Engineer Daniel Rosen sometimes can’t believe he works in Hollywood. The Phoenix native is astounded when he thinks of his encounters with show business celebrities – like the time his “Godfather” impressions made director Francis Ford Coppola laugh.

“People who grow up in Phoenix don’t get to do those things,” Rosen said. “It’s a great town, but this just doesn’t happen.”

A longtime cinephile, Rosen jumped at the opportunity in 1995 to leave a career in aerospace engineering for a position syncing the computer and software systems at the newly founded DreamWorks movie studio.

Nearly 15 years later, Rosen is stepping into a new role, overseeing international technical operations for visual effects and postproduction company Prime Focus. As international chief technology officer in the Hollywood office, Rosen makes sure the company’s computer systems in North America, the United Kingdom and India all work together.

“My charter is to help us execute on our world sourcing vision,” he said. “This whole global demand for content is becoming more of an integrated market.”

Rosen’s duties include making sure that films shot in one country can be accessed and edited in another, and that the entire process runs smoothly.

He first became interested in computer technology when he watched 1968 sci-fi classic “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

“There was line-drawn animation on the computer screen of an antenna spinning around,” he said. “I thought that was the most amazing thing. If I could get a computer to draw like that, it would be the highlight of my life.”

He went on to study mathematics at Claremont Men’s College, now Claremont-McKenna, before most schools offered a degree in computer science. But his love of film drew him to classes where he studied science-fiction and horror movies.

“Even then, in the back of my head, I knew there must be a way for technology to be applied to film,” Rosen said.

Rosen, 54, lives with his wife, Judith, and three children in Thousand Oaks. In his spare time, he sits on an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences committee that studies the industry’s progression into digital filmmaking; he also helps out with his son’s Boy Scout troop.