About Me
In a Nutshell
Alexis Van Hurkman is a writer, director, and colorist who has written extensively about postproduction with a column in "Edit Well," and books including the "Encyclopedia of Color Correction" and "Advanced Color Correction and Effects in Final Cut Pro." Working for Apple computer, Alexis also wrote the user manuals for Color 1.0, Shake 3.5 and 4, and Final Cut Pro 2, 3, and 4. As a New York based freelance colorist and Shake artist, Alexis works on a wide variety of narrative and documentary programming.
As a screenwriter, Alexis has written four feature length scripts including "Walking to Frackville" and "Dating the Devil." In 2006 Alexis' directed feature "Four Weeks, Four Hours" screened internationally at the Colorado Breckenridge, Salento Italy, Portland Longbaugh, Toronto ReelHeART, Hollywood FAIF, and San Fernando Valley film festivals.
Post Production Highlights
2007—Color Corrected Entry of Buildings for client Marble & Clay. Color corrected the high definition short subject Man for director Myna Joseph, which was accepted to the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Color Corrected the high definition short subject The Second Line for director John Magary, which is a finalist for the 2007 Student Academy Awards, and was also accepted to the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Color corrected the architectural documentary Site Specific for director Matt Kohn (produced by Metropolis Magazine). Performed editorial and color correction for a series of four web-only promotional spots for writer/director Andrew Kessler.
2006—Moved to Manhattan, set up my new Color Correction suite in the Fashion district. Also spent much of the year touring with Four Weeks, Four Hours on the film festival circuit. In between all this, I color corrected Adam Blank and Brian Huston's feature-length documentary From Prison to Home, and Ben Niles' documentary feature Note by Note: The Making of Steinway L1037, which premiered at the 2006 Hamptons Film Festival, won Best Documentary at the the Sarasota Film Festival, and was featured in the SilverDocs documentary festival. Earlier, I had color corrected Chris Purcell and Zac Petrillo's feature, Impunity, which premiered at the 4th Annual Queens International Film Festival. I also edited "Warren Buffett, The Gift," which was the third of a three part Charlie Rose special on Bill Gates and Warren Buffett for the postproduction facility Palace Studios.
2005—Completed an effects package of 26 high-definition VFX shots for the 35mm comedic short, Artistic License, produced by Divi Crockett, which among over 25 festivals played won best comedy at the 2005 New York Television Festival, Audience Award for Narrative Short at Austin, Best Comedy at Poppy Jasper, and the Audience Award for Comedy Short at the 2006 Sedona International film festival. In spring, I performed an offline color-correction pass for the independent feature Thanks to Gravity, produced by Amy Greenspun and Gina Phillips. Early in the summer, I finished editing, fifty shots of VFX, and color-correcting my own feature, Four Weeks, Four Hours. In August, I color-corrected the FBI Guys pilot for actor/producer Paul Darriago, which won Best Drama in the Independent Television Festival, and was a semi-finalist in the Show off Your Shorts Film Festival. In October, I color-corrected the dramatic feature Souvenir for director Natasa Prosenc, which won the best feature award in the Berkeley Film and Video Festival, and played around the world in the San Diego, IndieFest, Bluegrass, Sopot (Poland), and Videolab (Portugal) film festivals.
2004—Moved to Los Angeles. Did all of the greenscreen compositing for Michael Wohl's entry in MoveOn.org's "Bush in 30 Seconds" PSA contest, Questions. Edited a series of corporate communications spots for Studio144—Rod Gross, producer.
2003—Contributed VFX work to the independent feature Want, directed by Michael Wohl.
2002—Color-corrected Harrell Fletcher's Blot Out the Sun (which appeared at the 2004 Whitney Biennial in New York).
2001—Performed editorial, VFX, and color-correction for Kaylynn Raschke's video short, Sleep Tight...a Bedtime Story, which was featured in the 2001 Clermont-Ferrand short film market.
1999—I collaborated with Harrell Fletcher and Elizabeth Meyer on The Forbidden Zone, a piece that was first featured in the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts exhibit, (extra)super[meta]. This installation has since played in galleries around the world, most notably at the 2004 Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, in their biennial exhibit of emerging artists.
1998—Notable for the completion of a graphics package for Gordon Winiemko and Julie Wyman's experimental short, The Sign, which played at numerous festivals including SXSW, Mill Valley, and Taos. It also aired on the Bay Area's KTEH.
1997—Contributed digital effects work to Matthew Barney's ground-breaking video art production—Cremaster 5.
1993-1999—As a freelance editor and broadcast designer in San Francisco my clients included Studio144, Rough House Editorial, Zoe Street Pictures, the Kenwood Group, and the Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC).
Consulting and Published Work
Simultaneous to my post-production work, I've also applied my knowledge of film and video production and post-production as a consultant for individuals and companies including Apple, Inc., SGI, and Alias-Wavefront.
I'm currently an authorized Apple instructor for Color, Shake, and Final Cut Pro, teaching both "Train the Trainer" and end user classes. I periodically teach seminars at Columbia University on color correction for the film division, and I've also presented seminars on color correction at Tekserve, for the New York Motion Pictures Collective, and at DV Expo East and West. I recorded Magnet Media's Digital Media Training Series title for Color, available on DVD and online. While living in San Francisco, I taught classes in digital video post-production and After Effects at the Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC).
I'm an ongoing contributor to Edit Well, the rich media newsletter for Final Cut Pro Studio, with a column on color correction. My most recent book is the Encyclopedia of Color Correction; an encyclopedically organized collection of articles that combine specific color correction techniques with other general information relevant to the desktop colorist and finishing editor. I also cowrote Advanced Color Correction and Effects in Final Cut Pro 5, which was part of the Apple Pro Training Series, published by PeachPit press (my section on color correction has since been moved into Final Cut Pro 6 Beyond the Basics).
From 1999 through December 2005 I was employed at Apple Inc. as one of the founders of the Pro Applications User Publications group, responsible for documenting Apple's professional film and video applications. I was the lead writer for the Final Cut Pro User's Manual versions 2, 3, and 4. In 2004 I contributed five chapters to the User's Manual for the broadcast design application Motion, and wrote the new features guide for version 3.5 of Apple's professional film and video compositing application Shake. In 2005, I updated, revised, and expanded the documentation for Shake 4. After leaving the company, I returned as a freelancer in 2007 to write the Color 1.0 User Manual.
FAQ
So you're a writer, director, and colorist?
Yes I am. Although my early education was in theater and film (University of California, Santa Cruz), my affinity for computers and technology enabled me to jump on the nonlinear bandwagon in the early nineties, and I naturally gravitated towards the fusion of filmmaking and technology—digital post.
My production experience contributes to my color correction and VFX sensibilities, and vice-versa. As a colorist, I'm extremely sensitive to the needs, creative challenges, and pressures that the post process presents to filmmakers, and to the responsibility of every part of the process—color and effects included—to serve the story.
As a director, my hands-on knowledge of the post process helps me to maximize resources by taking advantage of the post process to extend what's being done on the set, while avoiding an over-reliance on "fix-it-in-post" solutions that are actually more expensive (and painful) to do later. Doing your own rotoscoping really puts things into perspective.
How long have you been working in postproduction?
I've been earning my living doing postproduction in various capacities since 1994, although the trajectory I've followed has been focused on achieving progressively greater control over the visuals of moving images. I started out as an offline editor, working on a wide variety of programs in San Francisco. Around the mid-nineties, as clients wanted more pretty pictures, I moved into motion graphics and effects work using After Effects. At the turn of the century (I love being able to say that), my interest in compositing images dovetailed with my narrative work as a director, evolving into a focus on enhancing and perfecting cinematic visuals through color correction and visual effects.
You've finished your first feature, what's next?
Why, I'm glad you asked. At the moment, I'm still pretty occupied with getting Four Weeks, Four Hours out into the world as widely as possible. I am, however, in development on one or two projects, trying to figure out what my next filmmaking commitment will be. And, of course, I'm always working on the next screenplay.
What's your favorite color?
Very funny.