Rick Taylor, a Huntington, West Virginia native, attended Huntington High School and Marshall University before moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the motion picture industry.
Rick began his career in video post production at Excalibur Video Systems in 1982. He moved quickly from telecine assistant to colorist in less than nine months, an unusually short period of time. Moving to Deluxe Video Systems, Rick had the opportunity to transfer features and syndicated television series. While at Deluxe, he became known for his ability to do seamless pan-scan on wide screen features. As a result, Lucasfilm and Stephen Spielberg sent several special projects to Deluxe including the "Lapti-Nek" music video from "Return of the Jedi" and promos and trailers for "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom". It was not long before Rick heard from a fellow colorist who had moved on from Deluxe. This was an opportunity to open a second telecine bay at Action Video, one of the top ad agency oriented post production houses in Hollywood.
Action Video's owner Sam Holtz had it in mind to make his company one of the premier effects boutiques in Hollywood. To do that, would require knowledgeable people in key positions. Though Taylor had been in video post production for only a few years, his area of interest in film had always been visual effects. Taylor was asked if he would like to be involved with image compositing in telecine. The answer was yes, of course. Rick Taylor and Action Video became top players in image compositing and effects in the 1980's. During that time Rick transferred and/or composited countless spots for virtually every top advertising agency in the country. New methods evolved and the practice of shooting effects for compositing in video were refined. Rick has worked closely with some of the best effects cameramen, directors, and DP's (Directors of Photography) in the business. They include Academy Award winners Allen Daviau ("ET", "Empire of the Sun"), Vilmos Zsigmond ("Close Encounters", "McCabe an Mrs. Miller"), Barbara Streisand ("Yentl", "The Prince of Tides"), Richard Yuricich ("Blade Runner", "Brainstorm"), and John Dykstra ("Star Wars"), just to mention a few.
After Action Video closed its doors in 1994, Rick pursued a free-lance career. To that end he formed The Abraxas Group, L.L.C. in 1995 to serve the post-production community. Rick worked mostly in episodic television and feature mastering until 2004. He has, in addition to Hollywood, worked in Miami, Seattle, and Chicago in his freelance career.
Rick returned to California in 2005 after attending to family responsibilities in the east. After a brief stint as a private contractor, Lowry Digital Images hired Rick as Manager/ Senior Colorist in March 2006. Digital restoration of films being their primary business, Lowry's workflow is completely file based. The final product usually involves a film output or digital intermediate (DI). This was an opportunity for Rick to use his considerable knowledge of film past and present as well as his technical skills to full benefit. In addition to his duties in the DI suite, Rick managed Post-Production Services for the restoration boutique.
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