Today, I'm short on words (and time). TaoHQ just got back from a round-trip road-trip to Miami to recover the Mixing Light calibration kit (CR-100 / CR-250 pair). It was lost with FedEx for 3 weeks. This, after it was missing for 3 weeks when FedEx previously routed the pelican case to Georgia to their 'contraband facility'. Apparently, the spectroradiometer and colorimeter read like dangerous material under X-Ray.

So - after 6 weeks of nail-biting, the kit is in my hands! Plus, the Tao Treasurer and I had 2-cups of excellent Cafe Cubano in Miami's Little Havana that easily powered us for the 3.5 hour drive back to Orlando! That coffee tasted precisely like my "Mama Buea" used to make it.

I hope you too had a fruitful Summer Solstice.

Enjoy this week's Newsletter. Have a productive week. Let's meet up again next Sunday!

Happy Grading!

(and remember - if you have a story that's a fit for this Newsletter, hit reply or email it to 'newsletter@taoofcolor.com'! Include a quick reason for the suggested link.)

- Patrick Inhofer
Colorist | Publisher | Coach

(video) At NAB, Filmlight had an off-site demo room that I couldn't fit into my schedule. But they've posted a demo from the extremely talented colorist, Andrea Chlebak. It comes recommended by a Newsletter reader and it's on my watch list for this morning! (via Vivian Pimenta)

A brief discussion on various topics effecting colorists and the role of CSI in our industry.

Here’s an article (albeit a PR piece) from Baselight on the work Doug Delaney did on Captain Marvel. It’s a good article with some insight into what goes into working on a blockbuster like this. (via Marc Wielage)

(video) Tao Newsletter Cub Reporter (and colorist) Marc Wielage writes in, "Here’s a terrific workflow discussion video from Michael Cioni of LightIron that goes into detail about their unique approach with Dolby Vision."

(forum) Adobe is tackling the subject of gamma shifts on the Mac platform as renders are viewed in different browsers/players. They do a good job describing the problem. They also offer a solution - but I'm not sure it's clear that this solution is specific to Mac-viewing audiences, limiting its utility. (via Simon Walker)

(video) Because editors & producers always seem to expect that colorists know this stuff... so you might as well get the low-down.

(video) This update "includes 4 new effects and transitions plus streamilined workflows and OFX plugin support for Autodesk Flame 2020." Click through for details and an embedded 'What's New' video.

(video) An editor breaks down the new UI and features. Includes an embedded 'What's New' video along with a detailed write-up.

Yeah, I'm not thrilled with my solution for local backup (Paragon). It's not intuitive at all. I'm going to switch to one of these.

There's good workflow ideas in here for my DIT readers. Including, how to pitch an upsell to your Producers on moving off spinning disks to much higher performing SSDs.

(video) Learn how various Saturation controls in DaVinci Resolve are identical to each other. Plus, understanding saturation-related hue shifts.

(video) Premiere Pro has strict, but hidden, color management. Learn how to setup the software and hardware for proper color management & finishing.

(podcast) Team Mixing Light continues discussing Apple's announcements of new hardware at WWDC. This time we talk about the new Apple Pro Display XDR.

While updating the drivers for my Windows rig, I noticed the Read Me talked about accelerated support of Resolve 16, using several of NVidia's 'AI' libraries. Here's the link to NVIDIA Studio page, if you want to see the marketing behind this initiative.

Tao Newsletter reader Zeb Chadfield sent in his thoughts about the 2019 Mac Pro announced by Apple. Does it meet his definition of the professional Mac desktop computer he was asking for 2 years ago?

Cores, GPUs, clock rates, oh my! This article does a great job putting all the specs of the 2019 Mac Pro in perspective, from a post production point of view. (via Vivian Pimenta)

Bandwidth will double again. Apparently, the time between Press Releases is also getting reduced dramatically, since it was only a week or two ago that the PCIe 5.0 spec was finalized.

JVC's top-of-the-line 4K D-ILA (LCoS) home theater projector gets a firmware update for auto-tone mapping for HDR-10... for those of you in the sub $40,000 projector market. But read those fine details on how this works - it's tricky.

Friggin' awesome, "This website replays the Apollo 11 mission as it happened, 50 years ago. It consists entirely of historical material, all timed to Ground Elapsed Time — the master mission clock." Footage is from the camera negatives. Tune in on July 16 to watch it in real time, precisely 50 years later. This makes me happy. Click through for the details.