The south hall NAB show floor (where all the postproduction was) on Wednesday was packed.
Upon my return to New York and my first full night’s sleep in a week, I thought it would be good to follow up upon my last post and share some experiences from the rest of the show before they faded from memory. Overall, I had a great time visiting the different vendors of color correction hardware and software and comparing what they can do. Interestingly, the south hall (where most of the postproduction hardware/software vendors were located) was packed, much moreso then what I saw of the north and center halls, where all the production and distribution gear was located. With the abundance of tools now available to enable talented people to do increasingly incredible things, it’s a good time to be involved with post.
I got a fuller demo of the workflow involved with moving Avid and FCP projects to and from Baselight. Baselight has a clean, if packed, user interface, and as far as I can tell has pretty much every software tool ever devised for making [...]
Continue reading Notes From NAB, Part Deux
Another year's pilgrimage to NAB, in Vegas…
Well this year’s NAB is shaping up to be a doozy. Having spent the day chatting with representatives from various vendors of color correction software, color critical broadcast monitors, and accelerated storage systems, all of which I take a professional interest in, I thought I’d share some end of day thoughts.
Of course, the biggest news is Blackmagic/Davinci’s announcement of a $995 Mac OS X compatible, software-only license of their flagship color correction application, Resolve. Spending $30K gets you the overwhelmingly designed control surfaces (USB connected, by the way), while $50K gets you the control surface and a Linux license (and then you need to buy the appropriate CPU/multi-GPU configuration to run it).
A terrible picture of a terrific color correction system, Resolve for Mac OS X
Interestingly, on Mac OS X, you’ll end up installing two NVidia GPUs into your Mac Pro, one in the default slot that’s used to run the UI, and a second one to do the image processing. Coupled with an additional Blackmagic card for video I/O (they say they’ll introduce compatibility with [...]
Continue reading Notes From NAB
My day as a background player, bowling
First off, a shout out to the cast and crew of the NOVA special I participated in as an extra. Very professional, very ambitious. I can’t share the name of the production, but for at least the part of the script covered by this shoot, physics and bowling are natural bedfellows.
Now, as a writer/director I spend what time I’m involved with film/video projects behind the camera. Despite some limited experience in acting classes and helping friends out, I’ve never really held performance to be a personal ambition. However, when a friend of mine who was art directing a program for WGBH approached me about doing a day as a bowling extra on a program that two other friends of mine happened to be working on, I said why not.
Despite all the familiar faces on set, everyone was naturally far too busy achieving an ambitious day’s work to chit chat with me. Having been in their shoes, I fully expected that, so I contented myself by assuming the role that I myself have put others through over the years, sitting around waiting for my [...]
Continue reading Every Director Should Spend One Day as an Extra
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You’ve Found Me Congratulations on being intrepid enough to track down my small corner of the web. I'll likely be rattling on about my latest writing project, color correction observations, or production that's underway (which at the moment is my web serial, Starship Detritus). Whatever the topic, you're welcome to browse through and comment—I'm glad to hear from you.
Books and Videos 
Coming this fall. I'm currently working on this platform-agnostic book covering all aspects of professional color correction, in theory and practice. This book pulls together information ranging from room setup, detailed color and contrast theory, practical correction techniques, QC adherence, scene balancing, image ideals, all the way to a wealth of creative techniques—this book has something for colorists at all levels. Available for pre-order from Amazon.com.
On behalf of Ripple Training, I've created a one-hour set of instructional videos covering every new feature in Color 1.5. If you already know Color, and just want to get up to speed with what's new, these will give you a focused tour of the new features and workflows available in this upgrade to Final Cut Studio 3. Best of all, these are available for immediate download in iTunes! New Features in Color 1.5.
I used to write an ongoing series on grading in Color in the digital newsletter Edit Well. Many of my articles from the series, and others from experts in Final Cut Studio applications, have been collected into the verbosely named book Edit Well: Final Cut Studio Techniques from the Pros.
My own book, the Encyclopedia of Color Correction, is a focused compilation of color correction methods and information I've found valuable while working with my own clients. Combining color correction techniques with technical information relevant to colorists and finishing editors alike, it's an invaluable resource to post production pros who are using Final Cut Studio. Available now from Amazon.com.
If you're a fan of video tutorials, I recorded a series of 13 video lessons that provides over four hours of training spanning every room in Color. Buy it now from Magnet Media.
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