The Tao Colorist

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

The Business

• [Video] Interview: HBO's Co-President, 'Game of Thrones' and Online Piracy - An interview discussing HBO's online strategy of restricting online access of its content to its cable subscribers... and how it may be driving the massive amount of piracy for 'Game of Thrones'. (VideoNuze.com)

• Captioning System for IP Video - If you're a cable company in the US with over 50,000 subscribers, starting in July new rules require your top 5 programs offer Descriptive Video over internet streaming. This tough to read technical article explains the rules (sort of) and some of your options (I think). A plain English version of this article would be nice, if anyone has a link. (BroadcastEngineering.com via @smpteconnect)

• Larry Jordan: Why We Created Closed-Caption Training - An interesting piece on how they've captioned their training library... and the push-back they've gotten. I found a few comments very surprising. I say: Good job, Larry! (LarryJordan.biz)

• [Video] SMPTE: Who We Are - An image piece about SMPTE, its goals and achievements. I couldn't stop chuckling when, after saying SMPTE was born to end the proliferation of film standards in the early 1900's they tout approving 50 new standards in the past 12 months alone. I remember a time when all we had was PAL and NTSC. Have you checked the number of Easy Setups in most NLEs today? SMPTE, I think you've misplaced your mission!!! (YouTube.com)

• EBook Sales Surpass Hardcover for First Time in US - And adult eBooks sales grew 28% last year versus 2% for hardcover. (Mashable.com)

• Putting the 'B' Back in NAB - A nice overview of interesting broadcast-oriented products from April's NAB convention. (Magazine.CreativeCow.net)

• NFL Will Release the 'All 22' Footage - For decades the NFL restricted access to the 'All 22' camera, showing every player on the field for every down. Only teams and analysts had access to it. It's rumored coaches didn't want this footage released - afraid that fans would string them up once everyone could see how every play was constructed and executed. This season the NFL will be selling that footage as a Season Pass for hardcore fans. (blogs.wsj.com)

• Arri Cameras Survive the Digital Revolution - After some hubub from an industry publication poo-pooing Arri's ability to transition to digital cameras when compared to upstart RED, The Hollywood Reporter comes out with a nice piece on the inroads Arri has made, especially in episodic television where, for the past two seasons, 75% of network pilots were shot on the Alexa. (tv.yahoo.com)

• Sony Launches Next Generation 4K Digital Projector - Designed for small- to medium- sized auditoriums. It has a higher contrast ratio and uses six high-pressure mercury lamps. (ScreenDaily.com via NotesOnVideo.com)

• ESPN Plans Wall-to-Wall Digital Wimbelton - They'll be streaming over 800 hours of live on-demand programming, live... as in real-time. No tape delays. Except - not everyone will be able to get this programming. If you're a cord-cutter you'll be wishing for the days when NBC carried this event. Click through for all the details. (PaidContent.org)

Outside 'The Box'

• Producing: Business Plan As Storytelling - "Where the screenplay is the tale of the characters within a film, the business plan is the tale of your film as it makes its way through the world." Great post for anyone making a film. (LilithFilm.tumblr.com)

• The 22 Rules for Storytelling, According to Pixar - I think they should have focused on Rule #5 and applied it to this list. (io9.com)

• Into the Fire with FCPx - After using it on a few small personal projects, Oliver Peters finally jumps out of the frying pan and uses FCPx on a big corporate gig. What did he think and will he use FCPx again? Click through to find out. (DigitalFilms.Wordpress.com)

• [Video] Customizing Media Composer for FCP Editors - Variety of tricks to get started on Avid without having re-learn every little aspect of the keyboard and interface. (YouTube.com)

• Premiere Pro: To Transcode or Not To Transcode? - That is the question not so simply answered. (ScreenLight.tv)

• 10 Things FCP Editors Might Miss in Premiere Pro CS6 (ProVideoCoalition.com)

• How to Optimize Metadata for Your YouTube Business Video Ad - Did someone say Metadata? Philip Hodgetts... this is for you. (ReelSEO.com)

Edumacate Yer'self

• Mysteries of Color Correction, REVEALED! - If you're in LA this week, then hang with Steve Hullfish as he unlocks the mysteries of color grading in under an hour (if anyone can do it, Steve can). He's playing at the next Editor's Lounge meeting this coming Friday. RSVP required. (EditorsLounge.com)

• Post Production MasterClass - A day of presentations on the post process, including a session on the relationship between colorists and DPs. New York City. (Createasphere.com)

• Free Nucoda Training - Offered in their LA offices. (ColorGrader.net)

Cross Dressing

• How To Build A PC From Scratch, Part 1 - If you're considering building a Hackintosh, then learning how to build a PC is a good first step. In Part 1 we learn the basics of the hardware we need to consider purchasing. I'll be sharing Parts 2-5 over the next four issues. (LifeHacker.com)

• Build the MacPro You Wish Apple Had Released - This article selects each of the MacPros currently available and comes up with the equivalent parts for a PC Hackintosh to match or exceed its performance - for as little as 1/4th the price. (LifeHacker.com)

• How To Build A Hackintosh - This is No Film School's very extensive step-by-step guide to building a Hackintosh. Bookmark it. (NoFilmSchool.com)

• HP's 820 Tower RED Is What the MacPro Should Have Been - A custom version of HP's Z820 workstation, optimized for video post-production. (asia.cnet.com)

• Rain Computers: Element V2 - Up to 16 cores, 96 MB of Ram and tuned for video post-production. (RainComputers.com via @robbiecarman)

• ProMax ONE - Up to four boot drives, 6 removable 3.5" drives, lockable front grill, built-in LTO 4 or LTO 5 drives. This thing makes me want to cry. (ProMax.com)

• Looking At the ProMax ONE Hero - Walter Biscardi gets his hands on the ProMax ONE Hero, the high-end build of that machine. He makes quite a few good observations and shares with us some pricing. Good read. (Magazine.CreativeCow.net)

• Batch ProRes Encoding on Windows - This is NOT a replacement for apps like Avid, Resolve and Premiere rendering out to ProRes on Windows... which is why if (when) I switch to a PC workstation it'll be to run it as a Hackintosh. But if you need to get to ProRes on Windows 7, here are a few solutions. (indiev.org via @j_salvo)

Career

• Write Less, Say More: The Power of Brevity - Yeah. Guilty as charged. I need this. Click through to see brevity in action. (LifeHacker.com)

• Six Ways to Enhance Your Email Signature - Hmmm... I'm not sure how I feel about these apps. But they're something to consider. (Mashable.com via @tparish)

• 10 Steps to Becoming Super-Rich in Video Production - Step 1... there are no ten steps. I agree with most of the things in this post. But I don't agree with Step 3 that you need to take every gig that comes your way. But once you take a gig, Step 4 is *essential*. (PhilipBloom.net)

• 9 Tips on Breaking Into VFX - I really like: Get Ready to Continually Adapt (MovieLine.com via NoFilmSchool.net)

• Against Positive Thinking - If you're annoyed by the Positive Thinking crowd as a path to happiness then here's a book that says to faggetabouit... embrace uncertainty instead. (BrainPickings.org via @sandygautam)

Naval Gazing

• URL AI: Website Analysis - Following a post from Notes on Video about a website that tries to guess the gender and age of the writer and assigns a mood to the blog content, I ran the Tao of Color blog through their system. Checking back this week it has the Tao as last week's #1 most manly blog! Grrrrr-RAR! Click through to see the full analysis. (URLai.com)

Me Too Bruté?

• MobileMe Ends Soon - If you're an iDisk user you had best move all the contents off that virtual drive. Apple will be powering it down June 30. (Me.com)

A Step Too Far?

• SpaceBook - The world's first dual monitor laptop. It's real. It's shipping. And it was designed by a video editor. Of course. (SpliceVine.com)