Paul Harrison & Julian Nelson join Residence Pictures as founding partners

One of the UK’s top colourists, Paul Harrison is joining Residence Pictures as co-founder and colourist ahead of  the company’s launch this Spring. One of the most recognised talents in the industry, Harrison has been continually ranked amongst the top three finishing artists in the UK throughout his career, frequently topping the Televisual best colourist polls as well as winning successive BTAA awards for best colourist. 

On joining and launching Residence Pictures, Paul will renew his focus on grading premium long form content having spent much of the past decade establishing a highly acclaimed reputation in commercials working for brands including Sky, Mercedes, Stella Artois and BMW. 

He arrives with a mix of feature and episodic credits already to his name and strong relationships with some of the industry’s leading Directors and Cinematographers including MJ Delaney, Shane Meadows, Guy Ritchie and Ed Rutherford. 

Paul started his career at The Mill, before moving onto MPC and then Freefolk where he established successful grading departments and a strong client base in both London and New York. 

Paul Harrison said: ‘The opportunity to join the team, and to create a world class longform finishing post house from the ground up is hugely exciting. Cara and Derek’s enthusiasm and drive is certainly infectious, I couldn’t help but want to be a part of it.’ 

Joining Paul at Residence Pictures as co-founder and head of post is leading post production specialist and finishing artist Julian Nelson. In his previous role as Head of Picture at Fifty Fifty Julian has spent the past four years crafting a strong reputation with clients, streamers and peers establishing practical and adaptive workflows through the entire picture process. A highly regarded Finishing Artist in his own right, Nelson has worked directly on UHD HDR Dolby Vision finishing for OTT Specials and episodics successfully delivering 36 original titles to Netflix as well as hundreds of hours of SDR content for studios, networks, streamers and broadcasters throughout his 17 year career in post. 

Exacting and methodical, Julian’s remit as Head of Post at Residence Pictures is to work closely with clients, creatives, studios and manufacturers from pre-commission to deliver world beating content by crafting intelligent workflows using cutting edge technology. 

Julian Nelson said: ‘The opportunity to be part of something where the reward is giving back to the next generation is deeply fulfilling. It is a chance to build something that has no legacy before it. We can truly pioneer innovation and creativity. Developing a space that is safe allows artists, thinkers and dreamers freedom to execute their greatest works.’ 

Residence Pictures will launch in the Spring with a sole focus on picture finishing in the high-end episodic, feature and drama markets. Forming part of the Coffee & TV group of companies, the service offering will comprise end to end workflow planning and execution, colour grading, online, QC and delivery with invisible and specialist visual effects provided by Coffee and TV. 

Paul and Julian will form part of a quartet of industry-leading elite talent that will come together as Co-Founders to launch the Company in the Spring. Each headhunted by Managing Director Cara Kotschy, the final Founding Partner will be joining the business imminently. 

Cara Kotschy said: ‘I’m very excited to have Paul and Julian join me as Co-Founders at Residence Pictures. Both exceptionally talented and highly regarded in their specialisms, they are absolutely vital to help us achieve our goal of becoming the market leader in high-end picture finishing. I can’t wait to get started.” 

The end of 2021 was an exciting time for the Coffee & TV group with the launch of Residence Pictures and a win at the  Royal Television Society Craft and Design Awards for Sky Sports Lions Series in the trails and packaging category. The studio’s visual effects departments are also working on a number of high profile long form drama projects set to air in 2022.