learnt though is that your most creative ideas, the wildest, weirdest ‘out there’ concepts are generally not the ones you do to make money or to make a living out of. Maybe it is the lack of this commercial element that makes them your favourite creative ideas…but my teenage-self figured out quickly that sometimes you should share your best ideas with the people you know who will treasure them like you do.
What gets you out of bed?
Easy…its people get me out of bed in the morning. Filmmaking, I believe should never be a solo process, in making or enjoying. I have such a privilege that every time I go to create something I have a team of people to work with - that not only work as hard as I do but are talented in so many different ways I just could never be - and that makes me work to the fullest I can every day.
One person that made a difference in my creative path?
This is the hardest question by a long shot. Of course there are so many but my partner in crime, the co-production director who works with me, Jordan Clarke is that one person. If I wasn’t constantly trying to out-shoot everything he shoots I would probably not be the film maker I am today.
Creative goal?
It’s a simple one - to always be the maker. As much as ideas are at the heart of all things creative, my pleasure is in the practical creative process - and as long as I am the one who is getting their hands dirty in the creative process, I’ll be happy.
Favourite Colour?
Green - some shade of dark forest green. So much of my work takes me to the outdoors. One of the perks of any film-makers’ career is the opportunity to travel - and as much as it is a rush to see the metropolises of the world, the best locations are the ones that involve nature and the minimal. Green reminds me of this and it’s what I look for in my ideal shoot.
See one of our latest films which covers the idea of that very much so:
TAN x Colour