The Tao Colorist

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

The Business

• Avid Sells Pinnacle, Studio Product Lines - After suffering significant sales losses in its Consumer division, Avid cuts those products loose. (Cinescopophilia.com)

• Analysis of Avid's Latest Moves - Philip Hodgetts takes a turn at examining the numbers of Avid's fire sale - but no predictions. Always fun to read the comments. (PhilipHodgetts.com)

• TV Isn't Dead, Dying or Needs to be Saved - An analysis of the numbers showing cable providers are as strong as ever. And all those blogs and articles saying otherwise? Bloviating for page counts. (blog.streamingmedia.com)

• Netflix Just Became Cable's Biggest TV Network - Or meta-network. U.S. subscribers watched 1 billion hours in June. (Gigaom.com)

• Scorcese to Abandon Film to Shoot Digitally - Hugo was Scorcese's first digitally shot film. But his next film is the first 2D film he'll shoot digitally. Thelma Shoomaker (his editor) said, "It's just impossible to fight it anymore, the collapse of film". (independent.co.uk)

Outside 'The Box'

• Screenwriting: How Deep Research Makes Your Film More Believable  - How digging deep into the choices of your characters adds richness to your writing. It worked for Kubrick. (LilithFilm.tumblr.com)

• White Paper: RED Workflows for FCP X - Advocates using RedCine-X Pro to generate ProRes Proxies for editorial. Then relink back to the R3Ds for color grading. Outlines the process step-by-step. (support.apple.com)

• Lightworks Video Tutorial - This series covers the basics from ingest to editorial to export. (lwks.com)

• Continuing Tales of an FCP Switcher - The convoluted workflow of adapting Premiere Pro for a broadcast series. (BiscardiCreative.com)

Edumacate Yer'self

• Revenge of the Great Camera Shootout: Part 1 - At about 18 minutes in are the camera tests themselves. But that's not what this video is about. This beautifully styled film is about the craftsman. Something fans of camera shootouts often fail to remember. (Vimeo.com)

• Demystifying the Avid Import Settings: Part 1 - These settings give people all sorts of hurt. (PremiumBeat.com)

• User Report: BlackMagic Digital Cinema Camera - At a recent meet and greet in California, Blackmagic showed up with their new camera and some folks got hands-on time with the camera that was previewed at NAB. Here's the write-up. (BMCUser.com)

• Smoke Training Dot Com - A website dedicated to learning Autodesk Smoke. Has a bunch of free tutorials and other Smoke-related tidbits. (Smoke-Training.com)

• Film Apprenticeships: Dead? Or Reinvented - I'll go with... reinvented. (MasteringFilm.com)     

Sunday Fun(nies)

• Netflix's Secret Cult Hit - Similar to the reviews on Amazon of 'Tuscan Whole Milk', Netflix has a series of dummy TV Shows that 3rd parties can use to troubleshoot issues with integrating Netflix's API. End users have been stumbling on these and leaving incisive and bleeding comments. (Gigaom.com)

• The Robot That Always Wins Rock/Paper/Scissors - Spoiler alert... The robot cheats. (Kottke.org)

• Birds With Arms - Freakin' brilliant. With a dash of disturbing. (Kottke.org)

• The Counter-intuitive Physics of a Slinky - Combine high-speed photography, a Slinky, a physics nerd and YouTube... this is what results. Give it 5 minutes. (YouTube.com via @NiceShoesOnline)

• The Most Amazing Bowling Story Ever Told - A fantastic - and well written - story about a man who came one pin short of a bowling feat only 21 people have ever accomplished. (DMagazine.com)

• [Video] Mercedes Vs. Golf Ball - Fun and Funny. A Formula 1 legend attempts a World Record: The farthest golf shot caught in a moving car. Here's the complication: They both leave the tee at the same time. (YouTube.com)

• [Infographic] The Psychology of Color: For Painting Your House (NowSourcing.com via Marcin Zwolski)

Weekend Warriors

• Westinghouse Shows Off 4K TV - For release in 2013. (Reviews.cnet.com) 

• 4K TV: They Coming to the Home - The only problem, there's no content. Oh - and you need to sit 5 feet away to see the benefit of a 55-inch 4K TV, compared to 8 feet for 1080p. (ArsTechnica.com)

• Hands On: Sharp 90" LED LCD TV - At 1080p you need to sit over 10 feet away. Any closer and the image doesn't hold up. (TheVerge.com)

• Midyear Report Card: Best TVs of 2012 - Panasonic takes four of the top five spots. (reviews.cnet.com)

• DirectTV Pulls Plug on 24-Hour 3D Channel (423Digital.wordpress.com)

Gear Heads

• [Benchmarking] 2012 Retina MacBookPro - Is it time to trade in your MacPro for a MacBookPro? (BareFeats.com)

• Retina MacBookPro Screen Settings - Apple creates an extensive Q&A for owners who are confused by the displays different settings. (MacWorld.co.uk)

• Why Now Is A Great Time to Buy A SSD - The prices of some Solid State Drives have dropped 65% since last year. (LifeHacker.com)

• Thunderbolt Tools for Filmmakers and Editors - From hard drives to cameras to I/O devices and more. A very nice roundup. (blog.abelcine.com)

• [Benchmarking] What's the Fastest Mac for After Effect's GPU Acceleration? (BareFeats.com)

Cross Dressing

• How To Build A Computer From Scratch, Part 2: Choose and Buy Your Parts - Looking to build a Hackintosh, then first you've got to know the components of a PC. (LifeHacker.com)

• The OS86 Project - A wiki for all things Hackintosh. (wiki.os86project.org)

• The Switch: Jumping from Mac to PC Hardware, Safely - Why make the switch? This piece makes the case. This article was sponsored by HP - but there's still good info in here. (ProVideoCoalition.com)

• [Review] Corsair Hydro Series: Keep Your PC Silent and Water-Cooled (LifeHacker.com)

Career

• Build Better Habits with A Mind Map - This is a very interesting idea. (LifeHacker.com)

• How To Use Preview In OS X Lion to Digitally Sign Documents - Uses a FaceTime camera to record your signature and insert it into a document. (howto.cnet.com)

• The Art of Getting Paid - A "back-and-forth [that] touched on lots of moolah-related topics, including where the money is, how to make smart sacrifices, and what self-promotion skills come in handy as you try to drum up dollars." It's a bit long. Features an interview with long-time Tao supporter, Ryan Koo. (Vimeo.com)

• How To Beat Inertia - Great advice on baby steps. (psychotactics.com)

• Becoming A Specialist vs Hack of All Trades - You don't need to ask where I fall on this question, do you? (WideOpenCamera.com via NotesOnVideo.com)

The Next Step Is A Doozy

• 4DX: Here Come the Feelies - Because 3D just isn't cutting it anymore. (BFI.org.uk via @quantel)

A Step Too Far?

• Madonna Has A DNA Sterilization Team - They sweep her dressing rooms after concerts. Cause, you know, it's the fans who are nuts! (kottke.org)