A system that adjusts chroma and luma values for a video signal is presented. During operation, the system receives a matrix of coefficients, which when applied to the chroma values and the luma values of a video signal produces substantially the same result as performing a sequence of discrete operations on the chroma values and the luma values, wherein the sequence of discrete operations includes one or more color-representation-conversion operations and one or more processing amplifier operations. For a given pixel of the video signal, the system performs a matrix-multiplication operation between a matrix representation of the chroma values and the luma values for the given pixel and the matrix of coefficients to produce a modified pixel.