Film colorist Keith Roush brings his post-production art and science to Atlanta

“We specialize in color through digital intermediate color grading — like a visual score for a film,” he explains. “What we do is part art, part science.”

Credit: Courtesy of Keith Roush

Credit: Courtesy of Keith Roush

With Roush’s business move, color work once performed only on the West Coast and in New York is now here in the South. Predominantly, film productions come to Georgia, shoot, receive the tax breaks and then head west for the magic of artists like Roush. He mentions Marvel films as one example — whereas the popular movie franchise, much of it shot in Georgia at Trilith Studios, used to trek back to Los Angeles for postproduction, it can now get color services in the Peach State.

“Post isn’t here at a high or consistent level yet,” he says, speaking about color, audio and other creative postproduction offerings.

When asked how he made the bold decision to relocate his art and his family to Atlanta, Rouse paints the scenario with color.

“This was by far the scariest thing I’ve ever done,” he says. “I’d built my brick-and-mortar post business in Los Angeles 20 years ago. But we were actually led as a family for a better future for our children.”

Credit: Courtesy of Keith Roush

Credit: Courtesy of Keith Roush

Even though he and his wife both grew up in California and their film industry lineage is there (Roush’s father worked on the late 1950s film “The Ten Commandments,” for instance), the couple felt it was time to move on. With that, the seeds of their cross-country migration took root.

Roush remembered an earlier trip to Atlanta to visit the sets of several Georgia-based clients who all brought post-production work to him in Los Angeles. During that journey, he was struck by both the growth of the film industry in the South and the charm and promise of the city.

Meanwhile, back home in California, “My oldest son was depressed during the pandemic,” Roush says. In response to the isolation each member of his family was reeling from, they piled into the car and drove cross-country, spanning 6,000 miles in three weeks.

Once in Atlanta, the family spent several weeks in Alpharetta, looking at houses with a real estate agent and admiring the school system. Next in their travels, they pointed the family car toward Destin, Florida, on a tip from one of Roush’s clients. “I’d never heard of Destin when I was in California,” he says. “[We] had a great time, and it was just five and a half hours from Atlanta. From Los Angeles, we’d fly to Cancun, but that was a big trip, so this was amazing to us.”

The Southern hospitality was a draw too — one that Roush had taken note of during his original visit. Of course, business operations have changed a bit since he relocated.

“I’m serving 90% of my clients in Los Angeles still,” he says. “It’s like backwards remote.”

During the pandemic he’d gotten used to working with his clients remotely from the Los Angeles studio, collaborating with Zoom. He got so comfortable with the process that he now finds the setup to work just as well from Atlanta, where most of his clients, collaborators and colleagues are not in person. Still, he finds that a strong network of film industry creatives continues to grow in Georgia — and in Atlanta especially.

“It’s happening in a very fragmented way,” he says. “People are by and large doing their own ... thing. We’re not yet making waves, but we’re getting out and meeting each other.”

For Roush’s own business, he’s recently partnered with filmmakers based in Albany, Georgia: the Kendrick Brothers, whom he worked with previously on the films “War Room” and “Overcomer.” For one of the brothers’ current flicks, “Lifemark,” Roush is de-aging actors for portions of the film.

Credit: Courtesy of Keith Roush

Credit: Courtesy of Keith Roush

“I took [actor] Kirk Cameron back to more than 20 years younger for a big part of the film in a process that used machine learning and artificial intelligence,” the artist says, adding that he consistently seeks out industry-leading processes and technologies in the realm of film color. “We are pushing the boundaries, technologically and creatively, to serve our clients’ visions through motion, color and the execution of the story through visual effects.”

“Colorists are shaping the light and hues of what’s coming out of the camera,” he adds. “It’s largely crafted and not something that natively comes out of the camera. We’re artists executing the vision to help the storytellers — the theater screen is our canvas, and I’m painting with my tools for the director and director of photography. It’s truly a collaborative process.”

If somebody had told Roush three years ago that he would be doing groundbreaking film art from Atlanta, he wouldn’t have believed them. “If you’d told me that I would move across the country, I’d have said, you’re crazy.”

Today, from his new home base, the artist is positioned to put his business at the forefront of our expanding film industry.

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Carol Badaracco Padgett is an Atlanta freelance writer who specializes in film and television coverage. A graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, her work has appeared in Oz Magazine and other publications.

Credit: ArtsATL

Credit: ArtsATL

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