Absolute welcomes Executive Producer Kayleigh Dugdale to team

Absolute has announced the addition of Executive Producer Kayleigh Dugdale to its burgeoning team.

The latest in a line of impressive recent hires, Kayleigh joins the team from a previous EP role. Dugdale will work across all of Absolute’s departments, including Sound, Edit, CG, VFX and Colour, in addition to developing the production team in a period of growth for the business.

Starting her career in 2006, Kayleigh is a tour-de-force with over 18 years of industry experience. With heavyweight names on her CV, she spent her early years working across all aspects of post, from bookings to TV and commercial production. Kayleigh has gone on to become one of the most respected EPs in the business, working on many award-winning projects. Her reels boast a wide range of iconic brands, including Nike, Adidas, Samsung, Lancôme, and DHL, as well as collaborations with esteemed directors such as Adam Berg, Dom & Nic, David LaChapelle, and Traktor.

I am so thrilled to be joining Absolute Post as Executive Producer. It’s been somewhere that I’ve admired for a long time, not just for the creativity of their work, but also for their amazing company culture. There’s a real sense that we’re building something special here, and we are all striving for Absolute to become the place that talent goes to thrive and clients to come for the best work.

I’m delighted to be embarking on this new chapter with some exceptionally talented artists and producers, whose experience will be critical in shaping a fresh direction for the business. I can’t wait to get some amazing projects through the door and collaborate with more incredible teams.

Kayleigh Dugdale, Executive Producer at Absolute

Having been lucky enough to work with Kayleigh before, it was a no-brainer to bring her into our team here when the opportunity arose. Kayleigh’s reputation precedes her, and her versatility, knowledge and commitment to redefining post-production standards were a vital component in the success of [other] studios in both London and Amsterdam.

We know she is going to bring that same brand of innovation to her role here, and it’s going to be so exciting to see her continue to raise the bar. The recent additions to our team speak volumes about the ambition we have for Absolute and Kayleigh is a big part of bringing us realising those ambitions.

Chris Batten, MD of Absolute

Union adds grandeur to The Regime

Led by VFX Supervisor and Co-Founder Adam Gascoyne, Union’s newly established Montréal facility delivered the majority of the 700 VFX shots on the show, collaborating with a smaller team at Union HQ in London.

HBO’s The Regime is a darkly comedic six-episode series directed by Stephen Frears and Jess Hobbs that tells the story of life within the walls of a modern authoritarian regime as it begins to unravel. Chancellor Elena Vernham (Kate Winslet) has grown increasingly paranoid and unstable, having not left the Palace for some time, and turns to a volatile soldier, Herbert Zubak (Matthias Schoenaerts), as an unlikely confidant. As Zubak’s influence over the chancellor continues to grow, Elena’s attempts to expand her power eventually result in both the palace and the country fracturing around her.

Led by VFX Supervisor and Union co-founder Adam Gascoyne, Union’s newly established Montréal facility delivered the majority of the 700 VFX shots on the show collaborating with a smaller team at Union HQ in London.

Environments

The main task was to expand and enhance the Chancellor’s palace and surrounding landscape to increase its grandeur. The team scanned the real Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, then redesigned it into a fictional, contemporary palace with grounds that were consistently featured in the series. This also included extending the landscape and creating a bespoke, breath-taking mountain backdrop in the distance.

The palace itself required a significant amount of initial groundwork, including technical location recces and evaluations during pre-production, the enhancement of the Palace design, development of a CG model, lighting and rendering of the Palace extension across different scenes, times of day, and various degrees of destruction in later episodes.

In one of the most memorable shots, the camera transitions from the palace interior through a window and into a turbulent warzone. This was achieved, using a blend of CG, DMP, and 2D elements to enhance the scene. With only balcony footage at their disposal, the team had to come up with an effective strategy to complete this seemingly simple shot. Upon review of some 2D solutions and ideas, it was evident that replacing the courtyard with a CG version was essential to uphold the parallax effect and realism. A digital matte painting was also used to merge the CG courtyard with the palace surroundings.

Environmental work also needed to create barren and exhausted beet fields and a Beet Factory on the outskirts of the Palace grounds. This included adding mud to enhance the rugged terrain, along with pillows of CG beets.

Gore

Some of the more absurd moments required enhancement of the Chancellor’s deceased father’s body, gradually making the prosthetics and actor look more decayed as the show went on.

At one point, the outlandish storyline featured a complex talking corpse sequence that involved a lot of different 2D techniques. Union collaborated closely with the clients to achieve the desired appearance and gradually adjust the level of decay. Ensuring that the enhancements matched perfectly with the actor’s facial expressions and muscle movements was a significant technical challenge in making the sequence believable.

Crowds and other work

The wide and expansive crowd shots featured Elena interacting with the audience and a dynamic sequence of a rioting mob; these scenes involved seamlessly merging CG crowd, plate, and 2D elements.

Other work included some atmospheric enhancements such as adding cold breath and movement to an extreme close-up. The team also delivered graphic design and screen replacements which included the creation of various news channel graphics to be composited onto televisions throughout the episodes.

The Regime is now available to stream on HBO Max, Now TV and Crave.

Spotlight on…Lux Aeterna: History and innovation

This month, we interviewed Rob Hifle, Co-Founder of Lux Aeterna.

Award-winning visual effects studio Lux Aeterna has cemented its place as a leader in the VFX industry with a year full of exciting projects and innovation. Working globally, the studio combines decades of expertise with a bold vision for the future. Known for its mastery of environments, simulation, natural phenomena, and abstract FX, Lux Aeterna continues to empower storytellers through its world-class pipeline and creative partnerships. We caught up with Co-Founder Rob Hifle to find out more.

What is the history of Lux Aeterna and how did the studio come about?

Lux Aeterna was established in 2022 after the rebranding of BDH (Burrell Durrant Hifle), a respected studio with over 25 years of experience. The transition to Lux Aeterna represented a reinvigoration of our creative vision, enabling the studio to focus on high-end VFX, particularly in simulation, environments, and natural phenomena. Two of the original founders, myself and Steve Burrell remained part of the team, and we were also joined by VFX Director Paul Silcox. With strong working relationships with industry powerhouses like Netflix and BBC Studios, and a legacy of BAFTA and Emmy awards, we’ve since repositioned ourselves to deliver visually compelling stories for TV, film, and commercial production on a global scale.

How is Lux Aeterna adapting to the ever-changing landscape of VFX?

For the past five years, we’ve been placing a considered focus into R&D and thanks to our Creative Technologist, James Pollock, we’re following advancements in tech, ethics, and best practice very closely. In tandem, our participation in the UKRI funded MyWorld programme has highlighted our ongoing commitment to innovation.

As an example, in our recent work on Netflix’s The Manhattan Alien Abduction, we adopted new machine learning techniques within our VFX pipeline to reduce render time by 60-70%. This more efficient pipeline greatly reduced the studio’s carbon footprint due to the shorter render time, and formed part of the larger industry-wide push towards more sustainable practices in VFX.

Tell us more about Lux Aeterna’s involvement with the UKRI-funded MyWorld programme?

The MyWorld programme, a creative technology research initiative based in the West of England, has been instrumental in our exploration of Machine learning and AI in VFX. Through our participation in MyWorld, we are exploring the ethics of GenAI practices. By collaborating with leading experts in technology and law – such as during our recent World VFX Day panel with Neil Hatton, CEO of the UK Screen Alliance – we continue to work alongside our partners to understand the ever changing landscape of creative technology.

What is RENO?

RENO is a science-fiction short film created by Lux Aeterna as part of our research within the MyWorld programme. The project serves as a testing ground for AI technologies, enabling the studio to experiment in a controlled environment. Beyond its creative ambitions, RENO aims to demystify AI’s potential and demonstrate how it can enhance, rather than disrupt, VFX artistry.

What were the biggest highlights for the studio in 2024?

We worked on a number of high-profile projects this year that we’re incredibly proud of. These included Professor Brian Cox’s BBC2 series Solar System, Netflix’s The Manhattan Alien Abduction, the sixth and final season of The Crown, Secrets Of The Neanderthals, and more recently, National Geographic docu-series Tsunami: A Race Against Time. Beyond these achievements, members of our team participated in a number of industry events, such as SIGGRAPH’s Rainbow Conference, AI Creative Summit, BFX Festival, and marked World VFX Day with a panel addressing the ethical and intellectual property challenges of generative AI in visual effects.

Tell us about your recent work on the BBC2 docu-series Solar System. What was the scope of work?

For Solar System, we delivered over 400 visually stunning VFX shots across five episodes, showcasing planets and scientific phenomena in ways never seen before. The work included creating photorealistic environments based on scientific data, such as Jupiter’s electric storm clouds, Uranus’s superionic ice, and Titan’s methane seas. Many planetary surfaces had to be visualised from scratch, requiring meticulous collaboration with scientific experts.

What does 2025 look like for Lux Aeterna?

Next year promises to be an exciting year for Lux Aeterna. With the introduction of the tax relief on UK VFX expenditure brought forward to January, investment in advanced VFX technologies will be boosted, positioning the UK, and studios like Lux Aeterna, as global leaders in the field. We will likely continue our R&D efforts while expanding our portfolio of projects, furthering our mission of high-end cinematics and emotionally compelling stories through VFX.

Find out more about Lux Aeterna’s recent projects here.

Lux Aeterna delivers insights on GenAI and ethics in VFX for World VFX Day

Lux Aeterna, in collaboration with UK Screen Alliance, has explored the ethical and intellectual property challenges of generative AI in visual effects (VFX).

To mark World VFX Day on 6th and 8th December, a panel featuring Lux Aeterna‘s Creative Technologist James Pollock, UK Screen Alliance CEO Neil Hatton, and Dr Cobus Jooste, Senior Lecturer in IP Law at the University of the West of England, shared insights into the current state of the industry.

The panel, moderated by Hatton, primarily examined the research and development undertaken by Lux Aeterna as part of the MyWorld programme – a UKRI-funded creative technology research initiative based in the West of England. Through MyWorld, Lux Aeterna has focused on machine learning advancements and innovative toolsets in VFX. Coinciding with the rise of emerging GenAI technologies, the programme has enabled Lux Aeterna to experiment with the production of its own science-fiction short film, RENO.

Pollock highlighted the importance of projects like RENO in demystifying AI’s potential, allowing Lux Aeterna to experiment in a controlled, research-driven environment. Jooste offered insights into the evolving legal landscape, discussing the complexities of intellectual property (IP) laws concerning AI-generated content. He emphasised the need for clear documentation, ethical transparency, and industry-specific adaptations to existing legal frameworks to safeguard creators and their work.

Both Pollock and Jooste agreed that while GenAI presents exciting possibilities, it requires cautious integration to ensure compliance, accuracy, and ethical standards. By fostering partnerships between technologists and legal experts, Lux Aeterna aims to guide the VFX community in navigating the rapidly changing AI landscape while prioritising creativity and accountability. The panel underscored the industry’s collective responsibility to approach GenAI as a tool to enhance, rather than disrupt, the artistry and integrity of VFX.

Hatton, CEO of the UK Screen Alliance and a champion of policy in the UK visual effects industry, successfully campaigned for new VFX expenditure credit, which starts on 1^st January 2025 and will include GenAI as eligible expenditure.

The debate over the use of GenAI in VFX will be absolutely crucial now and in the coming months. We campaigned for GenAI costs to be included in the new UK VFX incentive uplift, as we think the UK, as the foremost global hub for VFX, needs to be in the vanguard of not just the technological R&D, but also showing a lead on GenAI adoption in a sustainable and ethical way which respects and rewards creators IP.

Neil Hatton, CEO of UK Screen Alliance

The panel aired through World VFX Day on 6 December and is available to watch online here.

FRAMELESS announces immersive experience with the National Portrait Gallery

Working with Cinesite, FRAMELESS’ content production partner, the stories behind the famous faces in the Gallery’s portraits will be brought to life like never before, with the immersive art experience set to premiere in Manchester in 2025.

FRAMELESS Creative, a leading creator of immersive experiences, has entered into an innovative partnership with the National Portrait Gallery to present the first major touring immersive art experience inspired by a UK art institution, which will be premiered at MediaCity, Salford, Greater Manchester in May 2025, ahead of a planned national and international tour.

This new long-term partnership, ‘National Portrait Gallery Unframed’, will launch with Stories – Brought to Life, exploring the lives of people featured in the collection who have shaped the UK’s history and culture, from the Tudor period to the present day.

The National Portrait Gallery has granted FRAMELESS’ award-winning team access to its Collection to inspire the creation of Stories – Brought to Life, an experience designed to push the boundaries of storytelling. It will combine the highest quality digital projection, Hollywood-style visual effects and the latest audio technology with music and creative narratives to tell the stories behind some of the Gallery’s best-loved portraits.

Working with FRAMELESS’ content production partner, the acclaimed, BAFTA award-winning, digital production studio, Cinesite, the stories behind the famous faces in the Gallery’s portraits will be brought to life like never before.

We are delighted to announce this new long-term partnership with the National Portrait Gallery. We hope that by unleashing the power of digital storytelling we can help the Gallery to bring art to a whole new audience. We’re living in a changing world and there is a real need for new experiences that help open up art and culture to new audiences and crucially help ensure that national institutions such as the National Portrait Gallery and their incredible collections continue to be accessible and have cultural significance for the next generation. MediaCity is a vibrant cultural hub attracting a hugely diverse audience. This combined with its proximity to major transport links and focus on technology made it an obvious choice for premiering our first experience.

Rich Storton, General Manager of FRAMELESS Creative

The National Portrait Gallery aims to share our unique collection of portraits with as wide an audience as possible and explore the human stories that shape our history and culture. This exciting new partnership with FRAMELESS, inspired by our Collection, will enable us to take these stories outside of the Gallery walls and bring them to life in new, innovative ways.

Rosie Wilson, Director of Programmes, Partnerships and Collections at the National Portrait Gallery

We are honoured that the National Portrait Gallery and FRAMELESS have chosen MediaCity as the first stop on the tour of this unique immersive experience. We’ve hosted many arts and culture events, experiences, festivals and exhibitions over the last few years and we can’t wait to welcome visitors to Salford when the experience opens its doors in May next year.

Caroline Aikman, Director of Marketing, Brand and Place at MediaCity 

For more information visit www.npgunframed.com. Follow the official Facebook, X and Instagram accounts for further information and announcements: @npgunframedtour.

Napoleon: Light’s peek into VFX and realism

The LIGHT team shares their VFX breakdown on Ridley Scott’s Napoleon.

Ridley Scott’s Napoleon is a testament to meticulous detail and artistic collaboration. For the team at LIGHT, bringing the epic to life meant crafting assets that seamlessly blend into the narrative, pushing boundaries in digital artistry.

From life-like creatures to historically accurate set pieces, a standout contribution was the digital recreation of horses – integral to the story and a benchmark in blending VFX with historical storytelling.

The horses, especially the carriage horses, were fascinating to supervise, and the results were amazing. One of the most memorable aspects was working on dead body models – it was surreal seeing them early in the morning! We also ventured into skeleton and muscle simulations for the horses – a challenging, but rewarding journey.

Marie Fichet, Head of Assets at LIGHT

This dedication to anatomical precision ensured the CG horses moved and interacted naturally, heightening the authenticity of pivotal battle and transportation scenes.

Oliver Johnstone, VFX Supervisor, was impressed by the team’s remarkable transformation of reference footage.

It was stunning to see how the team transformed onset reference horses into something almost indistinguishable from the real thing. This project demonstrated how VFX can subtly and perfectly elevate a scene. No horses were harmed in the making – except the CG ones.

Oliver Johnstone, VFX Supervisor at LIGHT

For Chloe Roberts, Lead Groom Artist, Napoleon presented an exciting challenge.

I was thrilled to work on a Ridley Scott film! It was a fantastic opportunity to push myself and for LIGHT to showcase the quality of work we’re capable of as a team. Seeing my work in motion, with the CG horses coming alive, was incredibly rewarding.

Chloe Roberts, Lead Groom Artist at LIGHT

The grooming of fur and mane, alongside detailed shaders and textures, played a vital role in making the digital horses indistinguishable from their real-life counterparts. Their artists are passionate about creating life-like creatures, and their dedication truly shines through in the final work.

For more information, visit lightvfx.com.

Speakers for Schools: Helping young people find their path into the creative industries

Laura Morris, Business Development Manager at Speakers for Schools, shares her thoughts on how to cultivate and nurture talent, and facilitate industry growth.

At Speakers for Schools, we aim to inspire young people and help them find their ideal career path within the UK’s many exciting sectors. Chief amongst those are the creative industries, and our free inspirational talks and work experience opportunities allow state school pupils to discover a career they might never have considered before or thought achievable.

With the creative industries generating £126 billion in gross value added to the economy and employing 2.4 million people in 2022 alone, we must introduce young people to the many opportunities within them as early as possible. Especially considering the range of different skillsets that can be accommodated and championed, whether you’re technical, creative or organisational.

It’s been a challenging few years for the industry, from COVID through to the writer/director/actor strikes. Meanwhile, The Sutton Trust’s new research, A Class Act, uncovered the stark disparities in access to creative careers and the extent to which they remain elite professions. For example, younger adults from working-class backgrounds are 4 times less likely to work in the creative industries compared to their middle-class peers. Meanwhile, BAFTA-nominated actors are 5 times more likely than the public to have attended private schools (35% vs 7%).

Now is the time to consider how we cultivate and nurture talent, and facilitate industry growth. As technology continues evolving, the demand for specialised skills will only grow, creating new career paths and opportunities for those willing to invest the time and effort to master them. It is encouraging therefore that the Chancellor of the Exchequer recently confirmed an increased tax incentive for spending on visual effects (“VFX”) in the UK, which has been warmly welcomed by the UK’s VFX industry. It is paramount that young people from all backgrounds are now given the right insight to understand how they can capitalise on such developments.

We are deeply invested in ensuring the creative industries are accessible to all and Discover! Creative Careers Week (18 – 22 November) represented a key moment to focus on the sector, providing the next generation with the tools to navigate it. Here, we partnered with Discover Creative Careers and ScreenSkills to offer work experience programmes across various creative fields from 28 October – 22 November. These allowed young people to gain real-world skills, build their portfolio, network with top creative minds and explore a variety of career pathways. Our data from last year’s programme for the same creative careers week reveals that 93% of young people were interested in a job within the sector after their work experience placement (compared to just 50% beforehand). This demonstrates the impact such early interventions can have in forming a young person’s passion and ambition.

Collaboration between all those working in this space – including the 190 companies in post production, VFX, animation, TV & Film Studios and Productive Services that UK Screen Alliance and Animation UK represent – is fundamental to ensuring the industry thrives and to addressing future skills gaps. For example, our partnership with film education charity Into Film showcased careers in the screen industries through virtual talks with industry experts; from actors, directors and producers to experts in post-production sound, picture editing and green filmmaking. We’ve similarly hosted many other in-person and virtual talks with aspirational role-models across the creative sectors, which are available to watch for free on our website.

The Government’s Autumn Budget allocated £3 million of funding to expand the Creative Careers Programme. Such initiatives are essential in providing insight into different career routes and tackling urgent skills gap in industries that are essential to the UK economy. We look forward to hearing more about the Government’s other key proposed policies that help young people find the right career for them; from recruiting more careers advisors in secondary schools to delivering two weeks’ worth of quality work experience for every young person (both of which are also central organisational missions of ours). Whether it be the creative sector or tech, we want to level the playing field for all young people and ensure everyone can enter the industry of their choosing.

We encourage employers working across the creative industries to get in touch and learn how they can get involved in our programme. Laura Morris and Melody Clarke are our Business Development Managers working across the sector, and you can contact them directly at laura.morris@speakersforschools.org / melody.clarke@speakersforschools.org.

Barney Jordan joins Company 3 London as Senior Finishing Editor

Company 3’s London studio has announced the addition of Barney Jordan to its team as a Senior Finishing Editor.

With a wealth of experience and a passion for crafting visually stunning work, Barney brings a unique perspective and skill set to the company.

Barney’s impressive career spans a variety of projects, from commercials and music videos to feature films and television series. Highlights include Red Eye for ITV, Catastrophe S2-4 for Channel 4, You & Me for ITV and many more. His work has also been recognised with a BAFTA nomination for Best Visual Effects, which was for George Orwell: A Life in Pictures.

I’m incredibly excited to join the talented team at Company 3. The opportunity to collaborate with such a diverse range of creative individuals is inspiring, and I look forward to contributing to the business’ continued success.

Barney Jordan, Senior Finishing Editor at Company 3

Barney’s extensive experience and exceptional talent will be invaluable to our team and our clients. We’re excited to see what he brings to the table.

Johnny Whitehead, Director of Operations, London at Company 3

Barney’s reputation as a highly skilled and dedicated editor precedes him. His addition to our team further strengthens our commitment to delivering world-class postproduction services. We’re thrilled to have him on board.

Billy Gabor, President, London, Los Angeles and Atlanta at Company 3

With Barney’s expertise and passion, Company 3 is poised to continue its legacy of delivering exceptional post-production services to clients worldwide.

Harbor expands with dedicated dailies facility at Shepperton Studios

Harbor has announced the opening of a new dedicated dailies facility at Shepperton Studios, strengthening its position as a leader in post-production services.

This purpose-built facility will provide state-of-the-art dailies capabilities, including an HDR grading and screening room engineered to support the exceptional creative output and leading technical standards.

The new Harbor-at-Shepperton location features high-speed production data uploads to studio and cloud storage, as well as Anchor – Harbor’s proprietary set-to-screen workflow platform – ensuring seamless integration with both local and remote workflows. This service is available to all clients, reinforcing Harbor’s commitment to providing versatile solutions that cater to a wide range of production needs, including those of independent filmmakers, studios, and major streaming platforms.

Located in one of the UK’s most significant production hubs, the Shepperton facility is strategically positioned to support productions from a variety of clients. Shepperton Studios is a key site for industry giants such as Netflix, which has created a major production base there, and Amazon Studios, which recently signed a multimillion-pound deal to expand their operations at the historic studio complex.

The facility offers a direct connection to both Harbor’s Turnmills studio in Central London – serving as the creative backbone – and its proprietary high-speed network, enabling secure collaboration across the company’s global infrastructure. This includes brick-and-mortar studios in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Chicago, as well as 90 satellite facilities with local billing capabilities.

Harbor’s mission is to provide a premium experience through a centralised hub for innovative front-end production support and full post-production services, ensuring a seamless set-to-screen workflow that meets the needs of today’s filmmakers. With this new Shepperton facility, we’re bringing cutting-edge solutions to one of the most storied studios in the industry, reinforcing our commitment to delivering exceptional services that meet the evolving demands of modern production.

Thom Berryman, UK Managing Director at Harbor

The Harbor-at-Shepperton dailies facility also serves as a UK hub for Harbor Virtual Lab maintenance and distribution, positioning Harbor as a strategic partner for productions requiring versatile, global post-production solutions.

Harbor’s extensive network will support operations at the new facility, providing access to its renowned international talent pool and ensuring filmmakers benefit from the expertise of a team dedicated to high-quality dailies, colour grading, colour science, and seamless project integration from set to screen.

Absolute unveils box office Colour line-up

Absolute, part of the ENVY Group, have revealed the arrival of not one but three world-class talents to its Colour division.

In an unprecedented move, Leianna Gilmartin, Peter Oppersdorff and Philip Hambi have all joined the company. Long regarded as one of Europe’s finest Producer and Colourist teams, the trio will form a brand-new department in what is an exciting transition for Absolute.

We are thrilled to welcome such exceptional talent like Leianna, Pete and Phil to the team at Absolute. With a team of this calibre, the work really speaks for itself. It’s very exciting to have them on board as part of our ever growing future!

Dave Cadle, CEO of the Envy Group

Having worked together for 10+ years, Leianna, Pete and Phil are respected worldwide. The trio will work together to shape a new direction for Colour in what continues to be an exciting transition for everyone at Absolute. If their catalogue of work shows one thing, it’s their ability to innovate and raise the bar time and time again. We can’t wait to open the doors to the fantastic creative opportunities I know these guys will bring in abundance.

David Smith, CEO of Absolute

Starting her career back in 2006 as a runner, Leianna spent her early years working across all aspects of post from Colour, 3D and Digital to Experiential. The following decade saw Leianna produce some of the most awarded projects. With an impressive portfolio of work and a loyal client base to boot, Leianna made the move to specialise in Colour, together creating the renowned team with Peter Oppersdorff and Philip Hambi. With over 18 years in post-production, eight of those working within Colour, Leianna takes on the role of ‘Head of Production for Colour’, working alongside Absolute’s senior team to aid Philip and Peter grow the department, and the Absolute Colour brand.

I am thrilled to be joining Absolute as Head of Production for Colour, a place already known in the industry for its commitment to artistic excellence and creation. I’m delighted to be doing this with two exceptionally talented colourists, whose expertise will help shape and elevate the future of our company. We have been given an exciting opportunity to rebuild the colour department with the introduction of state-of-the-art grading equipment from our friends at FilmLight. Together, we look forward to collaborating with the incredible team, bringing vibrant and transformative visual storytelling to life.

Leianna Gilmartin, Head of Production for Colour at Absolute

Peter Oppersdorff is a multi-award winning Colourist who joins Absolute as Creative Director of Colour. Peter started his career in 2014 as a protegé of Colour pioneer Jean-Clement Soret. The following decade has seen him establish himself as one of the industry’s leading talents, with a catalogue of award wins and nominations. In 2021, he won two Kinsale Shark Awards for ‘Best International Colour Grade’. The first was Gold for his work on Arlo Parks Caroline, while the second was a Bronze for his work on the US Facebook campaign Good Ideas Deserve To Be Found.

In 2022, Peter’s exceptional craft on Stonewall’s Proud Mistletoe campaign saw him shortlisted at the prestigious British Arrows, the International Filmlight Awards, AICP Post Awards and the Berlin Commercial Awards. In 2023, Peter was again shortlisted at the AICP & Berlin Commercial Awards for his work on the charming Confused.com spots Piggy Bank and Clap. While in 2024, Peter took home a Silver in the ‘Best Colour Grading’ category at the Creative Circle Awards, for his work on the Erste Bank Xmas Rodeo Christmas campaign.

His arresting catalogue of work has seen Peter collaborate with some of the industry’s most established directors, including Dave Meyers, Dorian and Daniel, The Sacred Egg, Ian Pons Jewell, Jake Scott, Amber Grace-Johnson, Vedran Rupic, and FKA Twigs. He has also worked alongside leading cinematographers, such as Chase Irvine, Larkin Seiple, Molly Manning-Walker, Simon Chaudoir, Benoit Soler, Federico Alfonzo and Natasha Braier.

The chance to join Absolute at the beginning of this exciting new era was a no brainer. Their reputation throughout the industry is excellent, so I’m proud to have the opportunity to enhance that legacy in the future. We want Absolute Colour to become a benchmark department globally, a place where talent can thrive and where clients want to be.  We’ve built an excellent rapport with the team at FilmLight over the years, so the backing we received from Chris and Dave to keep that relationship going means a lot to myself and Phil.

Peter Oppersdorff, Creative Director of Colour at Absolute

Also joining as Creative Director of Colour, Philip Hambi is a highly distinguished colourist, known globally for his award-winning work. Boasting a stunning portfolio, Philip has worked on projects for brands as varied as Adidas, Delta Airlines, Samsung, BMW, Burger King and NASCAR. He can point to an enviable roster of directors that he has worked with, including ALASKA, Floria Sigismondi, Mathijs Van Heijningen, Paul W. S. Anderson, The Sacred Egg, Mark Jenkinson and Miles Aldridge; as well as Cinematographers Darius Khondji, Fabian Wagner and Monika Lenczewska.

Phil’s work is regularly recognised for its excellence, with multiple nominations and wins at the British Arrows, Ciclope, D&AD, FilmLight Awards and The Kinsale Shark Awards. Last year, his first foray into the world of long form, with longstanding collaborator Tom Day, became the 5th watched film in the UK on Netflix for their feature documentary The Battle Of The Baddest. In October, he was nominated for a FilmLight Colour Award for his work on Crawford vs Madrimov Everything or Nothing.

Absolute have been on my radar for some time now, with a consistent quality of work and enviable company culture. So when the opportunity arose, I simply couldn’t turn it down. The proposition was made even sweeter with the arrival of my colleagues; Peter Oppersdorff and Leianna (Campbell) Gilmartin. Collaborating together for many years, we’re ecstatic to be at the forefront of the rebuild and regeneration of Colour at Absolute. I’m thrilled to be able to carry on evolving my craft, and cultivate a strong colour culture in this iconic company during an exciting new era.

Philip Hambi, Creative Director of Colour at Absolute

Bringing in just one Colourist of Pete and Phil’s magnitude would be a no-brainer for any post company in the world. So to have them both join us is a real coup. When you pair that with the addition of Leianna, who is regarded as one of the finest Head of Department’s in the industry, we have assembled a box office team. These additions speak volumes about the direction we want to move Absolute in. Our ambition is to be the best in the business, and Pete, Phil and Leianna are all part of bringing us to that next level.

Chris Batten, Managing Director at Absolute

This is a new era for Absolute and Leianna, Pete and Phil with their unique talents and perspectives will bring incredible energy and creativity. This marks an exciting new chapter for Absolute as we expand our team and elevate the capabilities of the ENVY Group.

Natascha Cadle, Creative Director of ENVY Group