Beverly Wood is a film chemist from

Chase City, Virginia Chase City is a town in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, United States. Chase City was incorporated in 1873 and named for Salmon P. Chase, United States Chief Justice and Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury. The population was 2,053 at the 2020 ce ...

. Wood worked as a post production editor and a designer of the two film processing technologies: Color Contrasting Enhancement (CCE) and Adjustable Contrast Enhancement (ACE). These technological innovations of film Wood contributed to are seen in modern film production to this day.

Early life and education

Wood was born in 1956 in Chase City, Virginia, the child of Arnold Garrett Wood and Lillian Wood. Her father was the first African-American bank teller in Chase City. Motivated by her family, Wood pursued education throughout her youth and early adulthood. She attended the

University of Mary Washington University of Mary Washington (UMW) is a public liberal arts university in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Established in 1908 as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Fredericksburg, the institution later became known as Fredericksbu ...

for three years as an undergraduate, then spent one year at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

, before attending the

University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...

, graduating with a masters in Chemistry.

Career

Wood worked several summer jobs at various companies while at school, such as Phil Morris and

DuPont Dupont, DuPont, Du Pont, duPont, or du Pont may refer to: People * Dupont (surname) Dupont, also spelled as DuPont, duPont, Du Pont, or du Pont is a French surname meaning "of the bridge", historically indicating that the holder of the surname re ...

. Eventually, after leaving the University of Georgia, Wood worked at

Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company, referred to simply as Kodak (), is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in film photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorporated i ...

as the head of film restoration in their R&D department, utilizing her research from University of Georgia as a graduate, to work on

Gas Chromatography Gas chromatography (GC) is a common type of chromatography used in analytical chemistry for Separation process, separating and analyzing compounds that can be vaporized without Chemical decomposition, decomposition. Typical uses of GC include t ...

. Wood then move jobs, working under MGM as the director of engineering their film lab Metrocolor. After the Metrocolor lab under MGM was closed, Wood moved to Los Angeles to work under Deluxe Laboratories as a post-production film editor using chemical processes to add a visual color change to it. Wood had worked on the film ''Seven'', which would give her notoriety of her work, Wood even working directly with some directors on the post production, such as Quentin Tarantino, Ron Howard and the Coen brothers. Wood continued working with Deluxe Laboratories, eventually being appointed as the vice president of technical services. Wood’s work at Deluxe would culminate in her contributing to the technologies of Color Contrasting Enhancement (CCE) and Adjustable Contrast Enhancement (ACE) on film. The two technologies opened a new means for visual film media to be processed and expressed. The techniques derived from these new technologies are seen being utilized in movies such as ''Seven'', ''

O Brother, Where Art Thou? ''O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' is a 2000 satirical comedy-drama musical film written, produced, co-edited, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. It stars George Clooney, John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson, with Charles Durning, Michael Bad ...

'', and ''

Skyfall ''Skyfall'' is a 2012 spy thriller film and the twenty-third in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions. The film is the third to star Daniel Craig as fictional MI6 agent James Bond and features Javier Bardem as Raoul Silva, ...

''. Wood's work as a post production editor garnered her the Natalie M. and Herbert T. Kalmus Medal from the

Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) (, rarely ), founded by Charles Francis Jenkins in 1916 as the Society of Motion Picture Engineers or SMPE, is a global professional association of engineers, technologists, and e ...

in 2020, an award dedicated to those making scientific contributions to filmmaking.

Theater restoration project (2016-2017)

Around the years 2016-2017, Wood would start a project of restoring a local theater, the “Mecca Movie House”, a historic landmark for the town, in her hometown of Chase City, Virginia, that had been since abandoned. Wood’s aim was to convert the rundown theater into a local community center that focused primarily on teaching the history and processes of filmmaking to the community. The renovation was funded by both donations as well various grants provided to the SOH from other types of preservation organizations.

Achievements and awards

* Natalie M. and Herbert T. Kalmus Medal in 2020

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, Beverly 1956 births African-American chemists 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American women American film people Living people