The Tao Colorist

Homer Nods

Dead Man's Lake: The Grade-Along

The Craft

• [Video] The Art of Creating Awe - Academy Award winning Special Effects Supervisor Rob Legato gives an awe-some presentation to TED. Anyone who works in post-production will feel an affinity to what Rob shares. Terrific presentation. Must watch. (ted.com via @agibrahim)

• [Video] The Restoration of Classic Films - A few weeks ago I visited Florida-based colorist Jim Wicks and saw the work he was doing on the color restoration of nearly 250 classic Mexican films. They've just released a Behind the Scenes of the restoration process, with a generous selection of remarkable Before / After images of some seriously degraded 35mm prints. The meat of the video starts at around 3:40. They used DaVinci Revival and Resolve on this project. (JimWicks.com)

• The Loved Ones: A Color Grading Breakdown and Footage Download - This blog post is terrific for two reasons: 1) It's a great breakdown of the color grading process for a TV Commercial and 2) at the bottom of the post (for the cost of your email address) you can download the ProRes source files and DaVinci Resolve project. The folks at the The Film Bakery should be thanked far and wide. BTW - I love the client tip about communicating in 'points'. (TheFilmBakery.com)

• On Being Photographed - A great story about one photographer agreeing to be photographed by another photographer... and the fruits of collaboration. (Strobist.blogspot.com)

• How 'Gene Therapy' May Cure Color Blindness - The past two Newsletters have talked about the genetic disposition women have toward superior color perception. On the flip side, a forum post on the TIG linked to a possible cure for color blindness - even for adults. Interesting read. (news.bbc.co.uk via Richard Kirk)

The Tools

• [Video] 1987 DaVinci Color Grading Demo - Laying claim to the term 'color finesse', this was state of the art 25 years ago. It accepted 2 component and 1 composite inputs while simultaneously outputting the same. And you'd never have to worry about losing your sessions with its 20MB floppy disc backup. Apparently it came with an integrated Smoke system as well (I LOVE that)! (Vimeo.com via @robsbessette) 

• How To Color Grade Using the new DSC Labs OneShot - Art Adams develops the chip chart he always wanted. And I have to say it looks pretty good. It has chips for neutrals, skin tones, and the Rec 709 primary and secondary colors. He also offers a lot of great tips on how to balance an image using that chart. (ProVideoCoalition.com)

• [Video] 2012 Amsterdam SuperMeet Videos: Now Online - I haven't watched these yet (that's what Sunday Mornings are for) but there are presentations from BlackMagic (Cinema Camera / Resolve 9), Autodesk (Smoke), Red Giant Software, Adobe (Premiere Pro / Adobe Anywhere), and Avid / Baselight. Forget a cup, I'm going to need a thermos of coffee to watch all these!  (provideocoalition)

• A Colorist's Perspective: Practical Comparisons of DaVinci Resolve and Apple Color - A good post on the advantages of Resolve over Color. Not covered in this article: The one thing Color still has over Resolve... it can deal with freeze frames and still images - which alone is keeping some Color'ists from becoming Resolve converts. (NoFilmSchool.com)

• Two and half hours of free Smoke 2013 Tutorials - Two resources for free Smoke 2013 training. (JonnyElwyen.co.uk)

• [Video] Editorial Proxies: How to Export to Lightweight Codecs in a Dailies Workflow - Using DaVinci Resolve 9's new Deliver page. Good overview of how to use this completely re-worked feature. (YouTube.com)

• FilmConvert: Film Stock Emulation Software - I haven't seen this in action. Looks interesting. There are video tutorials on their website. (FilmConvert.com via @JimWicks)

• PHYX Color: Color Processing Toolkit - Plug-ins for AE, FCP & Motion to achieve commonly requested color effects. (PhyxWare.com via @IAmColorist)

• [Review] Magic Bullet Denoiser II - Red Giant Software re-coded this denoiser from scratch after losing the licensing rights when the licensor was acquired last year. Here's a review of the new product with the same name. (ProVideoCoalition.com)

• [Video] Phantom Camera On-Set Workflow (Using Assimilate Scratch) - I can't remember if I posted this in an earlier newsletter (and I'm too tired to check)... so here it is. Again. Maybe. (Vimeo.com)

• Now Shipping: AJA T-Tap for Thunderbolt Workflows - Thunderbolt in. SDI and HDMI out. $295. Shipping. (ProVideoCoalition.com)

• After Effects: Why You Should Work in Linear Color Space - And it looks like their website has gotten a makeover. I gotta check what they're doing... (FilmmakerIQ.com)

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