Juan Cabrera, the first Spanish colorist to become an associate member of the American Society of Cinematographers

Born in Spain, the new ASC associate member, Juan Cabrera, is known for his work on productions like Star Trek: Into Darkness and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, for which he won two Lumiere Awards. On the television side, he has worked on shows like Sony’s StartUp, Microsoft’s Quantum Break, and more recently Paramount’s The Alienist: Angel of Darkness, nominated for Best Color at the 2020 HPA awards.

“I am deeply honored that my work has been recognized by one of the most prestigious filmmaking organizations in the world, and I very much look forward to continuing learning from the best and contributing to exchange ideas and innovative techniques to enhance cinematography. I’d also like to thank my friends and sponsors, Fernando Argüelles, ASC, AEC and Gonzalo Amat, ASC” shared Juan Cabrera.

Juan started his career in Madrid 25 years ago, working as a VFX Supervisor and Animator. After ten years in the VFX industry, he evolved his career towards Color and Finishing. He relocated to Los Angeles, California, where he joined Bad Robot productions and later Paramount Pictures. His Visual Effects expertise helped him immensely on the technical side of color grading and color science, and he often blends both worlds when needed.

His mixed background allowed him to jump very early into new technologies such as ACES, Stereography (3D), and HDR, and incorporate ideas from all of them into more standard workflows. Juan firmly believes that “post-production starts in pre-production”, and enjoys developing new workflows or optimizing existing ones for projects that might present unique challenges.

Seven years ago, Juan founded LightBender, a Post-Production boutique providing all color and finishing services for TV Series and Feature Films, including advanced format deliverables like 4K, 8K, HDR, and IMF. LightBender is Dolby Vision Certified and MPAA Security Compliant. His clients include Sony, Paramount, Amazon, Microsoft, Hulu, THX, and many others.