MakeMake Welcomes New Colorist Jonny Thorpe

Having had his eye on Primary, Jonny Thorpe is now officially joining the team in Los Angeles. “I’ve been a fan of Primary for a long time — the team is really strong and I think the work speaks for itself,” he says. “I’m honored to be working alongside such a talented group of people, and I’m excited to start making great work in a new territory — and to add a British perspective to the mix.”

Jonny’s approach to color grading is all about fostering collaborative relationships. “I want to understand a filmmaker’s vision and use my skills to serve that vision as best as possible — my own predilections and influence will find their way in to a grade anyway, so my focus is not on leaving my mark on a grade, but on honouring the trust put in me and helping realise the film someone wanted to make.”

“Jonny is just a tremendous talent - it's amazing that he's joined our studio and we are looking forward to a bright future,” says MakeMake founder Angus Wall.

While working as a runner for post-production studio Glassworks VFX, Jonny became interested in learning the tools in the Telecine suite — the team taught him the basics and with hard work and dedication, he rose to the role of Lead Colorist. “10 years, 100s of collaborators and 1000s of projects later, I’m still color grading and feeling grateful,” he says. Of those projects, recent notable work in Jonny’s portfolio includes the 2023 award winning short film The Golden West. 

Among others, Jonny has graded films for Henry Scholfield, Aube Perrie, Zhang + Knight, David Helman, the Perlorian Brothers and Kevin Castanheira. His impressive portfolio includes campaigns for Prada, Nike, Apple, Google, Porsche and Heineken, along with music videos for iconic artists such as The Beatles, Kali Uchis, Fontaines DC, Slowthai, Metronomy, Sigrid, and Jungle.