Derek Hansen is an established colorist residing in Los Angeles. Over the last 10 years, he has crafted images for some of the industry’s leading influencers: collaborating with directors like Gia Coppola, Young Replicant, Brian Buckley, and Luke Monahan; grading projects for global brands including Lululemon, Old Spice, Reebok, Toyota, and Facebook; as well as working on music videos for St. Vincent, Halsey, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, and J.Cole. In June of 2019, after departing from The Mill, Derek signed with Arsenal Creative to launch a color department. Together they have built out a full service Baselight suite, capable of HDR and Dolby Vision Mastering, with the addition of remote viewing services. Under his leadership Arsenal is now able to round out the studio portfolio and offer finishing, VFX and color.
As recognition of his talent, Derek was shortlisted for AICP 2019’s Best Grade in Music Video for Janelle Monae’s ‘I Like it Like That’. It’s his strong working relationship with directors and DPs that has cultivated this diverse and rich body of work. His experience and knowledge extends beyond his commercial work into long-form narrative and documentary. Late in 2017, Derek worked on the debut season of ‘SMILF’ on Showtime. In 2018 he teamed up with director Henry Dunham and long time collaborator DP Jackson Hunt to created mood and texture for the TIFF Midnight Madness debut of ‘The Incident at Sparrow Creek’. In 2019, Derek collaborated with the hilarious directing/writing/acting duo of Dawn Luebbe and Jocelyn DeBoer to bring the surrealist horror of ‘Greener Grass’ to delighted Sundance viewers (now picked up by IFC.)
Derek got his start in color, in 2011, at MPC LA as assistant to Mark Gethin. Under Mark’s tutelage, he quickly developed into a young talent on the MPC roster. After leaving MPC, he spent a year building out and launching the color department for Velem (A Milk Studios Company) before joining The Mill LA in 2015. Derek spent the next 4 years honing his craft alongside Adam Scott before parting with The Mill in 2019.