Check Out Dan Swierenga’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dan Swierenga.

Hi Dan, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Hey there! Currently I’m a senior colorist and business owner with 16 years of experience in post production. I started out in a tape room at a large commercial post house in Chicago and since then I’ve worked at a variety of facilities around LA and Chicago as colorist and finish artist. Most of my work is commercial but also a fair bit of documentary work and feature films as well. I built a home studio in Long Beach which I’ve set up like a traditional facility: a really fast 5gig network, remote monitoring for client sessions, cloud storage for collaborating anywhere, rock solid archiving, and professional calibrated OLED monitors. My clients include many well known brands, post houses, production companies, agencies located all around LA and also around the country.

I like to think I offer the best of both worlds of the freelancer and the post house. As a freelancer, I can be really flexible and accessible. But from the post house side, I’m able to provide top notch workflows, speedy turnarounds, archiving and organization like a traditional post house would. So I really try to leverage the strength of both for my clients.

My goal in the future is to offer a new kind of full service finish, vfx and color company. My background is in finish, so I have a lot of experience managing the whole finishing process from picture lock to delivery. Typically in finishing commercials and indie features, there is still a certain way of working that is based on older, expensive and time consuming processes. With newer tools for color science, integrations between color and vfx, cloud workflows and better hardware, the future is really open for developing whole new working standards for the post production industry to drive it forward. I’m excited to keep building that.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It’s been a very winding path to get to where I am today. It took me quite some time to even find my way to post production and then to find my way to color. There weren’t anywhere near the resources available back then to learn color without being in a facility. So I learned from any resource I could find. In some ways, it took me a little longer to get established on my path than someone at a larger facility. But in other ways, I had more opportunities to establish my own unique approach which I’ve been grateful for.

On top of that, the industry can be a volatile place especially with all the changes in the last 15 years. I’ve been laid off, I’ve quit jobs after working there for a few weeks, I’ve had to figure out how to work from home and build my own thing at home. Every stage of my career has had challenges to navigate from late hours with clients, long commutes and many technical issues with hardware and software. What I’ve learned is that every challenge and seemingly negative consequence has led to the next stage of growth. Closed doors have led to re-evaluation and pivoting to the right path. It’s all information for evolution and change.

When I finally started my own business a few years ago, it also took some time to establish myself as an independent artist. In most of my career previously, I was an employee so I didn’t have to search for work on my own. Running my own thing meant I had to find clients. I reached out to many companies, colleagues, and old connections, some of which didn’t pan out, others did. In the end, I’m really glad I did take that chance. I’ve established some great relationships with clients building upon past work together and also brand new clients that I’ve been able to develop and grow with.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I specialize in color grading with a focus on commercial work and independent feature films. I use DaVinci Resolve and Fusion as well for vfx work. I’m fluent in color management as well as large project management. I’ve worked with many brands like Nike, Google, Toyota, Nintendo, Infiniti, Capital One, and many more. Lately I’ve been working a lot of projects shot on 16mm film which has been really fun.

On the creative side, my passion is creating unique looks for each project that I work on and respecting the photography and vision from set through delivery. Look development is my favorite part of the color process. There are so many creative options and ideas that are generated during that stage of the process with filmmakers and DPs. Lately I’ve been really digging into texture like grain, halation and physically accurate diffusion. Images really stand out when integrating textural nuance.

I also have a passion for film photography on my own and have shot many rolls of 120 and 35mm on a variety of cameras over the years. Currently my favorite stock is a color positive film, Ektachrome. On 120 film, it looks so beautiful and rich. This experience really informs my eye and creative taste which is a huge help when shaping the look and feel of a film

On the technical side, I can handle traditional finish tasks like conform and vfx cleanup as well as project management for larger vfx related projects. I’ve even written articles about the technical aspects of video for the frame.io blog as well as my own blog at thepostprocess.com.

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I was an introverted kid growing up. Always writing stories or drawing pictures. As I got older, I was really into recording music and editing analogue tape together to create radio like shows. My imagination as a kid was really strong and I spent a lot of time daydreaming and imaging different worlds through images. As I got older, I was more and more interested in technology like VHS players and video games. I read a lot when I was a kid as well, things like science fiction, fantasy and realistic fiction. All of that informs my process now as imagination plays a big role in creating color looks and seeing where the images can go.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.danswierenga.com
• Instagram: Dan.swierenga
• Other: https://www.thepostprocess.com

Image Credits
All photos were taken by me except Noah Abrams took the side profile picture.