[TaoColorist] Sunday Morning Reading (NAB Walk-about Edition)

Published: Sun, 04/22/12

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The Tao Colorist

Curated links of news, reviews, thoughts, career advice, and humor 
for professional Video / Film Colorists & Finishers. Delivered Sunday.
Issue LXXXVII                                                           Brought to you by: Tao of Color.com

 
This week's Newsletter is in a slightly different format
Mostly because I'm exhausted from 6 full days at NAB. I suppose arriving at the airport at 2am isn't helping matters.

Today you'll get my NAB travelogue. I might turn this into a blog post. More likely, we'll keep this between you and me (and anyone who reads the Newsletter archives). 
 
[Speaking of Tao Newsletter archives - check out this video of author Steve Hullfish commenting on the Tao Newsletter from the Tektronix booth. (Also - Steve has the Second Edition of his color grading book coming out next month... be sure to pre-order.)]

"Hey Patrick, where's my NAB links - buddy"  
Don't worry, next week we'll do the full NAB wrap-up edition. For now, stick with me... After the next few lines, in which I expose my sappy inner-self, we'll get to some real NAB chat.

But if you need something to watch RIGHT NOW - here's my 3-part video roundup of the three best software scopes on the market via YouTube. It was shot on the NAB show floor. It features Divergent Media's 'ScopeBox', Hamlet Video's 'VidScope Plus' and BlackMagic's 'UltraScope'.

Where was I? Oh, yes...

Attending NAB has never been a big priority for me
Across the 22 years I've been in this business this was my 4th NAB. But in my mind, going forward I'll always think of NAB 2012 as my first 'real' NAB.

It's the first NAB where I wasn't an observer but rather a participant.

No, The Tao didn't have a booth, it had something better... the lovely and ever-insightful Tao Treasurer (hi, hon!) forced me to have 6 shirts emblazoned with the Tao logo (one shirt for each day of the show) - and it was a brilliant move...

[Aside: Each morning while dressing I imagined I was Steve Jobs - opening up a closet filled with identical black shirts, pants and socks. It was a great relief not having to devote a single neuron to my attire (as I'm sure this YouTube commenter can appreciate). Yes Steve, you were always a step ahead of everyone else.]

What was the real benefit of that embroidered shirt?
It was meeting people who otherwise would have walked past me - except they saw the shirt, stopped in their tracks and said, "Patrick? Are you Patrick from the Tao? I LOVE your Newsletter!" By the end of the week I was overwhelmed with emotion that so many people enjoy this publication and the work being done on TaoOfColor.com.

The looks on their faces were genuine and heartfelt.

If you were one of those people who stopped me: THANK YOU.


 

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

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Visit FSI at NAB booth SL13707.

Learn More About the LM-2461W


 
 
What did I discover about you?
Of course, many of you are colorists. 
 
There's a very strong contingent of editors and motion graphics people. A large number are the Jack-Of-All-Trades type: handling everything from shooting through final delivery. 
 
And many are trying hard to find their niche in this business.

All of you are the bread-and-butter of this newsletter and website - you are the people for whom I do what I do. Exactly the type of people I had hoped to attract and it was deeply satisfying to meet you.

But you also surprised me . . .
I discovered The Tao has also gained mind-share among another group - and it was unexpected.

I'm talking about post-production thought leaders, educators, trainers, vendors, software programmers... people who I've admired for years and names you probably know plus names we don't know but should - they see the Tao logo, they hear my name, put the two together and, just like you, THEY light up with a big genuine smile and give me a hug!

I guess you'd call that peer recognition.

Putting these thoughts down I'm getting all Jello-ish thinking about it. The whole thing was is immensely satisfying.

Thank you all
Everyone who stopped me, introduced yourself, shared your story and encouraged me to keep going.

You've re-energized me.

And if you've ever spent six days working NAB, you know what kind of feedback it takes to leave NAB feeling energized.

'Nuff said.
 
 
Current Colorist Control Surface Drivers
 JL Cooper Eclipse Avid Artist Color Tangent

Software: v2.7b2

Mac: v2.6.2

Software: v3.8

HUB v1.0

Color Plug-in: v 1.0.5
PC: v2.6.2
Firmware: v1.9

Updated:
March 12

Updated: October 20 Updated: Feb. 7(ish)
 
New Subject: Autodesk Smoke
After seeing initial Tweets about how 'Smoke is changing everything' I signed up for their Sunday event.

I have a deep interested in Smoke. I freelanced on it back in 2001 / 2002. I've said for years that Smoke is the best darn NLE... assuming you have $100,000 to spend.

What was the single biggest problem with Smoke (besides price)?
People.

Or the lack thereof.

As one person related to me at NAB, when hiring a freelancer the first question a Smoke owner will ask is, "When was the last time you did a job on Smoke?" If the answer is more than 3 weeks ago - that freelancer won't get hired. Why? Because they will have forgotten how to use it.

Smoke is truly that complicated. And it's all about Smoke's timeline metaphor. It's unlike any other NLE timeline on the market. If you're not on that box all the time, you WILL forget it.

With complexity comes scarcity. In this case, the real scarcity is the pool of Smoke-savvy artists who can drive that box. The Smoke freelance pool just doesn't exist and if you're setting up a new Smoke workstation you can't find qualified finishers to work it.

Autodesk needed to change that sad fact.

Change? It is a-coming.
Smoke 2013 finally sports a new interface.

The timeline is now track-based. FCP, Avid and Adobe editors will find it easy to navigate and edit on the new timeline. And the Autodesk team has added an abstraction layer between the full-blown node-based interface and a more traditional effects interface.

This abstraction layer (called ConnectFX) should allow Smoke newbies to gradually slide into the interface - finding the real Power User features only when they're ready.

Existing Smoke owners were underwhelmed with this release
But almost all of them understood what Autodesk is doing. Smoke is too good a product to have such a small user base. It's a situation that needed to change for that product.

And that change will come with the Smoke 2013 Pre-Release Beta - where we all get to test drive Smoke 2013 for free for two months... no restrictions. A really really smart move that drips with confidence.

And then when it ships, the $3500 price point is perfect. Expensive enough that it's targeting broadcast professionals. Inexpensive enough that even a guy like me can start a Smoke 2013 slush-fund and buy it in 4 or 5 months.

This line of thinking has got me wondering:
How many Symphony and Media Composer finishers are going to take Smoke for a test-drive?

Avid corporate must be thinking the same thing since the timing of the Avid Symphony $999 cross-grade (a $5,000 discount) can't be a coincidence. I'm sure they got early word of what Autodesk was planning.

My gut tells me Avid sees the Smoke 2013 release as a 'shot across the bow' and are hoping to minimize interest in that product.

It's that or the Symphony cross-grade is part of a pre-planned promotion trying to gauge interest in the Symphony product line.

Either way, the purple app has got to be nervous.

  


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If you're a Media Composer finisher you have an interesting choice
Do you spend $999 to upgrade to Symphony - where the only new feature you're buying for that money is Symphony's color correction toolset and workflow?

Or do you buy the Baselight plug-in for Media Composer?

They both cost the same.

In many ways the Baselight plug-in is much more feature-rich than what you'd get with Symphony. But it's still a plug-in in which each instance lives independently from all other instances of the plug-in. Not so with Symphony.

Tough call. Unless you're one of a handful of post-houses running Baselight - in which case the Baselight plug-in is brilliant. And ridiculously inexpensive.

DaVinci Resolve 9? It's also ridiculously inexpensive
For the same price as either the Baselight plug-in or the Symphony cross-grade you get a fully featured grading app that's being used on tentpole films.

Looking at it in a different way: For less than the price of Smoke 2013 you get the BlackMagic Digital Cinema Camera with UltraScopes and the DaVinci Resolve $999 dongle.

Interesting choices, yes?

Speaking of digital cameras...

[Stick with me... I'm going somewhere with this...]

When I woke up Monday morning and read a Tweet about BlackMagic releasing a Cinema Camera - I felt bad about re-tweeting that announcement, figuring that some of my followers wouldn't understand that the tweet was a joke.

Imagine my surprise when I walked into the South Hall and the very first thing I saw was a Cinema Camera sitting under protective plexiglass.

BlackMagic's Digital Camera didn't make sense to me
Not given their current product mix.

Then I found out it ships with software scopes and a full license (with the USB dongle) of Resolve - which seemed slightly more logical... but  still - almost no one buys a camera thinking about anything than getting through production.

Nope. That camera was still not making sense.

Then - I found out that the meta-data generated by the camera could also be used by Resolve 9.

In-camera metadata flowing through the entire pipeline? A light clicked on in my skull.

The problem that DaVinci is trying to solve?
It's not that the world needs a "3K for $3K" camera.

It's that the world needs a $3K camera that has a dead-simple post-production pipeline.

The world needs a $3K camera that records to REAL FREAKING CODECS.

Codecs that don't suck.

Codecs that easily plug into post-production pipelines. Pipelines that support camera-originated metadata through editorial and into the finishing pipeline.

If you look at the new Resolve 9 interface - metadata support is one of it's big new features. From displaying camera and editorial notes to a tagging system allowing the colorist to locate, filter, and act upon clips - Resolve 9 was partially re-designed with their Cinema Camera in mind.

I was asked at an after-party what was my personal theme of NAB 2012?
To understand my answer, look at this list of products:
  • Smoke
  • Resolve
  • Premiere Pro
  • Baselight plug-in
  • SpeedGrade
  • BlackMagic Cinema Camera

And then consider the main talking points of all these products announcements this year.

So - what was my personal theme of NAB 2012?

It's the User Interface, stupid

And Teranex for $2K?

That's just... astounding.
 
 

Th- Th- That's ALL Folks! See you next week. Happy Grading!
  
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Curated + Edited by: Patrick Inhofer, photon-wrangler & founder, TaoOfColor.com
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