About LightWave Media
LightWave Media is a Los Angeles production company founded in 2022 by cinematographer Joel E. Schaeffer and film producer Erin Gilchrist.
A production company that builds its own tools.
LightWave Media was founded in 2022 and works from Los Angeles. It does two things: production and post-production work for filmmakers, and software for the people who do that work. The two feed each other. Every dailies job and every color pipeline is a live test of the systems we build, and every improvement shows up on the next production.
- 2022Founded
- LABased in Los Angeles
- 2Founders: a cinematographer and a producer
- 3Applications in development
Two founders, one pipeline.
The same two people design the workflow, run it on set, and see the picture through the finish.
Joel E. Schaeffer
Co-founder & Cinematographer
Designs the pipeline, photographs the picture, and carries it through the grade.
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Erin Gilchrist
Co-founder & Film Producer
Builds the production around the image: the plan, the people, the money, the deliverables.
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Tools have no point of view. People do.
A point of view is the one thing a tool cannot supply. Technology adapts to people, never the reverse. Capability without humanity is extraction, and humanity without capability is sentiment. We build for both.
Follow the evidence
Cameras, stocks, and LUTs come with mythology. We isolate the variables, test, and trust what the audience actually sees.
Protect the picture
A look is a decision made on set. We make sure it survives every hand-off: dailies, editorial, conform, grade, delivery.
Subtract until it holds
The quiet frame carries more than the loud one. In photographs, in pipelines, and in software, we remove what does not belong before we add anything.
Amplify, never replace
Technology adapts to the person, never the reverse. Software carries the paperwork, the lookups, and the repetition, and lays out the options. Taste, judgment, and the final call stay with a person.