33 Years of Colour Grading Smash Hit Music Videos with Dave Hussey

Dave Hussey is an award-winning colourist and one of Company 3’s founders. Based out of Los Angeles, he’s worked across the worlds of film, television, music videos and advertising, amassing an impressive ‘who’s who’ list of collaborators in his four decade-long career.

His commercial credits include projects for the likes of Cadillac, Coca-Cola, Nintendo and Google, while you can also see his keen eye at work in the highly praised HBO series ‘Barry’, and recent blockbusters like ‘The Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’, ‘The Fall Guy’ and ‘Lisa Frankenstein’.

However, a significant avenue of success for his career has been colour grading videos for some of the biggest musicians in the world. 

This all started in 1991 with perhaps the biggest artist of all time, Michael Jackson, and his song ‘Black or White’. “That was one of those experiences that you never forget,” says Dave. “It was so exciting working on that job because it had a massive budget, and the general public knew it was coming because MTV promoted it like crazy. I had to work 31 straight hours so we could meet our deadline.”

“The director, John Landis, is a great storyteller, and he entertained us with his movie career stories. He told us how in ‘Coming to America’ he learned that Asiatic elephants were much easier to train than African elephants… Even Michael came in a couple of times to see how he looked. The rest of the time, we were dubbing VHS tapes of the dailies to his home in Beverly Hills.”

Later in the ‘90s, Dave started working with a variety of talented music video directors, including Francis Lawrence, Jonas Akerlund, Mark Romanek, Chris Robinson, and Diane Martel, who were all working with the major pop stars of the time. “It felt like I was working on an iconic video every other day,” he says. “You never knew who you would see on any given day, especially during the film days when everyone wanted to know how the footage would look immediately after the shoot. Prince came to most of his colour sessions over 25 years. Mariah Carey, Madonna, Janet Jackson, Missy Elliott, Beyoncé, and Justin Bieber also attended.”

Reflecting on these significant jobs in his early career, Dave remembers the effort and dedication that the production teams and artists would put in, and how much they enjoyed the work. “Even today, with the industry having gone through the pandemic, major strikes, and other hard times, people all say they love their work, and when they aren't doing it, they truly miss it. You can't say that about a lot of careers.”

Dave first fell into this career himself on his way to becoming an editor. Starting out as an assistant at Canadian post house Magnetic North, he was in charge of loading and prepping one-inch tapes for the online editors, and recording material from the telecine suite. “After each shot was graded, it needed to be recorded immediately because we didn't trust the computer to remember all the data, and since it was analogue, the colour might drift over time. We had a rank Cintel flying spot scanner with an amigo colour corrector; it was all very basic but state-of-the-art in the early to mid-eighties.”

One day, Dave expressed interest in helping the colourist on some low-budget projects, and after learning the basics - loading the rank with negative and operating the film cleaner - he eventually started practising. “About that same time, we switched over to one of the first Da Vinci colour correction systems, which was a huge step up. I then started colouring commercials and dailies for the many American productions being shot in Toronto.”

Above: 'Watermelon Sugar' music video (colourist: Dave Hussey)

This switch from film to digital capture changed the way Dave and his peers did colour sessions almost overnight. The tedium of loading film and finding shots was gone, and colour-matching became more precise and quicker; a session that previously might have lasted two days could now be done in five hours.

However, Dave says that there were some advantages to the old method, which saw the film being processed overnight during a shoot, with “an exasperated director, producer, and DP” supervising the final colour correction after wrap. “The client would only see the film in its final colour-corrected form,” he explains. “Also, because the grade was done immediately after the shoot, the DP could often attend the session, give input, and critique their own work as they went along, which was a great learning experience.” 

He adds, “Usually, colour was where the creative team and producer could discuss the shoot, what went wrong, and what went well. I always look back fondly on those days because we spent so much time together and built lifelong friendships. Since the transition to digital capture, things have been done much differently.” 

Above: A recent Mercedes ad, starring will.i.am, coloured by Dave

Nowadays, a music video is edited before the final grade happens - an advantage being that you only colour the footage used in the final cut, and you can see how things fit together. “Matching colour shot to shot is much easier this way,” says Dave, but he also highlights that the DP is often unavailable to attend the colour sessions now as the edit timeline is less predictable.

More recent changes to the colour process also mean colourists like Dave now have a lot more to do within their colour system. “I do a lot more beauty work now, instead of handing it off to VFX,” he shares. “Adding grain, flaring, and comping are now regular occurrences in colour sessions.”

This suits Dave, who enjoys jumping between disciplines and mediums, regularly working on feature films, ads, TV and music videos. “In feature films, you can dig in and create a whole colour world, have time to change your mind, and let things evolve. In commercials, you need to instantly impact your work because of the short time formats. Stylistically, you want to please the director and DP, but you also want to give the creative director what they’re looking for because they are responsible for the client, and it needs to be product-appropriate.” 

He continues, “With television, you always have stringent deadlines to meet, so you need to come up with creative and appealing work, but you need to get there fast. You hopefully develop a relationship of trust with the showrunner over time. And in music videos, you can push the boundaries further, which is a lot of fun for colourists. It's also a great way to meet up-and-coming directors, producers, and DPs with whom you can develop relationships.”

Above: Doja Cat - 'Woman' (colourist: Dave Hussey)

Fortunately, across the last few decades, Dave has had the opportunity to push the boundaries in music videos for some artists who are groundbreaking in their own right. Recollecting some of his favourite pop star projects thus far, Dave shares his thoughts on the following videos from Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Katy Perry:

Taylor Swift - 'The Man'

Directed by Taylor Swift and shot by DP Rodrigo Prieto, the music video about double standards in society has amassed 224 million views on YouTube and took home three awards at the MTV VMAs in 2020. "My particular favourite moment in the music video,” recalls Dave, “is the office scenes, as many people don't realise they're a nod to ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’, which DP Rodrigo Prieto also shot."

Taylor Swift - 'Blank Space'

The hit track from Taylor Swift's award-winning album '1989', has an epic music video that has reached 3.4 billion views on YouTube, and went on to win ‘Best Female Video’ and ‘Best Pop Video’ at the MTV VMAs in 2015. Directed by Joseph Kahn and shot by DP Christopher Probst, Dave notes that the concept was, ‘if she has so many boys breaking up with her, maybe the problem isn't the boys’. "This is one of my favourite videos I have ever coloured,” he says. “We experimented extensively during the grade with how we wanted the video's tone to look. We had a subdued feel that worked with the concept."

Rihanna - 'We Found Love'

The first of many collaborations between Calvin Harris and Rihanna, 'We Found Love' went on to win many accolades, including Best Music Video at the Grammys in 2012. With 1.1 billion views on YouTube, the music video was directed by Melina Matsoukas and shot by DP Paul Laufer. Looking back on this music video, Dave comments, "The video was shot mostly in Northern Ireland and was one of the last big-budget music videos I coloured from film. The DP, Paul Laufer, who famously shot ‘The Cell’, used Belfast's incredibly beautiful natural light to his advantage. Previous to this, I had worked with director Melina Matsoukas on many music videos with artists like Lady Gaga."

Rihanna - ‘Umbrella'

Directed by Chris Applebaum, this was a catalyst for Rihanna's career. In 2007, it received the MTV VMA for 'Music Video of The Year' and has over 1 billion views on YouTube. Dave recalls, "To create the look for this music video, which was inspired by ‘Singing in The Rain', director Chris Applebaum and I experimented with a metallic feel on some of the scenes. The orange power windows midway through were an iconic moment."

Katy Perry - 'Teenage Dream'

Directed by Yoann Lemoine (aka ‘Woodkid’) and shot by DP Paul Laufer, this music video is about Katy Perry's rise to stardom, personal struggles, love and marriage. Shot on film in Perry's hometown of Santa Barbara in 2010, the video received a nomination in the Best Cinematography category at the MTV VMAs in 2011. "The DP and I worked to achieve a very beauty-oriented grade,” comments Dave. “We liked the idea of a stylised reversal look, at the same time as flashing out the midtones."

Katy Perry - 'The One That Got Away'

Directed by Floria Sigismondi and shot by DP Larkin Seiple, 'The One That Got Away' is also from the extremely successful ‘Teenage Dream’ album, and its video has accumulated over 1 billion views on YouTube. "The video was shot in Calabasas in 2011, and was about a lost love,” says Dave. “Director Floria Sigismondi was used to shooting her music videos on film, and this was her first one to be shot digitally. The DP, Larkin Seiple, also wanted a filmic/organic look. This was shot when colourists were still acclimating to digital capture. I coloured this video as I would have graded a project shot on film, but I didn't have access to the many stylised LUTs we often use now."

Looking back through these projects and his many others with musical icons of recent times - Drake, Doja Cat, Coldplay… the list goes on - he ruminates on some of the best lessons about his craft that he’s learnt over the years. “Even though colour grading is a creative job, it's also essential to understand the technical side of what you're doing as well. In larger post production facilities, you often have a team of people helping you on the technical side. Still, a colourist must have an understanding of the process going on in the background.”

He continues “And to be a successful colourist, you must be able to develop long-term relationships with your clients. They count on you to be at the top of your game every session.”

“The most important part of the job is to be a good listener and interpret what the creative teams are asking for,” he adds, “and hopefully surpass their expectations.”