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We welcome you to a Special Edition of the Tao Colorist Newsletter
What's so special about this edition? Two things:
- This Newsletter is now on hiatus until the Sunday after Labor Day... September 10 - just in time for IBC.
Why do we take this August hiatus? Because your Tao Newsletter Publisher and the Tao Treasurer need a break every year... or we burn out. And we DO burn out. In fact, we were so fried that we almost shut down this Newsletter a few years ago.
At that moment, riding in from the setting sun your Newsletter Managing Editor Jim Wicks offered
his services and joined this posse. Since then, he's also become a good friend - and while he never says so, I'm sure he appreciates this August hiatus as well.
BUT... we won't completely disappear. In two weeks, on August 13 you'll get a 'Best Of' edition, which is a collection of our most popular articles in the first 6 months of 2017. Consider it our summer reading list for you!
- What's New in Resolve 14 is a 3-hour course that has just been released on our sister
website, MixingLight.com. It's designed to get existing Resolve users up to speed on 14's essential new features.
We're proud of this new title. It was produced by Mixing Light and recorded by Joey D'Anna, a professional colorist and finisher who demo'ed Resolve 14 for Blackmagic at NAB. The best part? His approach is concise. No words are wasted. Yet he conveys tons of information, including putting the new tools and features in context, giving you use-cases and ideas
on how to use what Resolve 14 offers.
Check out this new training
The special launch
pricing ends August 10!
And as new significant features are added to Resolve 14 (since Blackmagic tends to add interesting features at the last minute), this training will add new movies to keep you updated on anything that makes our jobs easier or more useful.
That's the big news in today's email. Now, for an ask...
I have one question for you: What book do you recommend we read in August?
Tao HQ is taking its first vacation in years.
We're looking for two suggestions: A non-fiction book and a Sci-Fi or Spy genre book. Just hit reply if you have something you think is recent and worth reading.
We'll be back on September
10...
Have a great August! (and keep a lookout for our Best of 2017 newsletter).
Happy
Grading!
- patrick
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- Meet Colorist Olivier Fontenay - "“I can be quite intuitive with what I do and achieve a lot with very little – but when I need to go a bit further I’ve got all the other tools at hand.” Talking about creating a natural look for the movie Lion. (filmlight.ltd.uk)
- In Conversation With: Dan Moran CSI - an interview with the UK-based commercial colorist (and MixingLight.com co-founder), "It’s up for me to help guide their (the client's) vision. We have a responsibility to create a grade to suit the job. I can of course create anything for them, but it’s also up to me to keep it relevant to subject on screen." (lbbonline.com)
- Conquering the Subtlest Color of All - "The white of a shadow on a flower is vastly different from the white of the sun hitting fresh snow. But the mind has a way of interpreting what the eyes
sees, turning a complex mosaic into a simplified snapshot." We digital colorists can learn much from our fine art colleagues, like this post written for painters. (artistsnetwork.com)
- Live Grading Spiderman: Homecoming with DIT
Francesco Sauta - talks, "about his relationship with “Homecoming” cinematographer Salvatore Totino, the influence of ACES on his handling of on-set color, and the challenges of combining different camera types to create a young, at times “improvised” and yet professional look." (pomfort.com via Marc Wielage)
- [video] A Day in the LIfe: Dunkirk in 70mm - "the link below that shows the work that went into the processing and distribution of Dunkirk in 70mm. While it doesn’t get too in-depth, it’s a lot of fun to take a peek behind the curtain and see what goes on behind the scenes." (robbessette.com)
- A Clear Look at the Issue of Resolution - "Steve Yedlin, ASC offers an intriguing demonstration on how capture formats, pixel counts and postproduction techniques affect image quality and why simply counting Ks is not a solution when selecting a camera." (ascmag.com via Marc Wielage)
- [video] The Sound Illusion that Makes ‘Dunkirk’ so Intense - if you have never heard of a Shepard Tone before now, buckle up buttercup. You're in for some super interesting musical knowledge that will show you how they created the sonic tension that makes Christopher Nolan's movies sound so tense. Fun. (youtube.com)
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- DaVinci Resolve 14 Public Beta 6 - new improvements include audio playback in nested timelines, better MTS support, new audio output options. Free download. (blackmagicdesign.com)
- [video] Flame: Batch and Rendering - "Flame has an incredibly powerful effects and compositing engine and Darren (Mostyn) brings you to the point where you can start using effects yourself." Fourth tutorial in the ongoing series for the all purpose VFX & color app. (youtube.com)
- Avid Media Composer: Creating your own DCP’s - learn "about the process of getting your footage in the right resolution and color space, so we can then talk about the conversion to JPEG 2000."(provideocoalition.com)
- Windows 10 Reset - "the guide below gives various alternatives that let you refresh your PC to a prior state." (pugetsystems.com)
- How to Create a Vintage Look in a Digital World - "People come up to me all the time and say, ‘Fargo reminds me of this street I used to live on in the ’70s without knowing why.’ Well, a lot of that feeling has to do with the color of
the light." An interesting look from the creators of Fargo and Stranger Things. (premiumbeat.com)
- The First 30 days (or so) of Media Composer First -
"I’ve had a lot of time to play with MC|F, and I have a lot of opinions about it. Some good, some not so good, and some that need serious addressing right away. Let’s start with the good, and work our way from there!" (provideocoalition.com)
- [videos] Tutorial Roundup: Magic Bullet Suite 13 - a listing of all the official
Red Giant tutorial movies, in one place. (toolfarm.com)
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- Netflix Is Not the Problem - "The screens are dim. The focus is never sharp; the wrong lens is being used at least 25 percent of the time. The image is masked incorrectly, cutting part of the frame out so the composition is off balance." Plus more on how Hollywood and national theater chains are destroying the theatrical experience. (indiewire.com)
- Location-Based VR Is the Next Big Bet for Movie Theaters, Malls - "Whether it’s a theme park or shopping mall or movie theater, they are losing
audience. They are looking for the new attraction." A US company bets big that VR centric films and a local experience can be "a big cash cow for Hollywood." (variety.com)
- [video] Magic Bench - like the story above, the Magic
Bench is Disney’s next big bet. It’s Virtual Reality meets Augmented Reality, but with a group of people, "Our approach is to instrument the environment leaving the user unburdened of any equipment, creating a seamless walk-up-and-play experience." (disneyresearch.com)
- VR and Empathy - "“What if we could teach people about social issues so that they could not only learn facts, but they could also learn how to be more empathetic, to see things from another person’s point view?” (displaydaily.com)
- Adobe Flash: The End Date Is Announced - "Adobe stated that it would no longer update and distribute the Flash Player at the end of 2020." (etcentric.org)
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The stories featured in this section are from MixingLight.com, companion color correction membership website to TaoOfColor.com and paid sponsor of this Newsletter. Want to read a story listed here but not a member?
Sign up for a free 7-Day Test Drive. - Mixing Light 2.0 Reviewed - "It’s been four years since Mixing Light launched and this is its first design refresh, so what’s changed?" UK-based film editor Jonny Elwyn puts Mixing Light 2.0 under the microscope. He covers the membership site, stand-alone training courses and new color correction Practice Projects. (jonnyelwyn.co.uk)
- [video] Thinking Like A Colorist: Assessing Tonal Range - "An interesting point I have discovered is how quickly I used to dive into making my first primary contrast adjustment. I almost didn’t
think about it and just had a dive in and hope for the best approach. In recent times I’ve tried to refine this thought process and ask what am I trying to achieve." (mixinglight.com)
- [video] Is Resolve 14’s New Stabilizer an Upgrade (or has it been dumbed down)? - ripped from their new training title, find out the answer to that question and learn why the new Stabilizer open up more opportunities to use it. (mixinglight.com)
- [video] How to use Resolve 12’s New Color Stabilizer - and stop keyframing exposure bumps. (mixinglight.com)
- [article] Feature Grading: Using Markers to keep your sanity - colorist Dan Moran is having to track dozens of changes on a film he's grading and it was getting overwhelming until, "a memory from the 2017 Colorist Mixer came flooding . . . They work alternate shifts and had developed a system using markers in Lustre to hand over work
between each other." Dan shares his solution, inspired by them. (mixinglight.com)
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- Seven Best Video Editing Softwares In 2017 - like the title says. But who knew... seven? (techtree.com)
- Editing Baby Driver - "It also has some unique characteristics when it comes to it’s post production workflow that I thought would make for an interesting round up." Put on a pot of coffee for this very long one. A deep dive into how they made Baby Driver. (jonnyelwyn.co.uk)
- Final Cut Pro X Subtitles with Subvert - "allows users to create titles from SRT files so editors can cut foreign language interviews with ease. Subvert also allows users to generate SRT
files from any Title subrole in Final Cut Pro X." (fcp.co)
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- [new] Color Course: What's New In Resolve 14 - a new training series designed for busy Resolve colorists who need to get up to speed on the essential new features of Resolve 14. Perfect for
learning during render breaks, commuting or standing on line in the grocery store. Presented by colorist and finisher Joey D'Anna CSI. (mixinglight.com)
- [review] New Resolve 14 Training with Warren
Eagles - with three courses built upon Resolve 14. Details and pricing on Warren's new tutorial series for FXphd. (redsharknews.com)
- Bali: International Colorist Academy Summit
- eight days. Seven different classes. Did we mention... Bali? Even we are thinking of attending. October 20 to 29, Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia (eventbrite.com.au)
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Current Colorist Control Surface Drivers |
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- [video] Deconstruction 'There Will Be Blood' - Paul Thomas Anderson's Oscar winning film, “There Will be Blood” is a masterpiece of American cinema. There are a lot of ways to analyze a movie, this is just one. (youtube.com)
- [video] - Inside-Out Grilled Cheese - craving some
classic comfort food? Don’t settle for making a simple cheese sandwich when you can be the master of the inside and out version. Because, a colorist has to eat. (youtube.com)
- The Rarest Cars on Earth Right Now - "the most beautiful and extreme cars of the past and the future come together at the Lodge at Pebble Beach, Calif." Click through for, "The undeniable star car [at] this year’s Concept Lawn". (fortune.com)
- [video] There are No VFX in this One-Shot Music Video - created on a single massive set. (nofilmschool.com)
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- Are we at the tipping point where flash memory is the new normal? - "There have been plenty of changes in the field of flash storage recently, with some ranges disappearing entirely while other, new ones edge into the market. Are we transitioning to a new status quo?" (redsharknews.com)
- 2017 TV Shootout: LG, Pana and Sony OLED vs Samsung QLED + ZD9 - a preview of the upcoming shootout later in August in London. If you've got a
reference Sony OLED to loan them, they'd love to talk with you. (hdtvtest.co.uk)
- [Review] DreamColor Z24x G2 - the 2nd generation of this entry level Dreamcolor, " I will tell you all the great things that I discovered, together
with the very few gotchas that are currently the norm at this price point, from any manufacturer." (provideocoalition.com)
- USB 3.2 Update to bring 20 Gbps Bandwidth - "
This USB 3.2 specification is currently in the final draft review phase. USB 3.2 will remain backward compatible with existing USB devices." (anandtech.com)
- Side By Side: Ultrawide Displays vs the LG 5K UltraFine - "Thinking of buying a new large or widescreen monitor to go with your new MacBook Pro? Then this article is a must read- not only great advice, but Brian might save you money as well." (fcp.co)
- AMD Releases Bristol Ridge to Retail: AM4 Gets APUs - an update on the latest AMD processor's working their way into the wild. Very geeky. (anandtech.com)
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DaVinci Resolve users:
Are you ready for a Resolve 14 crash course?
MixingLight.com
Announces:
What's New in Resolve 14
=> In 3 hours learn the essential new features
you can't miss. You'll get up-to-date.
=> And
stay up-to-date with new movies if new
essential features are added to Resolve 14 in the coming months.
=> Look beyond ‘headline features’ for
the small insights that make a big difference.
Get The Details &
Special Launch Pricing (special pricing ends August 10)
Th- Th- That's ALL Folks! We'll see you in September. Happy Grading! 12,450'ish Stories Shared
Support this Newsletter: Like, Tweet or Plus =>
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)
- Color Grading with Avid and Symphony - Written for version 6. Fully applicable to version 7. I was a contributor. (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.
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Managing Editor:
jim@jimwicks.com
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Published by:
Patrick Inhofer, CSI
Colorist, Coach: TaoOfColor.com | MixingLight.com patrick@taoofcolor.com
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