Meet the team: Colorist Xi Shen
“Enhance Your Vision”
The Career Story and Job in Reason Studio
Xi grew up watching various movies and shows, which cultivated her keen interest in the entertainment industry. Since both her parents worked as event planners, Xi stepped into the industry in middle school, assisting them with multiple projects ranging from classical concerts, and stage plays to musicals. These experiences have lightened up Xi’s values and talents in the industry, giving her a sense of achievement.
After starting her career, Xi found herself even more enjoying this line of work. Here at Reason Studio, Xi is the co-founder, colorist, and studio manager. Compared to her partner Roy, Xi focuses on different kinds of projects. While Roy works with indie artists on more creative projects, Xi usually works with productions from larger companies that have their own standards and specific requirements to follow for projects, including Disney Princess, Pixar Cars, and DC Kids. In addition to color grading, She also deals with many detailed works like scheduling and bookkeeping.
Xi always considers herself multiple identities, a colorist, a former cinematographer, a studio manager, and the mom of an 18-month-old boy (an identity that distracts most of her attention and energy though). Although living in Los Angeles for more than 8 years, Xi’s work focus has shifted from cinematography to color grading, her love for cinematography has never faded away and she still enjoys shooting some projects from time to time to enrich her professional value.
A Shift from a Cinematographer to a Colorist
Xi Started with a producing focus in film school. After exploring more in the film industry, Xi found cinematography is a field where her true passion is. Therefore, she shifted her focus and became a director of photography. As it is well acknowledged in the industry that cinematography has a close relationship with color grading, Xi also learned the necessary knowledge of color grading during her studies.
After graduation, Xi was in and out of the country continually shooting on different projects. However, she had a hard time trapping herself in certain types of projects that made her tired. In order to get involved with more diverse projects and larger productions, diving into the field of post-production to seek innovation became her new professional direction.
In the year 2017, Xi officially became a colorist, and in 2018, she teamed up with Roy to start their own color grading boutique, Reason Studio. With the expertise in both cinematography and color grading, Xi gained a clearer mind of how to achieve a certain look and how to manage lighting on set more efficiently during shooting.
“I love the challenge of achieving clients’ vision. Enhance your vision has always been my slogan and motif as a colorist,” said Xi. Now, when it comes to the future of Reason Studio, Xi looks forward to working on more exciting projects and also hopes to welcome more colorists to join her studio to make Reason Studio stand out and prosper.
