[TaoColorist] Sunday Morning Reading (Those Darn Taxes Edition)

Published: Sun, 10/16/11

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The Tao Colorist

Curated links of news, reviews, thoughts, career advice, and humor 
for professional Video / Film Colorists & Finishers. Delivered Sunday.
Issue LXVI                                                            Brought to you by: Tao of Color.com

The Craft

  • Primary Color Correction with Premiere Pro - A quickstart for grading in Premiere. (ProVideoCoalition.com)

The Tools

  • DaVinci Resolve 8.1 Released - It's getting commonplace now, DaVinci releases a 'minor update' packed with major features including: FCPx XML & Avid AAF Roundtrip Support, ACES Support (including Alexa and HDSLR presets), Layer Node composite effects, UltraStudio3D with Thunderbolt and Early 2011 15" MacBookPro support. More details in this Press Release. (Blackmagic-Design.com)
  • Magic Bullet Quick Looks: 20 Free Presets - NoFilmSchool.net has a link that'll get you 20 presets that were previously only available with the purchase of the paid version. (NoFilmSchool.net)
  • OS 10.7 & Red Giant: Happy Together At Last - With the latest 10.7.2 update, Red Giant's Suite of Apps should now run on Lion. They're still testing compatibility with FCPx. (RedGiantSoftware.com)
  • 5D-to-RGB Batch - This amazingly useful app (which can also be controlled via command-line) is now available for purchase and download in the Mac App store. And it supports many more HDSLRs than the Canon line. A free Lite version is still available. (itunes.apple.com via NotesOnVideo.blogspot.com)
 

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

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The Business

  • Animation Guild: Artists Paying All The Taxes - On their blog, the Animation Guild just discovered how some companies use Payroll services to avoid the Employer contribution of Federal Payroll taxes and pass it back to the 'freelancer'. While I agree there's some creative accounting going on here - as someone operating as an S Corp. I'm not exactly crying crocodile tears. There's a ton about employer expenses most employees never understand (and refuse to believe when explained to them). Which, as it relates to the American tax system, might help explain some of the appeal of 9 - 9 - 9. Simple - Simple - Simple. (AnimationGuildBlog.blogspot.com via @flowseeker)
  • Sony Boost HDCamSR Tape Production - It's Japanese facility is almost back to full production. (BroadcastingCable.com)
  • Kodak Going Bankrupt? Where Will Our Film Come From? - Vincent Laforet: "Each digital camera out there,  each sensor - will effectively become our future film stocks...   The RED Epic reacts to light differently than the Arri Alexa does - or the Sony F3, Panasonic AF100 or of course the Canon 5DMKII.   Each has its distinct pros and cons - whether due to image quality, dynamic range, sharpness, resolution, RAW codec or weight and size (not to mention price.)" (VincentLaForet.com)
  • Q&A With Automatic Duck About the Adobe 'Acquisition' - Scott Simmons asks The Duck for clarity on this recent announcement as well as the status of their website which has pulled all their products for sale. (ProVideoCoalition.com)
  • Hollywood's Digital Dilemma - Digital Technology has created a huge demand for 'more content' at a time when Hollywood is producing less of it. And the exacting DCI cinema standard is making it hard for smaller cinemas to break away from 35mm and move into digital exhibition. This post goes in-depth on the competing demands placed on creators, distributors and exhibitors - and how the equation changes depending on the country being considered. (DigitalCinemaReport.com)

Tools We Might Use

  • [Sneak Peek] Photoshop De-Blurring Image - At Adobe MAX 2011 they demo'ed an astounding de-blurring feature. Very impressive. (YouTube.com via @Company3)
  • ColorWiki - Neat. Collection of links concerning many things related to color management. (ColorWiki.com via @Company3)
  • The DAM Roadmap - Creatasphere has released a "DAM Roadmap" pdf on Digital Asset Management. It's almost free. (DAMRoadmap.com)

Outside The Box

  • Alexa High Speed Upgrade - A blog post with screen grabs of the options the upgrade enables. (NegativeSpaces.com)
  • Zacuto Great Camera Shootout - FilmmakerIQ has collected all three episodes of Zacuto's massive shootout, this year including a much wider range of cameras including 35mm film stock. You'll want to carve out some time for this... (FilmmakerIQ.com)
  • How To Share  Your Opinion On The Film Set (If Asked) - Some interesting thoughts on this topic. (TheBlackAndBlue.com)
  • How To Use Royalty Free Music Professionally On YouTube (ReelSEO.com)

Edumacate Yer'self

  • Boston SuperMeet - October 27, includes a vendor showcase and features Walter Murch as speaker. (SuperMeet.com)
  • Crazy Driving! Andrew Kramer offers tips for shooting car interiors on green screen. Lots of fun to watch. (Vimeo.com)
 
Current Colorist Control Surface Drivers
 JL Cooper Eclipse Avid Artist Color Tangent Wave

Software: v2.1.6

 Mac: v2.6.1

Software: v3.8

Color Plug-in: v 1.0.5
 PC: v2.6.1
Firmware: v1.9

Updated:
March 7

 Updated: August 9 Updated: Jan. 28(ish)
 
 Sunday Morning Fun(nies)
  • Post-MTV Marching Bands - What's it take to get almost 3 million YouTube views if you're a college marching band? Watch and find out. (YouTube.com via FilmmakerIQ.com)
  • Cheese or Font? - Following up on last week's Kerning Test here's a font-naming test: Is it the name of a font or a cheese? (FontOrCheese.com via kottke.org)
  • DIY Bloody Skull Latex Prosthetic - Just in time for Halloween! (FilmmakerIQ.com)
  • John Carpenter's THE THING: THE MUSICAL - Plus the musical version of Predators and Conan The Barbarian. Fair warning: The Thing gets gruesome and very very silly. (FilmmakerIQ.com)

Weekend Warrior

  • THX Certified TiVo Premiere Elite DVR - It has: Four digital tuners, two terabytes of recording, Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu Plus, Blockbuster On Demand, Pandora, Rhapsody, iPad / iPhone remote control, iPod / PSP media player transfer - all with FiOS support (whatever that means). Records 1080p with THX certified video compression algorithms to minimize macroblocking, mosquito noise, and de-interlacing / scaling noise. The only thing missing is the Redenbacher-Approved Ultra Premium Hyper-Buttery Popcorn Popper, Deluxe Edition. (THX.com)
  • Finding 'Tupperware in the Woods' - Got an iPhone? Then discover Geocaching to get out of the grading suite and into the sunlight. (SheboyganPress.com via @GaryPHayes)
  • What's the Best Way To Escape A High-Speed Chase? Here's the Cliff Notes: Don't. (Quora.com)

Gear Heads

  • Choosing A Solid State Drive for Recording Video - Not all drives are created equally. (blog.abelcine.com)

Working Smarter

  • [Study] Putting Emails Into Folders Is A Waste of Time - An IBM study concludes that those who search their emails are slightly faster than those who use folders. No word on those who use automated filing to help when search fails them. (tech.slashdot.org via @problogger)
  • The Secret To Working With Difficult People - It's more about you than them. Comments are lively. (blogs.hbr.org)
  • Stop Procrastinating Now - As a serial procrastinator (and someone working hard to change that early self-taught behavior) I can say there's some really good advice in here. (blogs.hbr.org)
  • 5 Steps to Breaking Through Your Filter - Find yourself in a professional rut? Maybe it's time to stop talking to, seeing, meeting, hanging with the same peeps. (blogs.hbr.org)

It's That Time Again (Follow Up)

  • New iPhone Conceals Sheer Magic - The New York Times review by David Pogue. (NYTimes.com)
  • Siri: As Revolutionary As the Mac - My wife says I'm talking to Siri more than I'm talking to her. She might be right. (But now I'm waiting for the feature upgrade to change the Siri voice to HAL.) (blogs.hbr.org)
  • Speed Test: iPhone 4 vs iPhone 4S - Is the new version really that much faster??? (BareFeats.com)
  • Apple's WorldPhone Isn't Global for Customers - The iPhone 4S' hybrid GSM / CDMA doesn't seem to be targeted at its customers. It seems mostly designed to simplify production lines and make it easier to sell to carriers. Why? Because most customers won't be able to use the iPhone 4S as an actual worldphone. (Tidbits.com)
 
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iOS 5

  • [Video] Everything You Need to Know About iOS5 in Seven Minutes - I picked up a few tips in this video. (LifeHacker.com)
  • iCloud: Just Remember The Small Print - If you buy it and don't back it up... you might lose it. (NotesOnVideo.blogspot.com)
  • How to Get A Siri-Like Personal Assistant On Your Android Phone - For Free. (LifeHacker.com)
  • iOS 5: Is WiFi Syncing Worth It? Explores if the speed hit is worth 'losing the cable'. (LifeHacker.com)

A Few More Thoughts

  • Why Jobs Is No Edison - A very well reasoned and articulate response to the 'Jobs Was Modern Edison' meme. (American.com via @the99percent)
  • Woz Talks About Jobs - Including about how Jobs screwed him out of their Atari money and Woz didn't care. (Kottke.org)
  • Steve: Bringing out the best and worst of us - Last week I didn't link to an awfully timed anti-eulogy of Steve Jobs on the Gawker website. It was tasteless, classless and clueless. Ken Segall also decided to take on the central premise of the article - that Jobs didn't do anything but solve (over-used Twitter hashtag) #FirstWorldProblems. It's a good read. (KenSegall.com)
 
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