CHEAT have announced today that they have hired two of London's most respected colourists to join their team: Jack McGinity and Tim Smith.

The arrival of McGinity and Smith doubles the size of the senior colourist team at the award-winning colour and finishing company, based in East London, joining colourist Jax Harney and founder Toby Tomkins. The move comes following the opening of two new state-of-the-art suites which have been built specifically to support its growing team.

Jack McGinity, previously based at Time Based Arts, has worked on films spanning advertising, music and fashion. In 2017 he was awarded a Gold at Kinsale for the grade on Denai Moore’s music video ‘Trickle’. In 2018, he graded the winner of the best short film category in BIFA – Dawn Shadforth’s The Big Day. He has graded promos for Kylie, Naughty Boy, Skepta, Toddla T, Bastille and Metronomy to name but a few.

“It’s exciting to join an ambitious and growing company that’s focused so much on colour," says McGinity. "CHEAT have been making waves in the colour industry by having the willingness to try and be as varied as possible, which is something that is already paying dividends. I’ve been lucky to work with some fantastic directors and made some very good friends at the same time, so I’m looking forward to continuing working with them and to meet and enjoy working with many new people too.”

Tim Smith cut his teeth at The Mill as a colour assist, and then quickly climbed the ranks to colourist after moving to Electric Theatre Collective. He has worked with some of the most exciting up and coming directors including Mollie Mills, Jean Nkiru, Duncan Loudon, Hugo Jenkins, Bafic and Dan Emmerson. Tim is one of the most prolific colourists in London working on music videos, grading promos for musicians including Dizzie Rascal, Rejjie Snow, Wiley, J Hus, Tom Walker, Kamasi Washington and Ray BLK. His work on the Neneh Cherry music video for Kong was nominated for Best Colour Grading at the UKMVAs in 2018.

“Like Jack, one of the big reasons CHEAT appealed to me is its heavy focus on colour," says Smith. "Traditionally, the role of the colourist is very singularly driven and individually focused - but here the model is different. I’m looking forward to expanding my horizons and seeing how working in a team of colourists can help to drive this business. Not only that, the fact CHEAT is a really talented young team was also a big pull for me. Its an incredible time for creative work at the moment and I am truly excited to see what is coming next.”

CHEAT's founder Toby Tomkins adds: “We’ve had our eyes on Jack and Tim’s work for some time, and I couldn’t be more pleased to welcome them into the fold. I know they can bring the lateral thinking and unique creative perspective that we look to provide at CHEAT. It’s going to be an exciting year for us. Not only do we have some incredible creative projects on the horizon we have a much bigger space to do them and our strongest team of colourists yet. This is just the first of some exciting moves this year.”