[TaoColorist] The 'Colors We Eat' Edition, Sunday Newsletter

Published: Sun, 08/16/15

Trouble reading this newsletter? Read it online: http://www.aweber.com/t/EDS97

The Tao Colorist Newsletter

Curated links of news, reviews, thoughts, career advice, and humor 
for professional Video / Film Colorists & Finishers. Delivered Sunday.

             Issue CCLI                                                                                 A TaoOfColor.com Publication

       Publisher: Pat Inhofer                                                            Managing Editor: Jim Wicks

From the Publisher
Quick reminder: This Newsletter is on its Summer Schedule, delivering every other week.

- - - 

Is Amsterdam a quick weekend getaway for you?

If so, you'll want to mark you calendar for September 12.

The 2nd Annual IBC Colorist Mixer is open for Registration!

Get together with other color-loving peers and vendors for this very popular networking event.

Hosted by the Tao Of Color, International Colorist Academy and Mixing Light... 

Consider this your formal invitation!

Registration is required. Attendance is limited. Get all the details at Eventbrite.

Enjoy this jam-packed Newsletter!

Happy Grading!
The Craft
  • [video] Top 5 Facts About Your Unreliable Eyeballs - why can color grading be so hard? It's all about your eyes. This video is well done and worth watching. (youtube.com)
  • ACES 1.0 - this blog post talks like NAB was yesterday. Still, some good info on ACES 1.0 and the workflow proposed by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. (vizworld.com)
  • [video] Better Color Grading in Black & White - Jonny Elwyn explores a range of blog posts covering the topic of coloring in black and white. This post includes a video by Colorist David Torcivia breaking down his method in DaVinci Resolve. (jonnyelwyn.co.uk via Christophe Delaunay)
  • The Colors We Eat - "more than half of our cortical real estate is dedicated to processing vision—just a percent or two is given over to taste faculties . . . The result is not just that color flavors our expectations: It actually changes how we taste food." (nautil.us via @stevehullfish)
  • No One Could See The Color Blue Until Modern Times - "ancient languages didn't have a word for blue — not Greek, not Chinese, not Japanese, not Hebrew. And without a word for the color, there is evidence that they may not have seen it at all." Great article.  (businessinsider.com via Shawn King)
  • [video] How Color Effects Storytelling In Films - Nicely done! Starting with early tinting techniques and how filmmakers like DW Griffith used color as a storytelling technique.I haven't had time to watch much further, but I will be with my morning Bulletproof Coffee. (youtu.be via Christophe Delaunay)
  • Too Fancy For The Word ‘Purple’ - "McLaren rolls [in] with a special version of its 570S Coupe that may look purple but most definitely is not. It’s 'mauvine blue.' It is but the latest entry to the pantheon of color names that are both ridiculous and inaccurate." A pithy post about other high-end colors that aren't. (wired.com via @stevehullfish
  • The Reality Of Color Is Perception - "In my view, colors are not properties of things, they are ways that objects appear to us, and at the same time, ways that we perceive certain kinds of objects. This account of color opens up a perspective on the nature of consciousness itself." (nautil.us via Ronen Pestes)

S P O N S O R E D   M E S S A G E

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The Tools
  • [video] Grading A Movie Trailer In Resolve 12 - the folks over at Ground Control (they make and sell LUTs) dive into DaVinci Resolve 12 training while grading a trailer. (groundcontrol.vhx.tv)
  • DaVinci Resolve 12: ‘Ignore THIS Track’ - Little Gem #2 explores a new nifty feature for easier navigation in the Color Page. (taoofcolor.com)
  • DaVinci Resolve 12: ‘Snap-to Neutral’ - Tao's Little Gem #3 shows a cool Curves option that I first thought was a bug but has become one of my favorite new features. (taoofcolor.com)
  • DaVinci Resolve 12: Automatically Organize Your Timelines - by tweaking your Project Settings, in this Little Gems post. (taoofcolor.com)
  • [videos] More DaVinci Resolve 12 Tutorials - a roundup post of the most recent batch of Resolve 12 videos. (jonnyelwyn.co.uk)
  • Greater LUT Control with Koji Advance - editor Oliver Peters reviews the updated Koji Advance plugin.  (digitalfilms.wordpress.com)
  • Looks, Picture Profiles, LUTs and Log - "There are so many LUTs, film stock emulation and scene files available today that it can be hard to know what will work best for you. I am also going to look at some of these available options and provide some tutorials on how to use them." (newsshooter.com via David E. Bell)
  • [video] 50 percent Gray Point to Fix Your White Balance - a really interesting 2 minute Photoshop tutorial that shows you how to locate a 50 percent gray point in a photo even if you didn’t use a gray card during the shoot. (youtube.com)
  • Avid Resolve Roundtrip - online Editor Scott Freeman tested almost every native column heading in Avid to come up with this workflow. And in the process learned which 3 pieces of metadata from each clip are important for a successful roundtrip. Be sure to test this yourself before relying on it. (avidblogs.com)
  • XAVC/XDCAM Plug-in For Avid - "This AMA plug-in provides support for XAVC and XDCAM / XDCAM EX files in Avid Media Composer, Symphony and NewsCutter products, allowing viewing and editing capability." (sonycreativesoftware.com)
  • An Overview Of FxFactory In 2015 - "FxFactory by Noise Industries has evolved into one of the most versatile and eclectic collections of effects for Apple Final Cut Pro X and Motion 5." This post provides a highlight tour of their plug-ins. (digitalfilms.wordpress.com)
  • Resolve 12 Cheatsheet - Scott Simons has gathered Resolve's editing shortcuts in a simple cheat sheet. It's a JPG of the menu pull-downs. (provideocoalition.com)
  • Processing Time-Lapses with Resolve 12 - interesting post that also describes how to convert unsupported RAW formats for use in Resolve. (vimeo.com via Christophe Delaunay)
  • Public Beta: Free LUT Plot & Convert - "interactive web application to upload your 1D or 3D LUTs. Transforms are plotted as 1D graphs or visualized as 3D point clouds. Convert / Scale and modify patch density using the built in converter!"  (vision-color.com via Christophe Delaunay)
  • [review] NeoDCP: The Indie Filmmaker's Review and Playback Solution? -  "It offers a significant amount of control over the picture, sound, and other technical aspects typically hidden by most media players at a price that is extremely competitive, if not destructive to its more well-known competition." (cineticstudios.com)
  • [iOS app] Adobe Hue - take a shot on your mobile device’s camera. Adjust the color and luminance. Integrate the look as filters in Premiere Pro, After Effects. New tutorials on Adobe's website. (helpx.adobe.com)
The Business
  • Video Creators: How To Properly Disclose Paid Endorsements Deals - the FTC recently released a document that "clarifies some points of confusion to let you know exactly what you must do in order properly disclose advertising relationships" in online videos. (reelseo.com)
  • RGB Laser Options Expand - "While costs will remain high in the short term, the market is now starting to see new competition in terms of RGB laser sources that can be used to retrofit existing DLP projectors in cinema and other high value markets." (displaydaily.com)
Friends and Family

The stories featured in this section are from MixingLight.com, a 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 24-hour Test Drive.​

  • [video] DaVinci Resolve 12: Compositing Toolset Improvements - "we’ll try to take this shot from an unfinished green screen (shot on a canon 5d) to a completely finished comp." (mixinglight.com)
  • [video] DaVinci Resolve 12: Automatic Shot Matching - "if you use automatic shot matching with the realistic expectation that this functionality is to get two shots more closely aligned, and only in the absolute best circumstances very closely aligned, then you won’t be disappointed with the results." Colorist Robbie Carman then goes on to explain. (mixinglight.com)
  • [video / podcast] Resolve Color Management - "I first want to take a look at the differences between Display Referred (what you’re probably using now) and Scene Referred Color Management; discuss how the new Resolve Color Management (RCM) and ACES are similar in their approaches to the same problem; I compare RCM to LUT workflows; and discuss how I’ve been using RCM in my own projects." (mixinglight.com)
  • [video] Changing ISO In Post Production - is it the same as changing ISO in-camera? Your Tao Newsletter Publisher uses CinemaDNG to explore the answer to this question. (mixinglight.com)
  • Anatomy Of A Commercial Color Grade: Behind The Scenes - commercial colorist Dan Moran shares: "I’m going to describe a commercial job from start to finish I completed for a big fashion company. Including the good, the bad and the ugly moments!" (mixinglight.com)
  • The Business of Business: Partnership Essentials - "I want to discuss what in my opinion are the essentials of building a successful partnership." (mixinglight.com)
Secondary Thoughts
  • Workflow Tip: Use Bundles In FCPX - to archive your projects. (premiumbeat.com)
  • [video] The Invisible Split-Screen - editors talk about 'crafting' an actor's performance. We bet you didn't think they meant it quite this literally. (youtube.com)
  • The Secret Lair Of Hans Zimmer - featuring nifty HDR photography of his 'lair'. (stuckincustoms.com via Fernando Suarez)
Edumacate Yer'self
  • IBC 2015 Colorist Mixer In Amsterdam - this popular event returns to IBC for the second year in a row. Get together with other color-centric pros and vendors in this 'old-school' networking event. Tickets are very limited. Sign up now! Amsterdam, Saturday, Sept 12. (eventbrite.com)
  • FilmLight: Behind The 6K Finish Of ‘House of Cards’ - "Colorist Laura Jans Fazio and Producer Hameed Shaukat will discuss their collaboration in maintaining the look of the prestigious political drama, and how their production workflow continues to evolve. They will also unveil the efficiencies behind the streamlined production-to-color process, from set to deliverables in uncompressed 6K and Ultra HD." Los Angeles, August 20th (eventbrite.com)
Current Colorist Control Surface Drivers
JL Cooper Eclipse: Software v3.5.2 | Updated June 29, 2015
 
Tangent Design: HUB v1.1.8 | Wave Firmware v1.12 | Updated Feb.'ish, 2015
 
Avid Artist Color: Mac v3.3 | Win v3.3 | Updated July 31, 2015
Sunday Morning Funnies
  • [video] Meet the Villains - A good movie villain is a character you love to hate. Relive meeting your favorite villains in this ode to movie baddies. (youtube.com)
  • [video] Star Wars On-Set Secrets - even if you’re not a Star Wars fan, this is rapidfire video is still fun. It goes to show you that the set and the screen are two completely different worlds.  (youtube.com)
  • [video] The Afterimage Illusion - "If your blue receptors get tired out by staring at a blue image, the afterimage will be the inverted color: orange. If you exhaust your red receptors, the afterimage will be green." See this phenomenom in action. (vox.com via Christophe Delaunay)
  • This Is How Everyone Names Their ‘Final’ .PSD Files - the 'PC' version of this old joke. (petapixel.com)
Gear Heads
  • Flanders Scientific: B-Stock Advance Purchase Sale - "[B-Stock] is new equipment that will be used at the FSI booth as well as many partner booths throughout the show floor the week of IBC" (flandersscientific.com)
  • [review] Contour Shuttle Pro v2 - this tool is not new but the software part has been updated and is now much more intuitive. (jonnyelwyn.co.uk via Christophe Delaunay)
  • Canon 4K Reference Display - Canon releases a new 4K reference monitor timed to coincide with the release of its new cinema cameras. 24 inch LCD with on-board debayering for Canon RAW images. (imaging-resource.com)
  • [review] Testing The New 2015 Retina MacBook Pro - a review and comparison of this latest Mac laptop and how it works with FCPX. (fcp.co)
  • HDR Still Not Happening At Retail - "Lack of content is one of the major issues keeping the industry from promoting HDR at retail thus far". Ya think? I do have to add: Some of the UHD sets I saw at Best Buy today were impressive on the showroom floor. Although they're mostly being marketed as '4K'. (hdguru.com)
  • Free Monitor Evaluations With AbleCine Tech Services - until August 20th, in New York or Los Angeles  (abelcine.com)

Are you looking for a steady diet of pro-level color correction education?

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(like YouTube, but reliable)

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The Next Step Is A Doozy
  • Teenager Kicks Himself In The Head - 134 times to get himself in the Guinness Book of World Records. (metro.co.uk)

Th- Th- That's ALL Folks! See you next week. 
Happy Grading!
  
8,450+ Stories Now Shared
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)
  • Autodesk Smoke Essentials - Walk through grading a short sci-fi film (with downloadable ProRes4444 source material) while learning the ultimate online finishing app...  Autodesk Smoke. (amazon.com)
  • Color Grading with Avid and Symphony - Written for version 6. Fully applicable to version 7. I was a contributor. (amazon.com)
  • Adobe Speedgrade CC: Classroom in a Book - A solid book for a solid grading app. (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!


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    We thank you for your support.

    Patrick Inhofer
    Managing Editor:
    Jim Wicks, Colorist: jimwicks.com
    Patrick Inhofer
    Published by:
    Patrick Inhofer: Photon-Wrangler, Fini.tv | TaoOfColor.com | MixingLight.com