COLOR GRADING

“Everything looks good—until you see something better.”

A mentor of mine said this to me once, and it shapes the way I approach color grading. Whether you shot your film on an ALEXA 35 with a $20MM budget, or used a Canon DSLR on Auto Mode, every image can look better than when it came out of the camera. My goal as a colorist is to collaborate with directors and DP’s to find that extra 10 percent, or 5 percent, or even 1 percent improvement to get your images closer to your creative vision.

I learned to be a colorist out of necessity. No one else knew how to do it at my company. Fortunately, I loved it! The key for me was understanding that color grading is the last step in an image pipeline that begins on set. Understanding all the elements of this pipeline, in my opinion, forms the foundation for successful color grading.

Completed Projects

• The Allegory (Independent, Narrative Short, 2023)

• Above the Sunset (Independent, Narrative Short, 2023)

• People of God: How Catholic Parish Life is Changing in the United States (America Media, Feature Documentary, 2022)

• This Historic Black Catholic Parish Fought to Stay Open—and Won (America Media, Short Documentary, 2022 - Winner, Best Freestanding Presentation of Online Video from the Catholic Media Association)

• What September 11 teaches us (America Media, Mini Documentary, 2021)

• We Remember Them (America Media, Narrative Short, 2021)