The NAB Colorist Mixer sold out in just over a week! 

But if you're in Las Vegas on Sunday April 17 and want to attend, you can still get yourself on the Wait List. Usually, about 20-30 spots open up from last-minute cancellations - so there's a good shot you'll be given the opportunity to attend! (and joining the Wait List costs nothing)

Are you going to be at NAB on Monday, April 18?

Then you might want to think about joining myself and the rest of Team MixingLight.com as we host a full day of color correction presentations at Post | Production World. This is our 5th year doing a full-day color correction track and we've changed things up (you can read the full details here).

The first two sessions are dedicated the fundamentals of color grading - preparing everyone for the high-level forward-looking presentations that follow.

Our Keynote speaker is New York colorist Juan Salvo—with a presentation on grading Virtual Reality

He'll be sharing a case study on the short VR film 'Giant' which premiered this year at the Sundance Film Festival. Juan will move beyond workflows. He'll be talking about how this new experience changes the colorist's relationship with our footage and challenges it presents.

After Juan, and a presentation on color grading LOG, Raw and flat images, it's back to looking toward the future of our profession...

...the color day will wrap with a discussion of UHD, HDR, Rec 2020 and beyond

If you want to attend, here's the thing... Post | Production World is a paid event. You can buy access for one or more days... and a pass gets you entry in every session being offered that day. So you're free to catch whatever mix of sessions you want.

To sign up, click here and use the code PPW06 to save $100

[/end sales pitch]

Enjoy this week's Newsletter! We'll see you next Sunday.​​​​​​​

Happy Grading!

• Working With a Colorist 101 - “Colorists understand that filmmakers are passionate about their projects. We’re also passionate about our craft and will treat projects with respect. It’s a creative partnership.” Technicolor colorist Roy Vasich, on 5 basic tips beginning directors should know about working with a colorist. (nofilmschool.com)
  

• The Role Of The Cinematographer In A Digital World - “I know cameramen who . . . were doing the D.I. and suddenly found the executive producer . . . doing his own D.I. in another suite.” So frets Oscar winning DP John Seale about the brave new world involving colorists. (forbes.com)
  

• Meet the Colorist: Robbie Carman - “The most exciting thing over past 5 to 10 years is that clients walk into the suite and are already communicating like colorists! Ten years ago, if you talked about a lookup table or LUT, anyone who wasn’t a colorist would have no idea what you meant.” Adobe profiles colorist Robbie Carman.  (blogs.adobe.com)
  

• [video] 100 Years of Technicolor - Academy Award-winning Martin Scorsese talks about some of his earliest cinematic memories of Technicolor and the industry giants before him. Love the new phrase that Marty seems to have coined: ‘extreme Technicolor experience[s]’ to mark a Technicolor film. (youtube.com)
  

• [video] We’ve Hit Peak Lens Flares - before lens flares were the rage, they were passionately avoided. An interesting look at the history of this VFX artifact. (filmmakeriq.com)
  

• Color and Box Office Results - "I used to get offended if someone didn’t like a movie I worked on.  But then I realized it wasn’t my job to make the story good.  That ship had already sailed." (robbessette.com)

• No More Lift, Gamma, Gain? - Baselight releases version 5.0, and introduces a new feature called, Base Grade. Effectively, it's a mode that bypasses the time-honored lift, gamma and gain controls in favor of new controls that it claims ‘mimic(s) the way the eye ‘appreciates’ color.’ (redsharknews.com)
  

• Online LUT Viewer - “It's a small tool made to apply a LUT in low resolution on JPG/PNG image.” It's an online LUT viewer that is free to use. (cinescopophilia.com)
  

• DIT Tools Reviewed – “There are plenty of options available to editors and DITs when it comes to software applications that can make your life easier.” And so begins part 18 of editor Jonny Elwyn’s excellent series on how to be a DIT. (jonnyelwyn.co.uk)
  

• Koji Go for the iPhone - "Koji Go comes with 3 versatile film stocks, plus advanced photographic density and temperature controls. You can also explore 16 additional films in the store, designed by Dale Grahn and based on his work." (kojicolor.com)
  

• [video] Remote Grading In Resolve 12 - see how "a colorist [can] remotely control a color grading session from a local workstation. This is possible across between two stations thousands of kilometres away . . . [learn] the steps of configuring both stations to enable the remote grading." (vimeo.com)
  

• SGO Goes Virtual at NAB - a preview of NAB... "SGO will reveal its distinctive, forward thinking 3D feature-sets, VR Mode and VR Device connections, depicting how Mistika provides Colour Grading, HDR, Stereo and Compositing in Virtual Reality, in just one system." (studiodaily.com)​​​​​​​
  

• [video] Rec.2020 Demo at Barco: Beginning The Education - to make more perfect pictures, "In this and more videos to follow I cover the basics of what you need to know and the directions you need to follow to be HDR ready or to repurpose your current productions to HDR/Rec.2020." The good stuff starts at about 6:00. (cinetechgeek.com)

• Brightest Brights, Darkest Shadows… HDR - the HDR standard is far from being settled. Part 1 in an ongoing series frames the challenges in front of us today. (tvtechnology.com via @adamwilt)
  

• Cinema or Stay at Home? (part 1) - would you rather watch first-run movies on the day they’re released in your home or at the movie theater? Sean Parker - the entrepreneur who founded Napster - is betting you would rather watch movies at home. Hollywood is not happy about that. (thedailybeast.com)
  

• Cinema or Stay at Home? (part 2) - but not everybody thinks Sean Parker’s idea is bad for Hollywood. Directors Ron Howard and Peter Jackson, and Producer Brian Grazer think it’s the only solution for Hollywood.  (thewrap.com)
  

• Which Industries Are The Most Digital (and Why) - the least digital industry? Hunting. You'd think ours would be near the top of the chart. Click through to find out if we're right? (hbr.org)​​​​​​​
  

• Netflix, Not AT&T / Verizon, Throttles Speeds Over Networks - maybe it's time to stop blaming ISPs for bandwidth problems? Or maybe Netflix is only throttling bandwidth to networks with sucky attitudes about data caps? (etcentric.org)

• [video] Turning A Session Around - your client decides to tell you how to use your tools. What's a colorist to do? (mixinglight.com)
  

• [video] The Premiere Pro Color Correction Protocol:Part 2 - how to 'filter stack' for profit, fun and speedy color correcting. (mixinglight.com)​​​​​​​
  

• [podcast] Sharpening Quick Focus Pulls + The HP Z27x DreamColor Display - Team Mixing Light answers member questions.(mixinglight.com)

Items in this special section of the Newsletter will recur until after NAB, which is April 16 - 21 in Las Vegas.

• [event] 4th Annual Colorist Mixer UPDATED - the colorist annual meetup is happening again, so make your travel plans accordingly. Registration is now open! Sunday, April 17, 7:30 PM (eventbrite.com | coloristmixer.com)

• NEW! FCP Exchange Presentations - with Apple non-existent at trade shows, FCPWORKS and FCP.co have teamed up for two days of FCPX-centric workshops, in the hotel directly next to the South Hall. The current line-up and registration (required) is at the link. (fcp.co)

• Free Exhibit-Only Access Pass - Get your free exhibits-only access pass to NAB with VIP Code LV8353. Courtesy Tao Newsletter Sponsor, Flanders Scientific. (registration.experientevent.com)

• [edumacate] Post | Production World : Overview - "In addition to the general sessions, P|PW offers multi-day, certification-prep and hands-on training that allows attendees to dive deeply into [software]. New this year, P|PW offers a track dedicated for graduating students to provide them a leg-up in navigating the industry."  Runs April 16 - 20th. Use this Discount Code to save $100: PPW06 (nabshow.com/attend)

• [edumacate] Team Mixing LIght: Full Day Color Correction - Tao Newsletter Publisher Patrick and his Mixing Light business partners are leading a full day of color correction training, with a Keynote by Colorist Juan Salvo on grading a Virtual Reality film that screened at Sundance. At the bottom of the listing, click through our names for more session listings. (nab16.mapyourshow.com)

• The Official ToolFarm Guide to NAB - from Exhibit hours to various social meetups to Exhibitor Booths you'll probably want to visit, a good collection of NAB information. (toolfarm.com)

• [event] Media Motion Ball 2016 - a sit-down dinner with stage presentations. A great place to meet your favorite industry notables. Monday, April 18,  5:30 PM (eventbrite.com)

• [event] SuperMeet 2016 - Watch stage presentations and then participate in NAB's biggest give-away of software and hardware. It's also a good place to launch a meet up with friends for late night festivities. Tuesday, April 19, 4:30PM (eventbrite.com)​

• NAB Show To Host Kaleidoscope Virtual Reality Showcase - "NAB Show attendees will have the opportunity to travel to virtual worlds and experience the most innovative narrative, environmental and interactive content." (displaydaily.com)

• 5 Tips For Shooting Digital Screens - like the title says. (premiumbeat.com)
  

• Face Swapping Tech: You’ll Never Know What’s Real Ever Again -  Freaky and interesting at the same time. (filmmakeriq.com)
  

• Hands-On: Chronos Adventure-RPG For Oculus Rift - the Rift is in the wild. I used to be a heavy-duty RGB player. If you're like me, click through to see if this new game is worth strapping on. (tested.com)
  

• Oculus Rift Review: A Clunky Portal To A Promising Virtual Reality - oh wait, "Many games are large downloads of more than 6 gigabytes, so a game took up to half an hour to download." Clearly, this article is written by a millennial. Does anyone remember dial-up? (nytimes.com)
  

• A Whole New fxphd: No Terms, New Rates, Massive Content - I've never met them, I've never talked to them but I love the guys at fxPhd. After a decade, they've completely relaunched their pricing model. And Warren Eagle's Resolve training is still offered but it's listed under the 'Store' link. (fxphd.com via @mikeseymour)
  

• 360/Virtual Reality in AE with Mocha Pro 5 - still in beta testing, get a preview of, "how to use mocha Pro for masking and tracking on equirectangular (LatLong) footage. Skybox Studio is used to convert the distorted footage to a “flattened cubic cross” view and the new mocha Pro 5 plug-in is used for tracking & masking." Got that? Equirectangular. Build that vocabulary! (imagineersystems.com)

• [video] How to Send an Email - back in the ‘olden days’ of the 1980s the idea of sending email was light years from what it is now. Love the bit about how to plug the computer into a modem. But clearly the word about how to pick a secure password hadn't gotten out yet! (youtube.com)
  

• [video] Busted: Red Giant Software's new short - it's fun. (studiodaily.com)
  

• [video] The Unlikely Relaxation of Watching 6000 Matches Burn - I gotta say, the title says it all. Check it out! (kottke.org)
  

• As Apple Resists Creating a ‘GovtOS’, Microsoft Already Wrote one For China - this is fun mostly for the comments. (9to5mac.com)
  

• [video] Honest Trailers: ‘The Revenant’ - am I a bad creative for not wanting to see this film? Honest Trailers doesn't make my decision any harder. (filmmakeriq.com)
  

• Leonard Nimoy’s Final Artwork - will lead a touring 'Star Trek' exhibit for its 50th anniversary. Nice article. (mashable.com)
  

• Hand Art: Optical Illusions - it looks real but it's not. (mic.com |youtube.com)

• Amazon Bans The Sale OF Dodgy USB Type-C Connectors and Adapters - because they're causing electronics to overheat. (9to5google.com)
  

• [video] At The Bench: Canon DP-V2410 4K Reference Monitor - "a 4K LCD HDR display with 400 nit output edge to edge . . . a color gamut close to Rec.2020, meaning that it also easily covers DCI-P3 and Rec.709." A video walkthrough of this new Canon display that can be used in the field. (abelcine.com)
  

• 2016 AV Receivers Adding HDR Friendly Features - a listing of modern home theater receivers that "now offer support for HDMI 2.0a/HDCP 2.2 . . . capable of passing through the latest 4K Ultra HD video with high dynamic range (HDR), up to 60p frame rates, 4:4:4 color and other capabilities . . . also support object-based surround sound formats including Dolby Atmos and DTS:X either out of the box or with forthcoming firmware updates." Click through and start putting together your shopping list. (hdguru.com)
  

• Dell Sets Specs For VR-Ready Desktop Workstations - "sked about the differing specs between the HTC and Oculus systems, Tikoo explained that one relies more on GPU processing and thus requires less CPU horsepower." (studiodaily.com)
  

• Review: Samsung’s 4K Ultra HD UN65KS500 Brings HDR Home - "advertised to support 3840×2160 resolution, a 10-bit panel, 96 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut, HDR-10 metadata, peak brightness of 1,000 nits and black level of 0.05 nits." But the damn power saving features drop peak brightness quickly, making this (and most other) consumer HDRs a PITA as client displays. (hdguru.com)
  

• Shootout: 9.7 inch iPad Pro vs 12.9 iPad Pro, iPad Air 2 and iPhone 6s Plus - because, for some mysterious reason, colorist clients all seem to think we know which of these are the best on performance. (barefeats.com)
  

• SD Cards Explained - "How did SD cards displace other forms of flash storage to become so widespread, and what do you need to know about the variants of SD cards available today?" (filmmakeriq.com)
  

• Panasonic Tweaks Color Defaults In AG-DVX200 Camera - when recording in the new color default, "the new palette looks significantly warmer and somewhat more vibrant. According to the release notes, sensor noise has also been reduced in the blacks of images shot in HD mode." (studiodaily.com)
  

• Quick info - LTO vs Hard Drives For Archival - if you don't know which of these technologies are more reliable for archival storage, stop reading now and watch this.  (buttonpusher.tv)
  

• Review: HP ZBook Studio G3 - of note: "The ZBook Studio ships with a special version of the Nvidia Quadro M1000M graphics chipset [and is the only model] that includes 4 GB of dedicated GDDR5 memory." (studiodaily.com)

• After 20 Years, It’s Harder To Ignore The Digital Economy’s Dark Side - and it's hitting skilled workers, "For example, IBM’s Watson computer diagnoses cancers with much higher levels of speed and accuracy than skilled physicians do. The same software combined with robotics, 3D printing, and myriad other innovations will continue to eliminate jobs throughout the workforce." (hbr.org)

• Demolition Company Tears Down The Wrong House - and they're blaming it on Google Maps. What? Were they born yesterday? (9to5google.com)