Rob Hummel

Biography

Rob Hummel’s career has revolved around cinematography, film labs, film formats, film restoration, preservation, animation, post-production, digital cinema, visual effects, and stereoscopic 3-D. He has been an Associate member of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) since he was 32 and is a Life Fellow of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. He was the editor of the 8th edition (2002) of the American Cinematographer Manual and co-editor of the 11th edition (2022).

He started at Technicolor in 1979, working closely with filmmakers, where he oversaw dailies processing for all feature films and shepherded films in post-production up to answer print. He worked in post-production, animation and Imagineering at Walt Disney Studios, headed animation technology at DreamWorks and helped launch digital cinema units at Technicolor and Sony. During the 2006 restoration of Blade Runner, he single-handedly found the 65mm visual effects elements, which had been lost for over 20 years.

At Warner Bros. he oversaw digital restoration work on The Wizard of Oz, Casablanca and Gone With the Wind, among other titles. Hummel spearheaded tests and seminars on the pros and cons of different film formats.

He has served as chair and co-chair of the Public Programs Committee of the Academy’s Sci and Tech Council and served over 15 years on the Sci Tech Awards Committee. Rob has hosted several programs at the Academy on the history of Film Formats, Film Technology and 3D Stereoscopic Imaging, as well as given presentations in New York, London, Rome and Tokyo on the use of motion picture technologies in service of storytelling.