[Dave Pickett]

Chris have you worked on Penta monitors? What do you like about them versus Flanders? Any word on stability?

Thanks- Dave

Dave Pickett
Colorist
Spectrum Grading
http://www.davepickett.com

[Dave Pickett]

Thanks Dwaine for the advice and the direct email. I dont have an existing database for my MacBook so I will give the new Disk Project a go.

Dave

ps This beats troubleshooting an internal TLC in ’03 or an aging 2K in ’07 I’d say.

Dave Pickett
Colorist
Jam Edit – Atlanta
http://www.jamedit.com
http://www.davepickett.com

[Dave Pickett]

Chris I inverted your solution after reading Mike’s comments about the lack of a master camera timecode. We transcoded the .cine to 4444 Pro Res so I could conform the spots. Then I modified the .cine files timecode in Resolve to match the transcodes and everything clicked. I was planning on using the transcodes to grade from but it was green screen intensive so I went back to .cine with better results.

Still not an elegant way to handle Phantom files but at least for this job we preserved the quality and delivered on time.

Thanks to you both for your ideas.

Dave Pickett
Colorist
Jam Edit – Atlanta
http://www.jamedit.com
http://www.davepickett.com

[Dave Pickett]

Thanks Dwaine. It seems to playback fine but the color science is off. We have been advised to use Glue Tools as an interim option. Have you heard of anything better?

Dave

Dave Pickett
Colorist
Jam Edit – Atlanta
http://www.jamedit.com
http://www.davepickett.com

[Dave Pickett]

The globe is going through a remarkable reorganization, again. The digitization of everything including how effortlessly I am relaying these words to the reader.
Color correctors have been digitized along with cameras making the marginal cost of copy of Resolve very close to zero.
It is exciting to see the freedom this gives while also frightening to see the structure it destroyed. My hunch is that the combination of personality, artistry and determination will still play a large part in the success of a colorist. The current world capitals still employ the majority of the busiest but that is also changing.

We are in the opposite of a “rut” as a group.

Dave Pickett
Colorist
Jam Edit – Atlanta
http://www.jamedit.com
http://www.davepickett.com

[Dave Pickett]

Bleach Bypass seems to be developing into a catch all phrase for a somewhat desaturated and contrasted image.
Skipping the bleach in processing retains the silver in the emulsion. So a medium that is used by shining light through it now has silver particles refracting all over the place. And it looks pretty stunning when done correctly. There are also variants on this such as ENR or ACE which allow a partial bleaching for greater control. I have also worked on a job where the negative was bleach bypass and hurried into the telecine so that if the director did not like it we could send the negative back through the bleach which can only be done shortly after the initial processing.
So when trying to emulate a bleach bypass dont just settle for the plug in or desaturated contrast. Have a look at some great bleach bypass like Saving Private Ryan and use the color grading system to dial your interpretation in.

Dave Pickett
Colorist
Jam Edit – Atlanta
http://www.jamedit.com
http://www.davepickett.com

[Dave Pickett]

[Kent Kumpula] “Yeah, but not only is it more difficult to get used to… I am not sure we can use it as it is now. It is very difficult to work with, when you have set the shadows (like taken out any colortint in the blacks) and then go on adjusting the highlights you mess up the blacks again, because the highlightcontrol affects the shadows too! Seems very weird…”

I am a little surprised at that quite frankly. The Resolve works great with industry standard tools and most colorists I know who use it haven’t mentioned that at all. But hey, to each his own. If your colorist doesn’t like it then 86 it and set up one he or she does.

I don’t think I would like the parameters you mentioned with user defined ranges for the controls. Certainly not clip by clip. You would alter how your system reacts to your hands variably for each clip? Zoot Alure.

Dave Pickett
Colorist
Jam Edit – Atlanta
http://www.jamedit.com
http://www.davepickett.com

[Dave Pickett]

Kent,
I havent had any noticeable range difference in RGB lift, gamma, gain with the Resolve compared to say a 2K or a telecine primary. They all interact with each other. That way you can stretch out the entire image by lifting the gain as opposed to pulling the brightest 33% of the picture up. Of course if you want something like that their are numerous ways to qualify a luminance value and affect that independently.
You can also use the chroma lift, gamma and gain controls to in essence stretch the luminance channel independently.
I did notice on a job I did on Scratch that the gamma was a huge influence on the picture with lift and gain much less so. Took a few minutes to adjust to that and then off you go. So the differences between Colorista and Resolve may be like that. I guess I am accustomed to the Resolve because it acts a lot like the hardware systems I have graded with.

Dave Pickett
Colorist
Jam Edit – Atlanta
http://www.jamedit.com
http://www.davepickett.com

[Dave Pickett]

The control panels are a big consideration both in cost and function. Like a lot of purchases in modern post you can see large changes in pricing and performance in short amounts of time, the linux license for example.

We decided to go with a Wave after leasing a linux system with re-purposed 2K panels for a week for the first job. Part of the decision was to avoid a costly mistake and part because I had just freelanced in Miami on a Wave and liked it.

I have an 8 inch scar on my right elbow from ulnar nerve transposition as a result of ergonomics of legacy panels mixed with my anatomy. I have the carpal tunnel release scar on the wrist to match. I have modified my previous consoles to provide a negative 20 degree slope on consult from some at DaVinci. Colorists that inherited it when I moved on all seemed to enjoy a downhill slope in their control surface.

11 months into my venture with a Wave and I am very thankful that I have the opportunity to use a third party panel. That has never been an option for me before. When the master menu was introduced I found a familiar 3 or 4 clicks gets me to where I want to go. I was a big fan of macros on the 2K panels and would always build a library of redundant stroke reducers at any new shop.

To that end I am experimenting with mapping gestures to my track pad for the Wave. There are about 60 that can be mapped in conjunction with control, option and command keys. So I can now control the Resolve with a combination of gestures and Wave which comes with a nice negative slope to boot.

We are mostly an agency commercial house with top of the market rates and every session I grade is supervised. I am not embarrassed to use the Wave. I have had some clients comment on how nice it is to not have me surrounded by a ton of gear or have to string a telecine. It’s new for them too.

So if you made the decision to buy Resolve panels, good on you champ. You don’t have to defend your decision by disparaging those of us that didn’t. The innovation I am seeing in color correction is coming from trying new things in unexpected areas such as Black Magic engineering in Singapore vs. DaVinci in south Florida. There is a great exchange of ideas going on via the internet. Holding back for fear that some crusty blowhard will say you are “dicking around half assed” is something we don’t need.

Dave Pickett
Colorist
Jam Edit – Atlanta
http://www.jamedit.com
http://www.davepickett.com

[Dave Pickett]

Can you qualify the surrounding area of the green object by widening the qualifiers and then binding it all into a matte if need be? You could then track it and soften the edges to taste.

Dave Pickett
Colorist
Jam Edit – Atlanta
http://www.jamedit.com
http://www.davepickett.com