Molinare expands picture department with new hires & upgrades
September 12, 2022

Molinare expands picture department with new hires & upgrades

LONDON — Molinare (www.molinare.co.uk) has greatly expanded its picture department. In the past year, the post house’s online department has doubled the size of its Flame capacity, from five to ten. They’ve also partnered with Pixitmedia, installing the Pixstore software defined storage solution to help centralize all storage. The solution will also streamline the connection to Molinare’s grading and QC services, resulting in improvements across render, copy and delivery timelines.

Photo (L-R): Scott Hinchcliffe, Dan Preston, Lee Clappison, Hannah Mason and Diogo Oliveira 

In addition to the department’s strengthened infrastructure, the studio recently welcomed three new senior editors, who will work across the company’s roster of unscripted and scripted content.

Ben North joins Molinare from Lipsync Post, where he spent the past eight years working on projects such as BBC’s Ghosts and Steve McQueen’s Small Axe. He brings a meticulous eye and experience in Flame.

Joining North is fellow senior online editor, Scott Hinchcliffe, who bringing over 30 years of experience to the role. Hinchcliffe has enjoyed long stints at Halo Post Production, Blue 2.0 and Pepper Post. His credits include British classics Sherlock and Spooks, and more recently The World According to Jeff Goldblum and Rogue Agent.

The third senior editor to join the team is Dan Preston, who comes to the studio from Clear-Cut Pictures. There, he served as head of online since 2013, and as head of picture in his last year. Preston has focused on factual projects in recent years, working on 1000 Years a Slave, The Queen’s Guards: A Year in Service and New Elizabethans with Andrew Marr.

Molinare has also made further investment in its color department, which recently opened a new grading suite. The studio’s capacity now stands at seven rooms. In conjunction with the expansion, the department completed an overhaul of its Baselight systems, upgrading all grading suites to the latest edition, Baselight 5.3.

Joining the color team is senior colorist Lee Clappison, who brings experience across feature films, factual documentaries and drama projects. Having spent time at a Lipsync Post, Goldcrest Films and Suite, Clappison’s credits include Kate & Koji, Two Doors Down, Toast of Tinsel Town and Blithe Spirit.  

Tom Emptage comes onboard as head of picture finishing, a new role at the company. He will use his experience from working at Envy Post Production, The Mill and Channel 4 to implement and ensure streamlined and consistent HDR workflows between the company’s grading and online departments. Alongside this, Emptage will be working with the newly-acquired hardware to deliver high framerate HDR content to global platforms and channels.

Working closely with Emptage, is the recently appointed head of picture operations, Hannah Mason, who joined the studio from Clear-Cut Pictures, where she held the position of technical services manager. She brings an in-depth technical knowledge of the factual post process, having worked on the ground managing large, multi-skilled teams in previous roles. 

The final addition to the team is QC and mastering supervisor Diogo Oliveira, who joins Molinare from Picture Shop Post. Reporting to Mason, Oliveira will oversee the QC team and be responsible for the mastering and QC on Molinare’s internal projects, as well as all external QC work.