Olaya Chesneau

Olaya has been working in the camera department for over 17 years. She started as an equipment rental technician at the dawn of the digital era, tried her hand at film loading but got lonely being locked in a dark room, tried focus pulling, and ultimately a full-grade DIT on multi-camera high-end TV productions. Now, she is also working as a colorist.

Her passion extends beyond technical expertise to include the cultural significance of images and the power of language. The dialogue between a DoP and DIT/colourist is of great interest to her, from shaping the image on set to collaborating with post-production and other departments to create a streamlined, coherent vision. She thrives on discussions with all departments about the importance of their work to the final image and insists on creating an environment where collaboration, mutual understanding, and communication are paramount. It’s not unusual to find many people in her tent, because you can learn from every department and the chats are the best.

She has also run a remote dailies upload business for remote shooting locations and is often hired by DoPs for her attention to detail and for creating meticulously graded dailies.

Grading is her passion—it allows her to enter a state of laser focus, happily spending hours in the dark, often in the company of other neurodivergent creatives found on set.

Olaya’s experience spans low-budget and big-budget productions, documentaries, commercials, TV movies, and beyond. Fluent in Spanish and French, she is open to working anywhere in the world.