Note—Since Apple released an update addressing the controversial EULA pretty much immediately after their initial release, it seemed fair to reedit this article to account for their responsiveness. However, to avoid an Orwellian rewriting of the past, I’ve struck through the now outdated passages, and made my edits as visibly as possible. Kudos to Apple for listening to the users. Much as I love color grading, everyone knows I spend just as much time writing about color correction as I…
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Was I ever surprised when my editor gave me a call and mentioned that my Color Correction Handbook has been translated into Japanese. I had no idea, but apparently it’s been on sale for a while. I’m flattered, and looking forward to hearing from someone who can actually read the language to tell me how I translate. It’s pretty cool to flip through a book that you know so well, and see a completely different layout and language. I must…
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Well, it’s been a heck of a year. Moving from NYC to Saint Paul. Traveling all over the place. Reestablishing my career in a new locale. Seeing how well my book’s been selling. Overall, things have been just fantastic. Alas, I’ve been too busy to put together any kind of elaborate season’s greetings, so you’ll have to settle for this picture of me and my dog, Penny. However, as a gesture of holiday giving, and in recognition that my “Color…
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I continue to read a lot of negative opinion about stereoscopic filmmaking online, particularly within the postproduction community. Lots and lots, in fact. While I have no great love of stereoscopy for its own sake, I must say that there’s a consistent criticism I read that makes no sense to me, either as a writer or as a postproduction professional. That criticism is that stereoscopy adds nothing to narrative, the implication being that it should be abandoned if it does…
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I’ve been seeing this a lot, especially with projects coming from DIY filmmakers who are grading their own projects for the first time. Wall to wall green undertones. “It makes it look like a movie, am I right?” If you don’t know what I mean, undertones (that’s how I define them, anyway) are coloration of the middle to light shadows of an image. Not all the shadows, for as you can see in the image above, there are still solid…
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Note to all clients, while I’ll be in Austin, Texas doing a DaVinci Resolve workshop on Wednesday November 16th from 8-10pm, never fear. My trustworthy assistant will be taking care of all grading sessions in my absence. In other news that promises to make my presentation more interesting, at InterBEE (Japan’s equivalent of NAB or IBC), Blackmagic Designs announced that the newest version of DaVinci Resolve Lite now has no restrictions on the number of nodes you can use in…
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A few weeks ago I presented at the Boston Supermeet, showing off some new things in DaVinci Resolve 8.1 (the seventh update that Blackmagic Designs has released in 13 months, by the way). I discussed the many interoperability workflows that DaVinci Resolve is now compatible with (complete round trip workflows for FCP7, Media Composer, Premiere Pro, and FCPx), and I went on to show a variety of grading techniques using composite modes to create interesting effects. Video of my Boston…
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“We make a lot of shitty movies,” Meyer admitted. “Every one of them breaks my heart.” That was Ron Meyer, President/COO Universal Studios (excerpted from Movie|Line). No earthshattering revelations here. Heck, every organization makes mistakes, there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m fond of paraphrasing some quote or another to the effect of—if you don’t screw up once in a while, you’re not trying hard enough. However, there’s another quote in the same article. “[A critical hit is] great when it happens. But…
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I was walking down the street a few weeks ago, and did a double-take as I spotted the familiar “HD” acronym on the door to a downtown business. Can you guess what that business is? Just guess. Okay, here you go. Yes. Apparently you can get a high definition tan. Or perhaps a “highest defenestration” tan, wherein your newly bronzed body is thrown from a window of the top floor of the building. Jocularity aside, this got me thinking about…
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While checking out The Color Correction Handbook’s listing on Amazon, I noticed that there were some, let’s say enthusiastically priced used copies available. As far as I know, you can order this book in a pinch from Amazon.com’s US store from nearly everywhere, so I’m hoping this kind of international pricing is some sort of bizarre fluke. That said, I’d be interested in hearing just how many countries’ localized bookstores have copies, or at least a means of ordering locally.…
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I’m remiss in not mentioning this earlier, but I’m doing a series of three presentations on DaVinci Resolve (sponsored by Blackmagic Designs). I believe my title sums up the content nicely– Grade Faster Without Working Harder in DaVinci Resolve I’ll be kicking off with a two-hour presentation; an informal overview of DaVinci Resolve, followed by a collection of techniques for manipulating key aspects of images quickly and efficiently using the software/hardware combination of DaVinci Resolve and its matching control surface.…
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It seems like just yesterday that DaVinci released version 8.0.1 with its new color balance control interface, and DaVinci Lite, a free 2-node and HD-limited version. But, not content to rest on their laurels, DaVinci has eliminated a decimal place and announced DaVinci Resolve 8.1, with even more feature enhancements. Most are subtle, but welcome additions to a variety of users. Top of the list is is enhanced AAF round trip support. A new Format popup in the Export Session…
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I posted an article a few weeks ago with information about the new Tangent Element color correction control surface to be unveiled at IBC. Well, IBC is upon us (almost), and Tangent Designs has posted some photos of the new surface. As you can see, it’s a modular design that’s also able to “click” together via hidden magnets in the sides. They connect via USB, and so you can arrange the panels any way you like. All of this you…
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Please go to Jonathan Rosenberg’s comic site, Scenes From A Multiverse, and enrich yourself with his scalpel-like sense of humor. This strip made me laugh, and then gave me pause as I considered the possible futures of my own ventures. Then I bought a copy of his book to reward the part he’s played in filling the gnawing void within my soul.
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My apologies if you’ve been trying to read something on my blog today, as it’s been in a somewhat unfortunate state of transition. I’ve decided to go for a more minimalistic look, and I’m trying out some different approaches towards readability. The current layout seems to be an interesting improvement. What do you think? Leave me some feedback in the comments.