Three founding members of The Colorist Society Hollywood, a new chapter of the Global Colorist Society (CSI), will discuss their group’s ambitious plans to promote their craft during a special session at the 2022 NAB Show in Las Vegas. The session is scheduled for Sunday, April 24 at 9:15 a.m. at the Las Vegas Convention Center, North Hall (N255-N257).
Apple Independent Technology Contributor Lou Levinson, Warner Media Senior Colorist John Daro, and Company 3 Senior Colorist Walter Volpatto were among a group of top color finishing artists who started Colorist Society Hollywood last fall. The group’s mission is to champion the art of color grading, support diversity initiatives, and create educational opportunities. They also seek to deepen CSI’s ties with other industry organizations.
At the NAB Show, Levinson will review the origins of video color grading; Daro will discuss color and virtual production; and Walter Volpatto will provide a detailed description of his work on recent projects, including Buying Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.
Speakers
- Lou Levinson, CSI. One of the industry’s top colorists for over three decades, Lou Levinson has helped create the look of classic films such as Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, ET the Extra-Terrestrial, Empire of the Sun, Batman and Batman Returns. Currently at Apple, he has held leadership positions at MCA, Technicolor, PostLogic Studios, and Modern VideoFilm, among others. A native of Northbrook, Illinois, Lou earned a Bachelor of Arts in Design from the University of Illinois at Chicago and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He started his career at Columbia Pictures.
- Walter Volpatto, CSI. Senior colorist at Company 3 in Hollywood, Walter Volpatto was nominated for a 2019 HPA award for his work on the film green paper. Its 100+ credits also include the features Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi, Dunkirk, Half-way and Independence Day: Resurgenceas well as the television series ORound Time: The Rise of the Lake Dynasty and sugar queen. Growing up on a farm near Turin, Italy, Walter began his career as an engineer and visual effects artist. He made his color debut in 2002 with Cinecitta in Rome before moving to the United States a year later to join Fotokem. He has worked at EFILM since 2018. During his career, he has built close relationships with many top directors and cinematographers, including Christopher Nolan and Roland Emmerich.
- John Daro, CSI. John Daro is the Chief Intermediate Digital Colorist at Warner Post Production Creative Services, a division of Warner Media. He has done color grading/correction on numerous feature films, TV pilots, commercials and music videos for all major studios and many independent producers. John began his career at FotoKem, where he was twice nominated for the HPA Awards for Outstanding Color Correction in 2013 for behind the candelabra and in 2015 for The Boxtrolls. He also pioneered post-production techniques including 3D conversion and HDR tone mapping. At Warner Post Production, he created a technique using machine vision to automatically segment frames into caches for color grading or stereoscopic conversion. Building on the AI model, he then invented Matchgrader, a process where images are artistically color-graded based on reference images.
WHAT: Introducing Colorist Society Hollywood
WHEN: Sunday April 24 | 9:15 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.
OR: N255-N257
OPEN TO: The NAB Show conference pass
About the Society of Colourists
Colorist Society (CSI) is the first professional society dedicated exclusively to promoting and honoring the professional achievements of colorists. It is an educational and cultural resource for the colorist community, the entertainment industry and the public. Membership is open to professional colorists, DITs, telecine operators, color timers, finishers, restoration artists and color scientists. CSI holds regular meetings as chapters around the world. He also regularly attends industry trade shows and other events. The organization is currently planning an awards competition to honor outstanding achievement in the art and science of color grading.
