Where to begin with becoming a Colourist?

School doesn't teach you color correction. You'll have to teach yourself and just do it over and over and over for 1+ years. When you're done with school, get a job as a runner or editorial intern at any post-house or production company. That's what I was advised to do by a professional colorist from Company 3--I got in as an Assistant Editor at a production company. I'm using this as a way to build experience and obtain a title that will make it easier to get into the next company. Next step is to get into another company that has an established color grading workflow or an actual CC post house either as an entry-level employee or paid intern.

I'm told that once there, you'll spend a lot of time doing not-color correction, but assistant type duties.

----As for what to do right now. Read the full resolve manual. Don't skim. Read every word. Then read Alexis VanHurkman's latest book. Spend half a year doing as many color correction projects as you can. In the final months of my college year, I worked on 3 short films (15-22 mins each) per month for 3 months. In the past few months, I've been doing a mix of 2-3 paid gigs on top of my full time job.

After practicing a lot, go back and read the manual and Vanhurkman's book AGAIN. No skimming allowed. Look into details all the advanced technical topics brought up that you don't understand in those books. Don't understand ACES? Look it up (although not really relevant to you right now). Don't understand monitor calibration? Research.

School won't teach you this stuff. Finding a mentor is probably almost impossible. So it's all up to you. Build an impressive reel. Get into a company with any position you can possibly get and work your way up.

/r/colorists Thread