[TaoColorist] Sunday Morning Reading (Subscription Season!)

Published: Sun, 06/05/11

Newsletter Issue L Tao Of Color.com
      The Tao Colorist
Curated links of news, reviews, thoughts, career advice, and humor 
for professional Video / Film Colorists & Finishers. Delivered Sunday.
 

Editor's Note: Yup. Here's the time of year I know you've been waiting for. The beginning of Subscription Month on the Tao Colorist!

The basic Subscription Fee is $29.


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June Subscription Drive

  • Next month this Newsletter will be one year old.

    When I started this venture 11 months ago, I wasn't quite sure if this newsletter would build a readership. Much less a readership as dedicated as it now has. 

    The readership has grown to just shy of 550 subscribers - this, for a Newsletter dedicated to color grading... marketed almost exclusively through Twitter.

    As I result, I want the you, the reader, to have a stake in this venture.

    I don't have a bank of telephones waiting, ready to take your subscription. I can't offer signed Yanni CDs in return for your generous support.

    But for the low price of $29 you can help keep this venture afloat. At 40+ newsletters per year, we're talking less than 75 cents per issue.
  • So, I need your help.
  • I also understand times are tough for many of us. If the subscription would be a hardship for you, then help spread the word by visiting this page and pressing the reTweet button, or the Like button, or forwarding this newsletter to 3 of your color grading / finishing compatriots. Or all three.
 
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T

 
Looking to reach an engaged targeted audience of professional Colorists and Finishing Editors? No other publication on the 'Net can speak so precisely to them. Our Sunday Morning newsletter gets opened - while everyone else is snoozing.
 
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The Tools We Use

  • How To Control Your Color Grading App with Custom Gestures - Josh Petok blogs on the Tao Of Color about how to use Apple's Magic Trackpad to create custom gestures for grading. (TaoOfColor.com)
  • How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Grade-Linking - This DaVinci Resolve-specific blog post examines one of the more confusing aspects of working on the Resolve: Grades of the same file being shared (and updated) across an entire timeline. Here's one way to work with them and then turn them off so you don't get burned later in the session. (VanHurkman.com)
  • Quadro 4000 for Mac: Davinci Resolve Benchmark - BareFeats.com made it out of the 'Gear Heads' section and up to the top of this newsletter with a very nice benchmark comparison of the various NVidia cards... using DaVinci Resolve. Also included - a Radeon card for a Premier Pro benchmarking test which clearly shows the optimization benefits of the 'Mercury Playback Engine' using NVidia cards. (BareFeats.com)
  • Tangent Wave or Avid Artist Color? - A recent forum thread with several informed opinions. (RedUser.net)
  • Colorist Tip #44 - Monitors - This is a beginner's / micro-budget guide to monitors. (AaronWilliams.tv)
  • LCDs for Professional Color Grading [podcast] - If you're looking for a more meaty discussion on LCDs for color grading, check out the 2-part podcast I did with Bram Desmet at FSI. (TaoOfColor.com)
  • "No Plug-in" Method to Remove Rolling Shutter - In After Effects. (FilmmakerIQ.com)
  • Configuring the Root User Account in Mac OS X - Just in case you need to get into the User Account that some freelancer created two weeks ago. (GeniusDV.com)

Edumacate Yer'self

  • How To Overcome Your Fear Of DIY Color Grading - If the necessary predicate to 'overcoming the fear of color grading' is to embrace Color Swatches, dig deep on Kuler, and actually pre-plan your color grades by doing pre-shoots... then a whole lot of people will NEVER. EVER. grade their films again. On the other hand - I LOVE the spirit of this post. It speaks to me very directly and what I'm trying to do with Tao of Color. (FilmMakerIQ.com)
  • What Color Grading System Should I Upgrade To? - Of course, the answer is simple: What are you using it for? If you don't know, you end up with a RedUser thread like this (that covers everything from FCPx to Quantel Pablo) and is both confusing and illuminating. Simultaneously. (RedUser.net)
  • The Math Behind RGB -> HSL Colorspace Conversions - Ya know - it's kind of interesting. Also interesting: The Captia Puzzle at the bottom of the post for leaving a comment. (ColorGrader.net)

Outside 'The Box'

  • A Video Guide to Basic HDSLR Audio Post-Production - Because audio is important too, you know. (NoFilmSchool.com)

Speak Easy

  • 40 Filmmaking Podcasts You Should Be Listening To - Umm... just for the record, I'm going to stop linking to these absurdly huge 'list' posts. There are good podcasts in this list. But if you're listening to all 40 of them - you're not making films. (FilmmakerIQ.com)
  • Seven Inspiring TED Talks About Filmmaking - 'Inspiring' in the sense of talks about the potential of filmmaking to educate and create empathy. You'll need to set aside over 2 hours to watch them all. (NoFilmSchool.com)

Framing The Discussion

  • 'The Tunnel' Is Great But Its Aspect Ratio Is Absurd - Quote: "The compositional grammar, balance and proportion of 2.35 is entirely different from other widescreen aspects such as 1.85 and 1.77 (16:9). It is a visual grammar highly experienced DoP's struggle with and unfortunately the filmmakers of The Tunnel lack the experience to pull off." Ouch. The rest of the post is very well-reasoned. And direct. (MikeJones.tv)
  • The Opposite of DIY - This is a cut-down of a longer discussion with Michael Bay and James Cameron about shooting 3D. The blog post adds some additional insights not in the video. (NoFilmSchool.com)
  • Will Apple Release More FCPx Details Tomorrow? This post pretty much sums up the general consensus concerning Monday's Stevenote. (NotesOnVideo.blogspot.com)

FAQs

The Next Morning

  • DV Magazine's Black Diamond Awards - The best new products that came out of NAB 2011. (DV.com)

Before & After

  • Apple's iCloud Datacenter - Here's the Before / After from Google Maps of Apple's new Datacenter. (HardMac.com)
 
 
Current Colorist Control Surface Drivers
 JL Cooper Eclipse Euphonix MC Color Tangent Wave

Software: v2.1.6

Mac: v2.5.7

Software: v3.8

Color Plug-in: v 1.0.5
PC: v2.5.7
Firmware: v1.9

Updated:
March 7

Updated: Feb. 18 Updated: Jan. 28(ish)
 

Sunday Morning Fun(nies)

  • A Terrific (And Harmless) Public Prank - The urban mute button. (YouTube.com)
  • A 1966 Prediction of the Home Computer - Amazingly on-point. (YouTube.com)
  • Guided Tour of Earth: From Orbit - It's amazing, looking at the world this way. (kottke.org)
  • MTV Meets NASA - If the previous item lost your interest, maybe you're looking for something more like THIS? (kottke.org)
  • The $1.89 million camera - Built in 1923, it's the world's most expensive camera (engadget.com via @gekjr)

Weekend Warrior

  • Making a 35mm Pinhole Camera On The Cheap - Cardboard, Popsicle sticks, and film. Now all us Americans need is for Google to automagically translate that page from the metric system to... you know... normal ;-)  (LifeHacker.com)
  • Clean Your Keyboard Top-to-Bottom - With a few household items. And without breaking it. (LifeHacker.com)
  • Maker Your Own Ice Cream Bars for Tasty Summertime Treats - Because Summer is breaking out here in NYC. (LifeHacker.com)

Gear Heads

  • Intel Almost Clarifies 5-Year SSD Warranty (HardMac.com)

Says Who?

 

develop your skills        &         advance your career

MASTER THE ART OF COLOR GRADING


 

Being A Better Creative

  • Developing Your Creative Practice - Science has confirmed it; our biggest breakthroughs happen in the shower. (the99percent.com)
  • Wonder Gestures - How to surprise you clients by being genuine and interested. (TrackingWonder.com)
  • Meditate Your Way To A More Creative Mind - "Your awareness and consciousness become really toned. This is an excellent strategy for becoming successful in your profession, as well as the bigger game of transforming yourself and the people who work with and for you." (FastCompany.com via @petersims)
  • Ron Alexander's Method for Mindful Meditation - This is the sidebar to the previous item. I love the advice to keep a pad and pencil nearby, in case something very pressing comes to mind and needs to be jotted before moving on. (FastCompany.com)
  • What We Expect Is What We Get - The power of belief. (LifeHacker.com)
  • The Strategy Tree - What are you trying to accomplish in your business? Here's a guide to laying it out on a single piece of paper. (blogs.hbr.org)

...And So - Why Aren't We Doing This?

  • Stopping Spammers: 3 Banks Process 95% of Spam Transactions (ArsTechnica.com)

Woodchucks Chucking

One Door Closes...

  • The Hyping of a Mac Virus - I expect this to be the last item on Mac viruses for a while. And it's a good one to go out with. (KenSegall.com)

Just The Facts, Ma'am

  • Analysis of WHO's "Cellphones Possibly Carcinogenic" Headline - Like in many tech professions, film and video industry professionals are helplessly devoted to cell phones, mobile email and text messaging. The notion that these tools cause cancer is worrisome. 

    This item seems to be a solid analysis of what appears to be an overly hyped headline, which fails to mention coffee, pickled vegetables, and carpentry fall in the same risk category. Read and decide for yourself. (scienceBlog.CancerReasearchUK.org via DiscoveryMagazine.com)

The Lawyers Have Taken Over!

  • No More Free iPad Giveaways - In fact, based on this article, the word iPad may even become illegal to write without prior written consent from Apple's Legal Department. After all, they have a brand to protect. See what happens when Jobs goes on medical leave? (HardMac.com)

The Next Step Is A Doozy

  • Online Video Will Break the Internet - And here are the graphs to prove it... (ReelSEO.com
 
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