[TaoColorist] Sunday Morning Reading (Stupid Stuntman Edition)

Published: Sun, 06/10/12

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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 XCIV                                                           Brought to you by: Tao of Color.com
 

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The Craft

  • [Forum] Building a Low Cost Grading System - A discussion thread that's really about low-cost monitoring... and one person's struggle to find a professional cheap grading monitor. This is getting to be a tiresome meme. Whattaya think: Time to write a blog post addressing this? (CreativeCow.net)
  • [Podcast] Colors - I've had this link sent to me a few times and I keep forgetting to listen to it. But enough of you have sent it, I'm passing it forward. It's a podcast devoted to understanding color and its impact on human perceptions and emotion. (RadioLab.org via many Tao Colorist Readers)
  • The Beauty of ACES - Head over to Kevin Shaw's website and download the first PDF on the left of the page. It's a serious explanation of the ACES standard, its objectives and how those objectives are being reached. (FinalColor.com)

The Tools

  • [Video] Demo: Resolve 9 Live - This is an excellent recording from the FCP Montreal User Group previewing the upcoming DaVinci Resolve 9. Most Tao Colorist Newsletter readers will know this is a huge overhaul of the user interface. Alexis Van Hurkman takes us through many of the new features in this 20 minute presentation. There's also stuff in here for those of you unfamiliar with Davinci Resolve. (VanHurkman.com) 
  • [Review] Tangent Element: One Month Later - Colorist Alexis Van Hurkman has been using the Tangent Element for the past month, just so he could write this review for all of you. It's a good overview filled with interesting tidbits. (VanHurkman.com)
  • [Video] Overview of the Baselight Grade File - This video shows the new BLG file format that allows a Baselight grade to be passed between Baselight and other apps, such as Avid and Nuke. It's saved out as an Open EXR file that itself shows the grade right from the Finder level in a very nifty manner. (Filmlight.ltd.uk)
  • Avid Patch Updates: Stay Informed - Want to know ASAP when Avid releases a patch to one of its Pro Apps? Visit this page and 'Subscribe'. (avid.force.com)
  • An Interview with Divergent Media - How does someone decide to create a better software scope? This interview with the creator of ScopeBox shows how needs get filled. (Splicevine.com)
  • [App] DupeGuru - Do you tend to have multiple copies of the exact same file on your hard drives. This app will identify and allow you manage those files. (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

  • What Should HBO Cost Without A Subscription? - One man asks people to Tweet how much they'd pay for HBO GO on the iPad, without having to subscribe through a cable provider? Click through to find out if that number is higher or lower than the per-subscriber fee HBO currently gets from cable companies. (ReelSEO.com)
  • What Are You Paying For When You Buy TV? - Cable companies used to provide us choice - as we moved from 4 channels to 400. But with a world awash in content what are cable companies now providing? Maybe their game isn't about choice anymore... maybe it's about something else... (Gigaom.com)
  • TiVo's New iPad Video Downloader - Take your DVR with you on the road. (VideoNuze.com)
  • How Netflix Really Did Save The CW - For international readers, CW is best explained as a wanna-be Broadcast Network that's still trying to find its identity here in the US - though they seem to be settling on the teenage angst crowd. (PaidContent.org)
  • Content Has Never Been A Profit Center - Philip Hodgetts points us to an interesting article on how television has never relied on content for profits. (PhilipHodgetts.com)
  • Band Publicly Refuses to Pay Photographer, Leads to FaceBook Firestorm - Artist vs Artist (PetaPixel.com)
  • Product Placement - With funding so hard to raise, product placement is a source of revenue that filmmakers can't ignore. But it's very tricky to execute without being a total corporate shill. Here's a blog post on how one director is struggling with this issue. (lilithfilm.tumblr.com)
  • Apple ID Horror Story - If you're a Mac-based creative who is using OS X's built-in apps to manage your business (iCal, Mail, etc) and uses their cloud-based services to sync that data between your devices... you might want to think again. AppleID may turn out to be one of Apple's most poorly executed ideas ever. (TidBits.com)

Outside The Box

  • [Video] LED Lights & Scan Lines - LED lights often list 'flicker-free' as one of their selling points. Jem Schofield proves that may not be entirely true. (theC47.com)
  • Using RC Helicopters to Fly Your Camera Part 2 - An interesting discussion about the craft of flying cameras. (FilmmakerMagazine.com)
 
Current Colorist Control Surface Drivers
 JL Cooper Eclipse Avid Artist Color Tangent

Software: v2.7b2

 Mac: v2.6.2

Software: v3.8

HUB v1.0

Color Plug-in: v 1.0.5
 PC: v2.6.2
Firmware: v1.9

Updated:
March 12

 Updated: October 20 Updated: Feb. 7(ish)
 
 

Sunday Morning Fun(nies)

  • [Video] World's First (Successfully Intentional) Parachute-Free Landing - Or world's dumbest stuntman. Both titles work. (YouTube.com via @JonnyTheNash)
  • [Video] Winners of the Vimeo 2012 Awards - If you feel like watching a few films. (PhilipBloom.net)
  • Seeing Fashion History: Reducing 130 Years of Vogue into Colors - Using the magazines cover photos. (FastcoDesign.com)
  • Photographs of East Germany, Decades Apart - Great project. (PetaPixel.com)
  • [Video] Rare Footage of Star Wars Episode IV - A silent documentary shot on Super 8. Weird seeing all those R2 units sitting there. (ReelSEO.com)
  • The Onion Mocks Tide with Fake Viral Ad, Tide Responds - By creating the fake ad. Though it doesn't seem to be going viral. (ReelSEO.com)

Weekend Warriors

  • Active Vs. Passive 3D: Which Is Better - Great explanation of the tradeoffs between the technologies. (reviews.cnet.com)
  • This Is How You Should Secure Your iPhone - Get away from the simple 4-digit entry screen and enable your iPhone's any-digit-length passcode. Makes it much harder to guess. (LifeHacker.com)
  • [App] NetSpot: Create a Visual Map of Your WiFi Network - Helps find dead spots in your wireless network. (SpliceVine.com)

Gear Heads

  • [Rumors] MacPro to Surface This Week - At the WWDC. This post is a roundup of the various rumors. It'll be interesting to see what Apple unveils. MacPro or iMacPro or MacMiniPro? (SpliceNow.com)
  • After Effects Benchmarking 2012: Sad MacPro - I will be very happy when I can put these stories out for pasture. (blog.RampantDesignStudios.com)
  • [Review] Thunderbolt 'Bridge': LaCie eSata Hub - How fast is this LaCie eSata-to-Thunderbolt hub? (BareFeats.com)
  • The First Transmitted 8K Should-mounted Camera - You've seen this before at trade shows. But this is the smallest form factor anyone has seen for a transmitting camera. (cinescophilia.com)     
  
Grade a short.          Go Beyond the Buttons.            Learn a Craft.

Color Grading MasterClass: DaVinci Resolve

Workflow + Technique + Interface Training

DaVinci Resolve, DaVinci Resolve Lite : Mac & Windows!
Also available: Colorista II | Apple Color | FCP 7
 

Your Career

  • How To Get Over the 'I Suck' Barrier When Learning A New Skill (LifeHacker.com)
  • Dancing on the Edge of Finished - In the analog world, there were actually moments of time where we could look at our desk, In Box, Memos and say, "I'm done." Not so much anymore. Seth Godin suggests the attitude that'll keep you sane. (SethGodin.typepad.com)
  • How To Hide Your Tweets from Google - Tweeted something out you don't want to show up in a Google search of your name? Here's how to clean up your image. (LifeHacker.com)
  • Boost Your Creativity By Improving Your Working Memory - What is a 'working memory' and why should you nurture it? It may be worth your time to find out. (LifeHacker.com)

Tweet of the Week

Winners are those who develop the habit of doing the things that losers don't like to do and they do them over and over again. (via @motivationlive)
 
 

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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