CSI Chapter:
HOLLYWOOD
WELCOME!
Supporting the creative vision of the filmmaker, education, mentoring, fellowship, and advocating for the craft of the finishing artist is the Mission of The Colorist Society Hollywood. We seek to work with other professional organizations in the entertainment industry to sponsor events and pursue common goals.
Membership in the Colorist Society Hollywood is by invitation only. Members are selected by Colorist Society Fellows and Chapter Officers based on their professional accomplishments, commitment to their craft and years of service to the industry.
Invitation-only associate memberships are also available to professionals from related disciplines, including cinematographers, color scientists, engineers, DITs, and others.
John Daro, CSI |
Michael Mintz, CSI |
Josh Petok, CSI |
Troy Smith, CSI |
John Daro is a Lead Digital Intermediate Colorist at Warner Post Production Creative Services, a division of Warner Media. He has performed color grading/color correction on many feature films, television pilots, commercials and music videos for all the major studios and many independent producers. John started his career at FotoKem, where he was twice nominated for 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 auto-segment images into mattes for color grading or stereoscopic conversion. Building on the AI model, he subsequently invented Matchgrader, a process where images are artistically color-graded based on reference imagery. | Michael Mintz has been color grading short- and long-form projects for theatrical and broadcast for more than 28 years. He currently serves as Senior Digital Color Timer at Margarita Mix, Hollywood, where his work spans episodic television, features, commercials and music videos. Recent credits include Life Below Zero (BBC Worldwide), Port Protection (National Geographic), Speechless (Fox) and Bless This Mess (Disney). He began his career as a floor manager at the International Production Center in New York and got his start in color at Lee Rothberg Productions. Relocating to the West Coast, he served as Dailies Colorist at Monaco Labs and Assistant Colorist at Western Images before becoming Senior Colorist at Downstream Digital, Portland, where he graded many now classic commercials, music videos and animation projects. His background also includes posts at Sony Studios HD Center, iOFilm/Post Group, Tunnel Post, New Hat and Walt Disney Animation Studios. | Josh Petok is a Los Angeles-based freelance colorist. Over his 17 years as a colorist, Josh has finished more than 700 episodes of television, as well as commercials, feature films, documentaries and music videos. His recent credits include MasterChef USA (Fox), Lego Masters (Fox) and The Biggest Loser (USA). After getting his start at Modern VideoFilm, he became an assistant editor at public broadcasting station KCET, Los Angeles. He went on to master several finishing and color grading systems, including Avid Symphony, DaVinci Resolve and FilmLight Baselight, while increasingly focusing his attention on career on color. A member of CSI since its founding in 2015, Josh is a frequent contributor to Mixing Light and the Colorist Podcast. He also contributes free time to Crews for a Cause, a non-profit organization that brings awareness to causes and people in need. | Troy Smith is a Colorist at Margarita Mix Hollywood, where his recent credits include the television series The Shop (HBO), Breaking Bobby Bones (National Geographic) and When Nature Calls (ABC), as well as commercials for many national and international brands. He got his start in post-production at Level 3 Post, performing finishing editing, dirt restoration and color grading. During his 20+ year career in television, Troy has worked on over 75 film and television titles. In addition to his current role at Margarita Mix, he serves as a beta tester for Nucoda Film Master. Originally from south-eastern Ohio, Troy graduated from DePauw University where he studied film and television production and played football. |
Lynette Duensing, CSI |
Lou Levinson, CSI |
Walter Volpatto, CSI |
Lynette Duensing is Senior Colorist at Instinctual LLC Hollywood. She is also a Colorist Society International Fellow, an HPA/Young Entertainment Professionals Mentor and a Member of the Association of Moving Image Archivists. During her 30 year career, she has worked in Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago and Shanghai, grading commercials, theatrical trailers, independent features, episodic television shows and music videos, specializing in VFX workflows utilizing Lustre, Resolve and Baselight color grading platforms. She also enjoys bringing film titles of the past to new audiences in the digital age through restoration/preservation projects. The first woman to be named a CSI Fellow, Duensing is working to support inclusion initiatives to attract more members among women and other under-represented groups. | One of the industry’s top colorists for more than three decades, Lou Levinson helped to craft the look for such classic films as Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, Empire of the Sun, Batman and Batman Returns. Currently with Apple, he has held senior positions with MCA, Technicolor, PostLogic Studios and Modern VideoFilm, among others. Originally from Northbrook, Illinois, Lou earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in design from the University of Illinois, Chicago and a Master of Fine Art from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He began his career with Columbia Pictures. | A senior colorist at Company 3 in Hollywood, Walter Volpatto was nominated for a 2019 HPA Award for his work on the film Green Book. His more than 100 credits also include the features Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi, Dunkirk, Midway and Independence Day: Resurgence, as well as the television series Homecoming and Queen Sugar. Having grown up on a farm near Turin, Italy, Walter began his career as an engineer and visual effects artist. He got his start in color in 2002 with Cinecitta in Rome before relocating to the U.S. a year later to join Fotokem. He has been with EFILM since 2018. Over the course of his career, he has forged close relationships with many top directors and cinematographers, the former including Christopher Nolan and Roland Emmerich. |
CHAPTER MEMBERSCHAPTER NEWS & EVENTS Colorist Society Hollywood and smpte co-host eventon Best practices for sdr/hdrColorist Society Hollywood recently joined SMPTE Hollywood Section in hosting an evet exploring best practices for HDR/SDR workflows. Held at the Linwood Dunn Theatre in Hollywood, the event featured presentations from CSH colorists John Daro, Lynette Duensing and Juan Cabrera, along with Laura Jans Fazio. The subsequent panel discussion included Daro, Duensing, Fazio, Cabrera and Annie Chang, VP/Creative Technologies, Universal Pictures and ACES Co-Chair. Marc Zorn, Content Protection & Production Security, Marvel Studios, moderated. In case you missed the event, you can watch it below. |
Colorist Society Hollywood Meet Up
Colorist Society Hollywood hosted its first in-person meetup on Thursday, September 14th at the classic Hollywood pub, The Cat & the Fiddle. Colorists from across Southern California turned up for an evening of drinks, hos d’oeuvres, conversation and fun. The Hollywood Chapter expects host to many more such events, says Lynette Duensing, CSH. “It was great seeing everyone in person,” she notes. “The folks shared their experiences with technology and philosophies on how to approach a project. This speaks exactly to one of the core missions of CSH.”
The event was organized by Michael Mintz, CSH and promoted by Troy Smith, CSH.