Live-action adaptation of the 2016 Disney animated film ‘Moana.’

Joe and Angela’s marriage is on thin ice. When they invite their enigmatic upstairs neighbours for a dinner party, the night spirals into unexpected places.

In this interview, senior colourist Yusuke Adachi and assistant colourist Katsuhiro Naganuma discuss the studio’s creative philosophy, evolving workflows, and the tools and techniques shaping their approach to modern colour grading.

About TREE

Could you briefly introduce TREE and the type of work you do in Japan and internationally?

Yusuke Adachi (Senior Colourist): TREE Digital Studio has evolved over the past decade into one of Japan’s leading creative hub, combining global expertise with advanced local facilities. Originally established through international partnerships with Company 3 and later MPC, the studio has continuously expanded its grading suites and workflows to support increasingly sophisticated productions.

Within our post-production division, Digital Garden, the colour department handles grading, finishing, and workflow development across a wide range of productions – from nationwide TV commercials to internationally recognised films.

In 2026, the introduction of Baselight and our dedicated Screen Grading Room (SCR-331) further strengthened our ability to deliver premium cinematic experiences with the highest creative and technical standards. Today, clients rely on TREE Digital Studio not only for its advanced technology, but also for the creativity, precision, and reliability of its team.

Meet the Colourists

Could you describe your journey to becoming a professional colourist, and how it has shaped your creative approach?

Yusuke Adachi: I originally studied cinematography at the College of Art, Nihon University, where I focused on camera and lighting with the goal of becoming a director of photography. I also gained on-set experience as an assistant.

During a colour grading course, however, I discovered a strong interest in working with light and colour, which led me to pursue a career as a colourist. After graduating, I joined TREE Digital Studio as an assistant, where our collaborations with Company 3 and MPC/The Mill provided valuable technical training from experienced colourists, particularly in interpreting light and controlling colour.

My background in cinematography, combined with working alongside international colourists, has taught me the importance of maintaining a DP’s perspective when grading. At the same time, I aim to reinterpret and shape colour and light to bring out the full potential of the original footage – an approach I believe is essential to strong grading results.

Katsuhiro Naganuma (Assistant Colourist): I studied at the College of Image Arts and Sciences, Ritsumeikan University, where I first became interested in colour grading and gained hands-on experience with systems such as Baselight for Avid. During my studies, I was particularly drawn to how colour and contrast could shape the emotional impact of an image and influence visual storytelling.

I joined TREE Digital Studio in 2023 as part of the DIGITAL GARDEN colour department, working as a colourist assistant across a wide range of projects, including commercials, Netflix productions, and music videos. Supporting experienced colourists on these productions has allowed me to deepen my technical understanding while developing my own creative approach to grading.

Today, I am gradually taking on projects as a colourist myself, particularly music videos and web commercials, while continuing to build my experience and refine my skills through collaboration with the team at TREE.

Choosing Baselight M

What led you to invest in Baselight M and the Blackboard Classic panel, and why now?

Yusuke Adachi (colourist): A key factor in our decision was the ability to integrate the system into our existing Mac Pro setup, which significantly reduced both cost and complexity. As our DaVinci Resolve workflow was already well established on this infrastructure, adding the Baselight software and its control panel was seamless.

We were looking to improve efficiency across departments—particularly through BLG file workflows – while also taking a step forward in our grading capabilities from a technical perspective.

Katsuhiro Naganuma: Full systems such as Baselight TWO traditionally require a high initial investment, which can be a barrier to adoption. In our case, the fact that Baselight M runs on macOS, combined with its lower upfront cost through a subscription model, made it a much more accessible option and a key factor in our decision.

Team & Workflow

Can you tell us about your colour team and how Baselight M fits into your current creative workflows?

Yusuke Adachi: Our team is primarily structured around colorists and colorist assistants. For short-form projects such as commercials, we typically do not assign fixed teams. However, on larger projects like feature films, we establish dedicated teams, which helps minimize errors and maintain a high level of quality.

Since the introduction of Baselight M is still relatively recent, we have not yet utilized it to the same extent as DaVinci Resolve. That said, its unique approach to color and color space management has provided valuable daily learning opportunities for us, both creatively and technically. Our immediate goals are to increase the number of projects handled on the system and to further strengthen pipelines with composite teams using BLG files.

How valuable has FilmLight’s 24/7 support been, together with Restar’s local experts?

Katsuhiro Naganuma: Being able to contact the Restar team in Japanese when issues arise is extremely valuable for us. As they also actively use and understand Baselight, they can support us effectively on many questions, regardless of time differences. This gives us strong confidence and reassurance in using the software.

We also appreciate that both the FilmLight and Restar technical teams respond very seriously to our feedback or requests – for example, by testing specific scenarios in beta versions on our behalf.

What were your first impressions of Baselight M, and which tools stand out the most in your day-to-day work?

Yusuke Adachi: As said previously, working with Baselight on macOS was a major advantage for us, as it significantly lowered the barrier to adoption. Although we needed some time to adjust from our previous tools, we were impressed by the wide range of features and how intuitively it handles footage.

In particular, Base Grade has been very useful for establishing the initial grade, while X Grade and Chromogen are powerful tools that allow us to achieve the look we envision with a high degree of flexibility.

How does your experience with Baselight differ from DaVinci Resolve?

Katsuhiro Naganuma: My initial interest in Baselight was its scene-referred workflows, including ACES. Compared to DaVinci Resolve, one of Baselight’s key strengths is its consistent awareness of working colour space, with tools that adapt throughout the grading process.

For look development, features like ‘Edit Modulation’ have been particularly valuable. The ability to precisely target luminance or saturation ranges within curves offers a level of control that, in Resolve, often requires combining multiple tools such as curves and keying. In Baselight, the colour space–aware approach helps avoid artifacts or visible boundaries, resulting in more consistent and reliable adjustments.

In our ‘commercial workflow’, grading is usually followed by online finishing in Autodesk Flame, where final deliverables are produced. On tight schedules, the online team sometimes need to start directly from camera originals using LUTs exported from the grading session. However, since LUTs do not include effects or secondary corrections, this has long been a limitation for both our colourists and the online team. FilmLight’s BLG files offer a promising solution to this challenge.

From a media handling perspective, Baselight has also helped deepen our understanding of image workflows. In Resolve, we could import most timelines or media without much consideration. With Baselight, however, the conform stage requires greater attention to factors such as frame rate relationships, source colour space, and resolution settings. As a result, the software naturally encourages assistants to build a stronger technical understanding of image processing and workflow fundamentals.

Can you walk us briefly through recent projects graded on Baselight?

Yusuke Adachi: When grading darker scenes, I found the ‘Pivot’ feature particularly useful for fine-tuning detail with greater precision. I often develop looks in close collaboration with the DP, who noted that their creative intent translated very intuitively into the grade. It gives me a greater level of responsiveness, different from what we had used before.

We also used Hue Shift to control sky colour, and I was impressed by how well the image held up – even with fairly strong adjustments, there was very little image breakdown.

As we’re still becoming familiar with the system in day-to-day use, we’re looking to improve media organisation within layers, as well as gain more control over overall working speed.

Katsuhiro Naganuma: I personally find X Grade to be an extremely powerful tool. There are times when primary grading or the base look alone is not sufficient to achieve the desired colour for elements such as clothing. Being able to quickly experiment with colour adjustments without keying is a strong advantage.

I’m also impressed by how it keeps the white point anchored by default. Even with fairly extreme adjustments, the colours shift in a very natural way, which is remarkable to see.

Another particularly interesting aspect is the ability to adjust exposure within X Grade while maintaining image integrity and minimising artefacts. Because the tool helps prevent image breakdown, it allows us to stay focused on the creative process, which is extremely helpful. We’ve also received feedback from cinematographers who were surprised by how intuitive and straightforward X Grade is to use.

Finally, what advice would you give to young aspiring colourists in Japan?

Yusuke Adachi: Inspiration for a strong look can come not only from films, but also from photography, painting, and everyday life. Constant communication with people, and clients of course, is also essential. I’m still learning day by day, but in this world of light and colour, where there is no single right answer, I hope we can continue to explore and grow together.

An internal succession war within House Targaryen at the height of its power, 172 years before the birth of Daenerys Targaryen.

Wednesday 8 July, 5pm onwards
Firehouse: DCTV, 87 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10013

Discover why colourists and DITs rely on Baselight and Daylight v7. Explore the latest updates about Nara, our platform for searching, transcoding, and viewing media remotely, and experience FilmLight API, FilmLight’s industry-trusted image processing engine. Seamlessly connecting, automating, and managing your workflows, FLAPI turns complex pipelines into streamlined, effortless operations.

Don’t leave just yet! Join us afterwards for refreshments, and continue the conversation with fellow guests and industry peers.

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Tuesday 23 June, 10am-1pm or 3-6pm
Restar Corporation
Tokyo

Register here »

John Daro is the Lead Digital Intermediate Colourist at Warner Bros. Discovery’s Water Tower Color, where he has become a defining figure in the fusion of classical cinematography and cutting-edge colour science. With over two decades of industry experience, Daro has supervised the finishing of more than 100 feature films, spanning major studio blockbusters, innovative animation, and immersive special venue projects.

Recently, Daro led the monumental task of grading The Wizard of Oz for the Sphere in Las Vegas. This project represented a paradigm shift in immersive entertainment, requiring the faithful translation of the 1939 classic onto a 160,000- square-foot, 16K wrap-around LED screen.

Beyond his work on the lot, Daro is a recognized pioneer in the application of machine learning in post-production. He developed MatchGrader, a tool that uses machine vision to artistically grade images based on reference frames, and SamurAI, a sophisticated upresolution process. His extensive filmography includes Netflix’s Academy Award-nominated The Sea Beast, Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion and Kimi, and the animated hits The Boxtrolls and In Your Dreams.

A founding member and officer of the Colorist Society Hollywood and a member of the Visual Effects Society, Daro’s contributions have earned him several HPA Award nominations and a FilmLight Colour Award nomination. He remains a sought-after collaborator, educator, and innovator, continually pushing the boundaries of what is possible within the digital darkroom.

Join the FilmLight team on June 9th at 4pm to learn how FilmLight products and APIs can streamline, automate, and modernize your post-production workflows.During this session, we’ll share practical examples using Nara, Daylight, and the FilmLight API, demonstrating how teams can build more efficient, connected pipelines.

We will also touch on emerging approaches to API integrations, including the use of coding agents to assist with script development.

The presentations will be led by Peter Postma and James Kasaba, and you’ll also have the opportunity to connect with other peers across the industry.

Don’t leave just yet! Join us afterwards for refreshments, and continue the conversation with fellow guests and industry peers.

Register here »