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Trouble reading this newsletter? Read it online: http://www.aweber.com/t/Hyyd7 The Tao Colorist Newsletter Curated links of news, reviews, thoughts, career
advice, and humor for professional Video / Film Colorists & Finishers. Delivered Sunday. Issue CCXLII A TaoOfColor.com Publication Publisher: Pat Inhofer
Managing Editor: Jim Wicks
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This Newsletter was off last week in honor of the Memorial Day weekend. To the men and women serving in the
American Armed Forces: Thank you for your service.
In this intro I don't normally go out of my way to single out my work. But I recently wrote a blog post about billing practices in our
industry that is important for freelancers and solo-entrepreneurs to read and think about.
If you click through you'll learn about the concept of NET 30 billing practices and how they *should* be implemented—as opposed to how most creatives in our industry practice them...
much to their financial detriment. Personally, I get a bit nuts when post facilities and production companies abuse NET 30 to manage their cash flow. It's a post I've wanted to write for a long time.
Go ahead, read about the NET 30 Billing Trap and feel free to comment
MixingLight co-founder Robbie Carman writes a long comment that's totally worth your read. He explains how to properly implement NET 30—the way Business School graduates are taught to execute it.
You can expect Part 2, where I talk about more
effective billing practices, to be posted today. But given the nature of MixingLight it'll be behind the paywall (but you can always sign up for free 24-hour access, once Part 2 goes live).
See you next week.
Happy Grading!
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- Continuity of Colors - continuity in what we do as colorists. This
lengthy post tries to explain continuity by matching exposure and tint, while teaching the fundamentals of scopes. If you're new to color correction, probably worth the read. (waondering.com)
- Match this - if you skipped over the story above, we wanted to point out that at the end of the article is a link to a site that will test your patience. The goal? To see how well you can match the colors. It’s a game that looks easy - until it isn’t. (kolor.moro.es)
- Color and Composition breakdown of 'Inglourious Basterds' - cinematographer Matthew Scott does a breakdown of Tarantino’s film. Interesting findings about the black point, and outdoor scenes with a lower white point than the indoor scenes but with a main focus on the camera work and
framings. (mattscottvisuals.com)
- [podcast] The Friends Of Eddie Coyle: Victor Kemper, ASC - a Tao Newsletter reader sends this podcast link because of "Victor Kemper's attitude to the use of quite extreme underexposure
and darkness. He makes the point that many current directors seem to want everything to be seen at all times, which misses out on a lot of opportunities for moods or focusing the story." (itunes.apple.com via Robin Lever)
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- [video] Adobe: Work Like An Editor, Think Like A Colorist - the NAB stage presentation by colorist and MixingLight co-founder Robbie Carman on the color workflows in Premiere Pro, Speedgrade and Project Candy. (youtu.be)
- [review] Tiffen DFX 4.0 OFX - Colorist Dennis Kutchera reviews Tiffen’s latest OFX plugin for DaVinci Resolve 11. (library.creativecow.net)
- [video] Color Grading Video in Photoshop - if you haven't yet seen video in action inside Photoshop then you'll find this recent exploration interesting. (youtube.com)
- [video] Resolve: Managing Color Grades - colorist Andrew Balis shows you how to manage color grades across an entire project using Gallery stills. (youtube.com)
- [video] DaVinci Resolve vs Adobe Speedgrade: Which To Pick? - some good observations here. (wolfcrow.com)
- [video] Red Giant Magic Bullet Suite 12
Tutorials - Stu shows you how to use a variety of tools in the new Magi Bullet Suite, from Looks to Colorista to LUT Buddy. (prolost.com)
- [video]
Nuke: How to Remove Video Noise - (youtu.be)
- [review] Magic Bullet Suite 12: Part 2 - a look at the non-Looks tools in the package. (linkedin.com)
- Charting
the Course for an Avid 4K Finish - "We spoke . . . about how they worked with Avid and FilmLight engineers to forge a new workflow for 4K broadcast delivery that brings Media Composer squarely back into the online suite." Plus some thoughts on FCP 7. (studiodaily.com)
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- The ‘Net 30’ Billing Trap Part 1 - "we’re going to deconstruct why the NET 30 payment terms for freelancers is fundamentally flawed. In this Insight we’re going to cover: What is NET 30
payment terms? What is the NET 30 Trap? If you must, how can you make NET 30 work for you?" Not behind the pay-wall. (mixinglight.com)
- Comcast: Bringing 4K to the Set-top Box - "The service, called Xfinity in UHD, will be backed with a library of select movies and TV shows in 3840×2160 4K UHD resolution" (hdguru.com)
- Film Rental Terms: The Dispute - between Disney and cinema owners. "Probably the most controversial clause raising exhibitor’s ire was one having to do with the percentage of box office that Disney was seeking for “Avengers” and other
tentpole releases.” An interesting read. (celluloidjunkie.com)
- Saving Coffee from Extinction - say it ain’t so, joe! Color suites, post houses, and production meetings could be jeopardized if the coffee bean disappears. Your favorite morning cup of joe could become a thing of the past. Of course, this is an old story with a new angle on the whole global warming thing. (bbc.com)
- The State Of Freelance Coloring Today - a freelance colorist shares some quick thoughts about the job. (premiumbeat.com)
- NAB 2015: Where Does Creative Intent Fit Into The
Digital Landscape? - according to the formula shown on this slide at NAB, Dolby seems to think the point of wider color gamuts is to reduce the need to creative choices. So... they're trying to put us out of work, after all? (celluloidjunkie.com)
- The Ultra HD Blu-ray Specification - "The Blu-ray Disc Association has just completed the Ultra HD Blu-ray Specification, and in this article we’ll quickly go over the information we have so far." Plus,
see the new logo. (wolfcrow.com)
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- [video] Applying Stills Techniques To Video - "I focus on establishing the groundwork for the cloning and texture repair. This most time consuming part but also the most important. I share a few techniques and ideas on how to make this process a lot easier and how
to get better results." (mixinglight.com)
- [audio]
When Do You Become A Colorist? + Are Colorists A Dying Breed? - the two questions answered in this Mailbag: at what point can / should you call yourself a colorist and is the job of full-time colorist under threat? (mixinglight.com)
- RGB Gamut Errors Part 1: A Broadcast Colorist Nemesis - "Part 1 of a two part series on RGB gamut errors, I'll take a closer look at what these errors are, how you can monitor for them and some broad strategies on how you can fix
them." (mixinglight.com)
- [video] Rediscover The Basics: Invisible Look
Technique - "Sometimes a grading session can be less about making crazy extreme looks and more about natural images graded well . . there are still a few minor looks and tweaks that you can make to your image to add so much depth and production value to the image." (mixinglight.com)
- [audio] Team Mixing Light’s NAB 2015 Breakdown - one discussion about hardware, another about software. (mixinglight.com)
- Lens Distortion Removal With Premiere Pro: Fix Barrel Distortion From Action Cameras & Other Wide Angle Lenses -
like the headline says. (mixinglight.com)
- Color Washes- Working With Extreme Washes
- a method for creating extreme looks that work (for the right project). (mixinglight.com)
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- Risen From The Ashes - interview with the Warsaw-based company doing the restoration of director Andrzej Wajda's 1965 epic POPIOŁY (THE ASHES). The article is a sponsored piece but has enough good info to link to it. (arri.com)
- Orson Welles at 100 - this month marks the centenary of the Cinema giant. The BBC takes a look at two
of his films: A Touch of Evil and Falstaff. (bbc.co.uk)
- Vimeo Video School - 17 tutorials dedicated to getting you started in FCPX. (fcp.co)
- Documenting the Bugs in FCP X 10.2 - because as good as this latest update is, it ain't perfect. (fcp.co)
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- Sneak Preview: DaVinci Resolve 12 - starting in June, it looks like Team Blackmagic is criss-crossing the country previewing Resolve 12 to user groups. I've got a link is to our local Orlando Post Pros group plus several others around the US. Check your local group to see if they're visiting your city. (orlandoedits.com | mopictive.org | lafcpug.org )
- FCP X Creative Summit - "We kickoff the conference with a trip to the FCPX Engineering Building to hear first-hand from
the great minds behind Final Cut Pro X." Followed by two days, with three tracks of presentations. Your Tao Newsletter Publisher will be presenting three seminars on color correcting in FCP X including how to be really really bad at color correction! (fcpxcreativesummit.com)
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Current Colorist Control Surface Drivers |
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- The Biggest ‘Star Trek’ Fan On The Planet - Seriously. (qz.com)
- [video] One-Day Builds: Star Trek Captain’s Chair - suddenly, it's a theme this week. (youtube.com)
- [video] How To Operate A Carbon Arc - why a video on this? You need to take a look at the size of those things to understand. (youtube.com via Robin Lever)
- [video] What Makes a Great Flag Design? - yes. Color plays a role. Scroll down the page to watch this TED talk, which is a lot of fun. Brought you by one of my (recently) podcasters, Roman Mars. (sanfranciscoflag.com)
- VR Rig With 16 GoPro Hero 4 - it's a 360 degree rig from Google. (nofilmschool.com)
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- [review] HP DreamColor Z27x Monitor - UK editor, and friend of the Tao, Jonny Elwyn reviews HP’s DreamColor with an eye to how it fits in the workflows of editors and colorists. (jonnyelwyn.co.uk)
- World's First 4K HDR Broadcast Demo - "The demonstration took place at the SES Industry
Days conference in Luxembourg on the 7th of May, and saw BBC R&D’s Hybrid Gamma technology being used to successfully beam the content from an SES ASTRA satellite to a Samsung SUHD TV." If you missed it last week, here's the direct PDF download of the BBC whitepaper outlining their new HDR spec. (hdtvtest.co.uk)
- [review] Thunderbolt 2 Dock Roundup - looking for an easy way to connect your Mac laptop to all your devices. Dig through this nifty review of 7 devices to help you get plugged in. (macworld.com)
- At The Bench: Atomos Shogun Features &
Configurations - for our DIT readers. (blog.abelcine.com)
- New Macs - ahead of the WWDC conference Apple releases updates to its MacBook Pro and iMac line. Faster, thinner, more expensive. You know the drill. This Newsletter wonders if they'll update the Tube? (wired.com)
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- [video] Pstereo - colorist Matt Osbourne turns in terrific work on the newest music video from Emilie Nicolas. Matt responded to us, “it was shot on Arri Amria and we graded straight from the ProRes the camera made and conformed up using an edl. The VFX was done on top
of the grade and a film grain was applied at the end to help embed the VFX." (fantasticmusicvideos.com)
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- [video] The World’s First Hiding Ad - how do you sell something you’re not supposed to sell? By hiding an advertisement in plain view. That’s the story of an Italian grocery store, the Russian Government, and good ol’ fashioned ingenuity. О Да! (youtube.com)
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Th- Th- That's ALL Folks! See you next week. Happy Grading! 8,000+ Stories Now Shared
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The Book Shelf
- Color Correction Handbook, Updated - Alexis Van Hurkman has updated his Color Correction Handbook, which has set the standard for learning all things color correction. (amazon.com)
- Color Correction Look Book - This is the second part of the Color Correction Handbook, exploring the creative techniques for over 200 different visual looks. A sort-of recipe book for colorists.
(amazon.com)
- The Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction - Read how a dozen different colorists grade the same footage with the same gear, differently. A fantastic approach to learning the craft of color grading by Steve Hullfish. (amazon.com)
- Autodesk Smoke Essentials - Walk through grading a short sci-fi film (with downloadable ProRes4444 source material) while learning the ultimate online finishing app... Autodesk Smoke. (amazon.com)
- Color Grading with Avid and Symphony - Written for version 6. Fully applicable to version 7. I was a contributor. (amazon.com)
- Adobe Speedgrade CC: Classroom in a Book - A solid book for a solid grading app. (amazon.com)
- Digital Cinematography: Fundamentals, Tools, Techniques and Workflows - Don't let the title fool you. I'm only a third way through this book and its explanations of how digital images are recorded, sampled and viewed is essential knowledge for anyone who's craft intersects with digital images. Not light reading. But not filled with math either. I highly recommend this book. (amazon.com)
Have a book you think should be in this list? Reply to this email and let me know!
FCC Disclaimer: Links in this email to Amazon.com, B&H Photo, or ToolFarm are Affiliate links that help support the TaoOfColor.com. FSI is a paid sponsor. Tao of Color, Inc. is part owner of MixingLight.com. BlackMagic Design is a current client.
We thank you for your support.
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Managing Editor:
jim@jimwicks.com
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Published by:
Patrick Inhofer: Photon-Wrangler, Fini.tv | TaoOfColor.com | MixingLight.com
patrick@taoofcolor.com
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