Duane Katz

Duane Katz is an electrician and lighting and rigging technician for film and television. He was a rigging technician on, though he did not receive credit for his work. More recently, he was a lighting technician on, produced and directed by J.J. Abrams.

Katz is a 1983 graduate of Santa Monica High School in Santa Monica, California. In addition to film and television, he has also worked on music videos and commercials.

Early in his career, Katz was a lighting technician for cinematographer Hiro Narita on the 1993 Disney film Hocus Pocus, which featured Michael McGrady and Charles Rocket. His other early film credits include Bound by Honor (featuring Carlos Carrasco, Raymond Cruz, Mike Genovese, Natalia Nogulich, Tom Towles, and an uncredited Roxann Dawson) and Sister Act (starring Whoopi Goldberg and featuring Jim Beaver, Ellen Albertini Dow, Max Grodénchik, and Jeremy Roberts).

After Sister Act, Katz reunited with that film's director of photography, Adam Greenberg, for the films Dave (starring Frank Langella and featuring Parley Baer, Stefan Gierasch, and Stephen Root), North (starring Jason Alexander and featuring Rosalind Chao and Keone Young), and Rush Hour (featuring Tzi Ma and Mark Rolston). Katz later worked with visual effects photographer Robert Elswit when the latter directed photography on the 2002 science fiction film Impostor'', which featuring Golden Brooks, Brian Brophy, Rosalind Chao, Maury Sterling, Tracey Walter, and Clarence Williams III. Katz and Elswit again collaborated on the 2008 film Redbelt.

In addition, Katz was a rigging or lighting technician on such films as Toys (which had set decoration by Linda DeScenna), What's Love Got to Do with It (featuring Penny Johnson), City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Ghost (featuring Noble Willingham), The Crossing Guard (featuring John Savage), Mr. Wrong (featuring John Cothran, Jr., Brad William Henke, Camille Saviola, and Dean Stockwell), and Last Man Standing (featuring Ken Jenkins, Patrick Kilpatrick, Jimmy Ortega, and Tiny Ron). He was also a lighting technician for the second unit of Paramount Pictures' Academy Award-winning film Titanic, which starred David Warner.

More recently, Katz worked on films such as The Replacement Killers (starring Clifton Collins, Jr. and Patrick Kilpatrick), The X-Files (directed by Rob Bowman and featuring Terry O'Quinn, George Murdock, Michael Shamus Wiles, and Michael Krawic), Godzilla (featuring Clyde Kusatsu and Glenn Morshower, with art direction by William Ladd Skinner and Robert Woodruff), Bowfinger (starring Eddie Murphy and featuring John Cho), Enough (starring Billy Campbell and featuring Bill Cobbs, Bruce French, Jeff Kober), and Kicking & Screaming (featuring Musetta Vander, David Bowe, Tom Virtue, and Matt Winston).

For television, Katz was a lighting technician and dimmer board operator for the first two seasons the HBO western series Deadwood, whose cast included such Star Trek alumni as Jim Beaver, Brad Dourif, Paula Malcomson, Leon Rippy, and Titus Welliver. He then became a lighting console programmer on NBC's drama series Las Vegas, which stars Nikki Cox.