[TaoColorist] The Ultra Panavision Edition

Published: Sun, 11/22/15

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The Tao Colorist Newsletter

Curated links of news, reviews, thoughts, career advice, and humor 
for professional Video / Film Colorists & Finishers. Delivered Sunday.

             Issue CCLXI                                                                              A TaoOfColor.com Publication

       Publisher: Pat Inhofer                                                            Managing Editor: Jim Wicks

From The Publisher
Next weekend is a national holiday

So this Newsletter will be on hiatus, allowing Tao HQ to shut down for a few days.

We encourage you to do the same.

The holiday is Thanksgiving, which seems an appropriate time for this Publisher to offer some thanks... 

A huge Thank You goes to Managing Editor Jim Wicks

His dedication to this publication not only keeps me sane—and keeps this Newsletter publishing on a regular schedule—he's become a good friend who also happens to make a mean Margarita Mix.

Jim's formulation is known in our circles as the 'Wix Mix', and maybe one day we'll talk him into selling it on the TaoOfColor.com website ;-)

Thanks & hugs goes to the Tao Treasurer

She has tolerated my Editorial schedule of working on Saturdays for more years than she probably imagined when I first started this little publication. In fact, 'tolerated' is the wrong word. She's been 100% supportive—a true gift.

The good people at Flanders Scientific have no idea what their support to this Newsletter has meant to myself and the Tao Treasurer

They provide a tremendous boost and validation that the work we're doing here still has value. It's a relationship we greatly value at both the professional and personal level.

I thank YOU, for continuing to engage with the Tao Colorist Newsletter

When I meet readers at trade shows and conferences, I lack the wordsmithing skills to relate how fantastic it is to hear how this publication gets integrated into your life. Whether your read this on your iPhone, in bed, with your significant other laughing at you; or you read it with a glass of red wine after a satisfying day fixing the fences on your ranch (true story)...

It's the sense of community you all feel that this Newsletter represents that gives me the inspiration to keep on, keeping on.

Would you like to share your thanks for this Newsletter? 

[warning: shameless call-to-action ahead...]

Twitter retweets and Facebook shares are the greatest gift you can provide to an email newsletter such as this

Those social shares let your peers know that we're not just another bit of noise mucking up your Inbox. It really is the greatest give you could give the Team Tao.

Once again: Thank you for being a reader.

Now... on to the cranberries and Wix Mix! We'll see you in two weeks.

Happy Grading!
The Craft
  • The Colors of Your Favorite Films - a website dedicated to collecting the color-rich pallet of stills from famous films. Nicely organized by director, title, year, and country. Let's hope Hollywood lets this site stay alive so we all have a nice database of Looks for inspiration and self-education. (film-grab.com)
  • [video] Cinematographer Roger Deakins on Sicario - David Poland sits down for an extensive craft interview with Sicario DP Roger Deakins. If you’re short on time - start at @14.35. (youtube.com)
  • [video] Colorist Dado Valentic - Jonny Elwyn has a round-up of colorist interviews. They're good. But there's a lot of them. I'll be using his post and curating my favorites here in the Newsletter over the next few editions. We start with this short piece on Dado Valentic, for whom color is more than a visual experience. It's a nicely done promo piece that reveals the source of his passion. (vimeo.com via jonnyelwyn.co.uk)
  • [video] Colorist Warren Eagles - a Pal of the Tao, Warren sits down and chats about his career, DPs, codecs and his general approach to our craft. Great stuff in here. (darkartoflight.co.uk)
  • [video] Lunch With Patrick Palmer - the creator of Iridas and SpeedGrade is on paternity leave from Adobe. Over drinks he has a 90 minute chat with Philip Hodgetts and Philip's partner. It's a fun setup that starts quickly with an informed discussion of High Dynamic Range technology. Nicely, there's a timestamped summary so you can skip to the next topic of conversation very easily. (philiphodgetts.com)​
  • The Peanuts Movie: Honoring A Classic Look - "an interesting insight towards the creation of the look and the challenges that the creative team faced while trying to bring the beloved 2D characters into 3D space . . . along with the animation of the film, the color of the film is of the utmost importance . . . Natasha Leonnet of EFILM did a great job in maintaining Schulz’s vision while working in Autodesk Lustre." (robbessette.com)
The Tools
  • DaVinci Resolve 12.1 - some quick commentary of new features plus the official new feature listing.. (provideocoalition.com)
  • [video] Day For Night in Resolve - a good tutorial if you’re just getting started in color grading. This is a useful effect to learn.  (youtube.com)
  • Resolve 12 Editing Experience - "editors are used to an immediate, seamless, realtime playback experience and working with tons of media. Does Resolve 12 live up to the expectations? I’d say yes and no." (creativeimpatience.com)
  • Creating Optimized Media In Final Cut Pro X - " you may not know that Final Cut Pro X can actually transcode that same media and optimize it for editing. Let’s run through the different options for creating optimized media within FCPX." (premiumbeat.com)

S P O N S O R E D   M E S S A G E

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The Business
  • What It Will Take To Present 'The Hateful Eight' In Ultra Panavision - " it won’t simply resurrect Ultra Panavision, an extra-wide format . . . [the film will be released in] 70mm on 100 screens — a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since 1992. And Tarantino has had to find and refurbish projectors and train projectionists to run them." Cool story. (etcentric.org)
  • Prognostications: The Next 10 Years In The Entertainment Industry - Game of Thrones in IMAX? Just one of many looks into the possible future of our business. (celluloidjunkie.com)
  • There’s not enough TV - or so says Netflix CEO, in response to FX Networks CEO stating there's too much programming. A quick read on the state of television. (etcentric.org)
  • SMPTE 2015: HDR Challenges and Solutions - "implementing HDR into production, post production and distribution can also create problems that degrade the image, with artifacts and banding. Several experts talked about the challenges in implementing HDR, and the potential solutions to them." (etcentric.org)​
  • SMPTE 2015: Challenges Broadcasting Ultra HD 4K TV - just one of many snippets from this article on the problems that researchers are finding, "larger screens are enabled by adding more pixels but blind spots can occur within the viewer’s field of view, also meaning what the viewer sees on the large screen is different from what she sees on a tablet." There's more after the click. (etcentric.org)
Second(ary) Thoughts
  • Home Alone is 25 - like the movie, this article has its own charm. The story is written by the late director John Hughes’ son, James - and it draws you in. It reads like a transcript of a documentary.  (chicagomag.com)
  • VFX Scenes You Thought Were Real - five films are profiled with video breakdowns. (premiumbeat.com)
  • Preserving Videotaped History - "experts fear that much of the audio and visual data recorded on magnetic tape between the late 1960s and late 1980s will be lost." An interesting recounting on the battle to preserve tape. (smithsonianmag.com)​
  • How To Pick The Best Light Bulbs For Every Room In Your House - "Certain types of lighting serve a specific purpose, and when it comes to your home, you want the right type, depending on the purpose of your room. To optimize your home’s lighting, first consider how you’re using each room." (lifehacker.com)
Current Colorist Control Surface Drivers
JL Cooper Eclipse: Software v3.5.2 | Updated June 29, 2015
 
Tangent Design: HUB v1.1.8 | Wave Firmware v1.12 | Updated Feb.'ish, 2015
 
Avid Artist Color: Mac v3.3.1 | Win v3.3.1 | Updated Sept. 11, 2015
Sunday Morning Fun(nies)
  • The Ingenious Engineering Of The Nerf Blaster - definitely fun. (filmmakeriq.com)
Gear Heads
  • [video] Color Calibration In Cinema Explained - "go a little deeper into the differences between calibration of commercial cinema and calibration of post production facilities and why it can get very expensive to do this with high accuracy." (cinetechgeek.com)
  • Black Friday Sale: Panasonic Displays - if you're in the market for a Panny display, this is the week to buy it online. Click through for the model you're looking for to see if it's in the lineup. (shop.panasonic.com via Conrad Hughes)
  • Buying a 4K Monitor - editor Jonny Elwyn is asking an important question: should he buy a 4K monitor for film editing? Although the post is written for editors, there is good overlapping info for the working colorist.  (jonnyelwyn.co.uk)
  • iPad Pro #1 - time to geek out on the claims and specs of the new iPad Pro. Some say the A9X chip could change the PC and laptop industry forever. What do the actual numbers say? (engadget.com)
  • iPad Pro #2 - surprise! Apple’s new iPad Pro seems to support USB 3.0. But it only ships with a USB 2 Lightning cable because no one makes a 3.0 Lightning cable. Yet. (redsharknews.com)
  • 4K OLED TV Lays Plasma Ghost To Rest - in a shootout featured here a few weeks ago, the results are in after two consumer OLEDs and one of the best plasmas ever... are put side-by-side. Which OLED won and which would have won if value for the money was the benchmark? (hdtvtest.co.uk)
  • LG 55EG920V 4K OLED Tv Review - "less adjustments were required to achieve 2.4 gamma compared with the first, second and even early third generation of OLEDs from the South Korean manufacturer." (hdtvtest.co.uk)
  • New: 4K 60p KiPro Ultra Recorder and Player - "a half-rack-wide 2RU recorder and player that captures Apple ProRes files at up to 4K (4096×2160) and 60p." (studiodaily.com)
  • New: CalDigit USB-C Dock - "not only adding extra ports but also simultaneously charging the USB-C computer it is connected to." Available for pre-order. (caldigit.com)

Are you looking for a steady diet of pro-level color correction education?

TaoOfColor.com Presents: MixingLight.com

=> Learn from a team of professional colorists

=> New articles and videos presented every week 
(like YouTube, but reliable)

Click for more details

Tweet of the Week
Grading a whiskey spot today.
​They brought the product. This will be a fun session.

@lorenwhite
The Next Step Is A Doozy
  • [video] Sushi Mac - the Tao, we love our Sushi. But this? Watch a master sushi chef take a Big Mac meal and sushi'fy it. If you want to get to the ‘meat’ of the video - skip to 9:00 minutes. We do recommend watching him plate the creation. (youtube.com)
A Step Too Far?
  • Millions Of Facebook Users Have No Idea They’re Using The Internet - and Facebook is working hard to keep it that way. You need to read down to the second half of the article to understand how some emerging internet-connected societies don't realize there's an Internet outside of Facebook. Fascinating. (qz.com)

Th- Th- That's ALL Folks! See you in two weeks. 
Happy Grading!
  
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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—which is a sponsor. BlackMagic Design is sometimes a client.

    We thank you for your support.

    Patrick Inhofer
    Managing Editor:
    Jim Wicks, Colorist: jimwicks.com
    jim@jimwicks.com
    Patrick Inhofer
    Published by:
    Patrick Inhofer: Photon-Wrangler, Fini.tv | TaoOfColor.com | MixingLight.com
    patrick@taoofcolor.com