[TaoColorist] Sunday Morning Reading (Pimp That Van Edition)
Published: Sun, 04/29/12
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The Tao Colorist
for professional Video / Film Colorists & Finishers. Delivered Sunday.
Issue LXXXVIII Brought to you by: Tao of Color.com
The Craft
- Do You Feel Lucky, Punk? - A color grading workflow breakdown by colorist Jack Jones on a recent short film. Shot on RED, graded on Film Master, DCP delivery. (JackJonesColourist.com)
- 21 JumpStreet: Getting the Color Right - A discussion of the look of this new 'playing-it-straight' comedic feature film. (StudioDaily.com)
- A Brief History for Colorists - Colorist Kevin Shaw has updated his timeline of cinema from a color grading perspective. Interesting tidbits including: the world's first photograph, George Eastman's demise, the introduction of soft-edged windows on telecine (FinalColor.com)
- [Video] ProLooks PowerGrades for DaVinci Resolve - A set of useful PowerGrades by Bob Sliga. This video shows what they are and how to use them. Resolve 8 makes these a bit unwieldy to use. Resolve 9 will make these types of PowerGrade Presets very easy to organize and immensely more useful. Note: The current payment system as outlined in this video's notes is a bit unwieldy but entirely legit. What else would you expect from a colorist? It took me months to figure out how to sell my training online. I'm comfortable saying Sliga is a guy you can trust. (YouTube.com)
The Tools
- [Forum] DaVinci Resolve 9 Highlights - A list of the 64 major new features in DaVinci Resolve 9. It's expected to ship in July and will be a free upgrade to all users. (LiftGammaGain.com)
- ScratchLab for Dailies: Self-Paced Training Tutorials - From the Assimilate Store. Then download the free trial and get up to speed. (Store.AssimilateInc.com)
- [Forum] Smoke 2013: A User's Perspective - So what does a current Smoke user think of the new version unveiled at NAB? And is Smoke a color grading tool equivalent to Resolve, Baselight, et al? Click through to this post by Hillary Knox on LiftGammaGain. Also, the first post of the thread is a great collection of Smoke 2013 links. If you're 'jonesing' for more Smoke details, this is the place to get it. (LiftGammaGain.com)
- Sign Up for the Smoke 2013 Pre-Release Trial - The trial won't be available until June but sign up now to get on the list and be alerted when it happens. (usa.autodesk.com)
- Avid Adds New EuConn Partners - The Avid Artist series of hardware control surfaces has added a few new apps that support it, including Digital Vision's Phoenix and Pomfort's LiveGrade. (BTLNews.com)
- [iApp] Media Inspector for Mac - A multimedia file analyzer for the Mac's Finder. It runs as a system-wide service for on-demand usage. $2.99US on the App Store. (MediaInspector.Massanti.com via SpliceVine.com)
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
Flanders Scientific Broadcast Monitors
The LM-2461W is an affordable 24" color critical reference monitor featuring 10bit color depth, 3G/HD/SD-SDI Inputs, 12 onboard scopes, and DCI P3 support. All standard and all for just $4,995.
Learn More About the LM-2461W
The Business
- The SMPTE ACES Specification - It's been published. (store.smpte.org via @smpteconnect)
- Amazon Studios - This newsletter has been following this story for a while. After a long wait, Amazon has finally revised their terms for screenwriters. More Hollywood, less scam plus they're now a WGA signatory. (NoFilmSchool.com)
- [Infographic] R.I.P DVDs - This year more movies will be watched online than all other physical media combined. And while DVD sales are dropping quickly, BluRay rentals are climbing. (theDegree360.onlineDegrees.com via @onerivermedia)
- Documentary Filmmaking Is NOT A Hobby - The Internal Revenue Service has lost its case against a documentary filmmaker. The IRS tried to prove documentary filmmaking was a hobby since the genre rarely makes money and filmmakers rarely have expectations of turning a profit. (FilmmakerMagazine.com via @cinemakinoeye)
- Movie Studios Are Forcing Hollywood to Abandon 35mm Film - A lament that the distribution business is a'changing. While I feel the pain of everyone interviewed in this piece... all I can think is, "Welcome to 2012." The only sure thing? Nothing is assured. (LAWeekly.com via @editadam)
NAB 2012: Rearview Mirror
- [Video] Demo: BaseLight on Avid Media Composer - A good overview of the workflow. It's an impressive plug-in. (YouTube.com)
- An Unexpected Journey - Shane Ross of Little Frog In High Def takes us on a tour of South Hall, hitting the three four A's (Adobe, Avid, Apple and... well, you'll have to watch to discover the fourth A). (Vimeo.com via Craig Sommerer)
- NAB 2012 Winners and Losers - My new bud Scott Simmons has a good roundup of vendors that were buzzing and vendors that were snoozing. His biggest loser? Editors. Click through to find out. (StudioDaily.com)
- Technicolor's CineLooks - A simple stand-alone color grading app from Technicolor. It's big feature is the bundled 'CineLooks' package that simulates historical Technicolor processes. (ProVideoCoalition.com)
- [Video] Smoke 2013: Tutorials - Autodesk has created a Smoke 2013 YouTube Learning Channel. Bookmark this to keep updated on the latest tutorials. (YouTube.com)
- BlackMagic Cinema Camera: News & Info - Enough info on the Cinema Camera to keep you busy for hours... including JPGs from some test footage. (DVXUser.com via @ywwg)
- NAB 2012: BlackMagic, Adobe and a Shiny Pimpin' Van - Most of this round-up is typical of the 2012 coverage we've been reading. But that Van does get close to a secret desire of mine: To sell my house and retro-fit an RV as a mobile color grading suite. (FilmmakerIQ.com)
- SMAC: Stu Maschwitz on Smoke 2013 - Written in 2008. Amazing how relevant this post is 4 years later. My guess? It'll have to be revised after the next NAB. (prolost.com via @5tu)
Outside 'The Box'
- GoPro Hero HD2: Technicolor Cinestyle - In a firmware update later this summer, GoPro cameras will have a Cinestyle 'flat' color profile available. (Cinescopophilia.com)
- LightWorks Is Back - On Windows. No word on the Mac version - which was supposed to go in beta back in November. Maybe they're waiting for the now-mythical MacPro update like the rest of us? (LightWorksBeta.com)
- iPhone Artistry - A 2-hour seminar from B&H Photo on using the iPhone and iPad as photographic tools. (YouTube.com)
| JL Cooper Eclipse | Avid Artist Color | Tangent |
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Software: v2.7b2 |
Mac: v2.6.2 |
Software: v3.8 HUB v1.0 |
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Color Plug-in: v 1.0.5 |
PC: v2.6.2 |
Firmware: v1.9 |
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Updated: |
Updated: October 20 | Updated: Feb. 7(ish) |
Sunday Morning Fun(nies)
- The Worst Baseball Card Photos of All-Time - Seriously. What were some of these athletes thinking? And why is this story in the Daily Mail? Don't kids trade Cricket cards over there??? Or did all my British friends throw dice against the wall all summer long like in some Oliver Twist story? Just wondering . . . and yes - I'm being sarcastic. (dailymail.co.uk)
- [InfoGraphic] Where & When Do Most People Lose Their iPhones? Including Niagra Falls, New Years Eve and the city in which you're most likely to lose an iPhone. Personally, I find it hard to believe that the average Seattle iPhone owner loses their phone twice a year. Really? Twice a year every year? (Mashable.com)
- [Video] Following Joe - Cool skateboard video. And if you're looking for ideas on what to shoot if you want to practice cutting on action... look no further. (ChrisFenwick.com)
- [Video] Color Wheel - A quickie that purports to test your knowledge of films via their color palettes. It might do that... if you turn off the audio. Good visuals, though. (Vimeo.com via FilmMakerIQ.com)
- [Video] Axis of Awesome: 4 Chords - 44 songs. 6 Minutes. 4 Chords. The Tao Treasurer didn't much care for this. But Simon Walker (trainer, frequent Red Giant Software contributor, and NAB 2012 dinner-mate) says it's awesome. With over 5 million views it's either really good or really cheesy. I report. You decide. (YouTube.com via Simon Walker (after a drink or three) )
- [Video] What A Year On Earth Really Looks Like - Or rather... many years. Nifty animation. (wimp.com via Tao Treasurer)
- [Photo] NAB 2012: Ooops! - That's me on the left. Alexis Van Hurkman being mature. Robbie Carman took and tweeted the photo. And the rest of the boyz are Team Flanders Scientific. Good times. (Twitter.com)
Weekend Warriors
- Souping Up Your MacPro - "How would you like a screaming internal storage unit for your Mac Pro that requires no cables, no special mounting sled, doesn't take up a drive bay, and can boot OS X? Then you will want to know about Accelsior, a brand new 6Gb/s SSD PCIe card from Other World Computing." (BareFeats.com)
- When Should I Upgrade My Home Theater Projector? - How fast has the technology progressed over the past few years? (reviews.cnet.com)
- The Latest Vision of HDTVs Comes From
Apple... er, IKEA - Cleaning up the clutter. (ReadWriteWeb.com via @tparish)
Grade a short. Learn a Craft. Early Bird Special Ends In 1 Week
Color Grading MasterClass: DaVinci Resolve
Workflow + Technique + Interface Training
DaVinci Resolve, DaVinci Resolve Lite : Mac & Windows!
Also available: Colorista II | Apple Color | FCP 7
Gear Heads
- Just How Good Is the iPad's Color? Test measurements from a Photo Research PR-650 Colorimeter. (fxPhd.com)
Your Career
- How Introverts Can Become Better Innovators (blogs.hbr.org)
Tweet of the Week
"Greatest new term invented by @kanendosei. "FrienDA". NDA amongst friends."
via @comebackshane
Th- Th- That's ALL Folks! See you next week. Happy Grading!
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Curated + Edited by: Patrick Inhofer, photon-wrangler & founder, TaoOfColor.com
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