My journey started when I was working in the scanning and printing field, during the days of digital intermediate (DI). It was here that colour grading introduced itself to me and I immediately fell in love because it combined two of my favourite things: painting and technical knowledge.

Shortly after this I became an assistant colourist and then worked my way up the ladder to where I am today ­– senior colourist at Katara Studios.

I went to university to study chemistry and in my third year I got the chance to work in a film lab in Egypt. We would receive films to be scanned and printed and I was immediately drawn to the art of cinema. When you work in a lab you understand the power of printer lights and how you can completely transform the feeling of an image and the impact on the viewer with just one tool. When I moved to grading, I used the same approach – by not building a look based on masking and keying but more of a homogenous global effect on the image. This is how my experience influenced my colour grading.

Working at Katara Studios, as senior colourist and head of picture, I get to grade and conduct look development for almost all the content produced by the studio – from feature films, TV shows and music videos, to documentaries and commercials.

I also take care of the technical aspect of the image – designing a pipeline for VFX and onset viewing for SDR and HDR. It has been a remarkable period ­for me; not only to be working at such a high level technically, but to also be surrounded by like-minded professionals. It is inspiring!