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Newsletter stringer Mac Weilage sends this one in saying, "Paul Ensby made the switch from film lab color timer to digital colorist in the 1990s. It’s an interesting story of how he kept with current technology and wound up working on some very cutting-edge projects."

(podcast) The Color Timer Podcast's Vincent Taylor takes 15 minutes with Harbor Pictures' Matthew Tomlinson to discover what a color scientist actually does, why they are a colorist's best friend, and how to shepherd a show look.

Good read: "Taking advantage of the lull in productions during the pandemic, the studio started to evolve its DIT process to enable the team to work more efficiently. This is particularly important on-set. The aim was to empower the colorist to work with the DP and director while they’re still on set, so that any issues could be flagged before reaching the edit suite."

(podcast) I'm finally seeing this film in a few hours. I look forward to listening to this podcast on the way home. "The beautiful visual effects in the film were achieved by the brilliant comp team at DNEG, but at least one shot was actually an After Effects pre-comp done by Andrew Jackson himself, – as you can hear in this week’s podcast."

(video) I'm reluctant putting this in the Newsletter. It's one of the worst promo videos I've ever seen. BUT... if you need this tool you'll know exactly what it's trying to do - which is nifty. What does it do? Here's the YT description: "A handy tool for DaVinci Resolve users, particularly those working on storyboards, breakdowns, shot lists, and VFX notes."

For my finishers out there: "DataStoryteller is a set of two new plugins that substantially simplifies the creation of animated charts and map visualizations for video production. DataStoryteller enables video editors to upload Excel or CSV files, select a chart type, and animate one – or multiple – data sets with minimum effort." Works with all major NLEs.

This is a great roundup of productivity advice for Avid pros by Scott Simmons: "While I had been off of Avid for a while, a recent multi-week editing job put me back on Media Composer and reminded me that I think I’ve done about all I can to make Avid faster. I wanted to share some of those things here."

Oliver Peters nails it: "In conclusion, only get what you need and then drill down and learn to make the most of that before adding on more." For Resolve users, the first plug-in I'd buy? The Studio version of Resolve is the best plug-in bang for your buck for any NLE, ever.

(video) "Mixing Light's professional colorists answer questions on graphic white points in HDR, crafting meaty saturation and the limitations of AI."
 

(video) "Colorist Peder Morgenthaler reviews the popular Dehancer Pro OFX plugin for DaVinci Resolve for creating detailed filmic looks."

(video) "What does an award-winning tattoo artist have to say about color? Special guest Jhon Gutti talks about shades of gray in his craft and art."

"VFX artist Bernd Klimm continues his Photoshop to Fusion workflow with tips and tricks for removing an object using painting techniques."

This is a shout-out to Newsletter Sponsor Flanders Scientific for winning this award for their XMP550 UHD QD-OLED HDR 55" mastering display (featuring 2,000 nits peak luminance, 4,000,000:1 contrast, and FSI’s widest color gamut to date). Click through to see the full list of winners in this category.

"LG used to explicitly exclude burn-in from its OLED monitor warranty but the company has now changed its mind."

"From performance point of view, Samsung's 990 Pro 4 TB drive offer an up to 7,450 MB/s sequential read speed and an up to 6,900 MB/s sequential write speed, which is in line with what 1 TB and 2 TB models offer."

I've recently had a few emails asking me why DaVinci Resolve wasn't running properly on their PC laptops. This is a good bookmark to send those people so they can check their internal GPUs against the minimum required as detailed in the Resolve installer.

Interesting: "Many of the rules you will have learned as a traditional filmmaker will no longer apply. The filming process and editing process require different tools and tricks. But, thankfully, Canon has moved into the space with the goal of making the VR filming experience more accessible with the Canon RF 5.2mm f/2.8 L Dual Fisheye 3D VR Lens."

Fun, if slightly frightening: "Walmart, however, needs to scale now. So, the company has partnered with Wing whose drones use fixed wings to cruise like an airplane to longer distances ... They can reach a speed of up to 65 mph while cruising, and yet, hover like a helicopter while using a tether to deliver the products gently."

Increase your fun this coming holiday weekend.