Robert Houllahan
Forum Replies Created
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The $1k price of Resolve is irrelevant in my opinion. Resolve has thirty years of development behind it with the Reniassance, DUI, 2K and all in there plus all of the development of the Linux version. Having looked at Scratch, Speed Grade, Film Master, etc. I think Resolve is a deeper and more reliable toolset that I would take any day over scratch, etc. Remember that Resolve on Linux was price competitive with Baselight and Lustre at the high end just a year or so ago. At the rate BMD is adding features and responding to user requests for bug fixes and added functions I think Resolve is still far more competitive than most of the “low end” grading apps and still pretty competitive with machines many times it’s fully kitted out price.
-Rob-
Robert Houllahan
Director / Colorist
Cinelab Inc.
http://www.cinelab.comMAHC-PRO 6-Core 3X GTX285 20Tb SAS Wave Panel Panny 11UK SDI Plasma.
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I personally have always thought that on set color correction is, was and will always be a stupid idea. One of the reasons I really like Film (remember that stuff??) is that you don’t have a video (idiot) village and a committee of fussy people dicking around with grading and crap on a set.
However if I was hired to do the job of being a DIT/On Set Colorist I would think that having a calibrated display and then putting a display LUT (non baked in) on the CC output and then making a CDL and stills with notes for the Post colorist would be a way to get a daily rate and make everybody happy about the money they wasted paying me.
I suppose if I was the finish Colorist I would tend to ignore the DIT colorist grade unless the producer/director/dp insisted on looking at it. Then after wasting that billable hour or five we could get on with doing the grade the way the producer wants it, ignoring any and all artistic intent of the DP.
Tounge in cheek……
-Rob-
Robert Houllahan
Director / Colorist
Cinelab Inc.
http://www.cinelab.comMAHC-PRO 6-Core 3X GTX285 20Tb SAS Wave Panel Panny 11UK SDI Plasma.
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What Joe said…
Basic grade with primary’s only and no clip or crush and export a CDL for compatibility and you have half a shot of the finish colorist paying attention to it….
-Rob-
Robert Houllahan
Director / Colorist
Cinelab Inc.
http://www.cinelab.comMAHC-PRO 6-Core 3X GTX285 20Tb SAS Wave Panel Panny 11UK SDI Plasma.
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The Blackboard 2 is future proof like a McClaren F1 street car is future proof because it runs on gas. In my opinion Baselight is just enough more sophisticated than most other grading systems to justify it’s cost in a facility environment that works on jobs that can support it and clients that will pay for it. The machine is great and has an air of “bespoke” exotic and expensive, plus the toolset is sophisticated and it’s fast and comes with great 24/7 service.
That said there are big facilities that do very high end work on Resolve and have not switched because the toolset is there and it works. The BMD panels have soft knobs and displays which can evolve as the software is further developed. I think the development of Resolve was a bit stagnant until BMD bought the company but the developments from V7 to now have been leaps and bounds. Furthermore I don’t see where the current BMD Resolve panels cannot fully support further development of the Resolve app for the foreseeable future, maybe ten years.
As for third party panels I can see why the CP 200 series would not be high priority for BMD to support, they are very nice but expensive and still generic. I feel that it is a legitimate business choice to present the BMD panels as the alternative to a customer who is in the market for panels in the $20K price range.
Lastly BMD has been really good at supporting all of the available panels in the low cost range. Mapping a UI onto a new panel/interface has to take software engineer resources and time. I am pretty sure that BMD will support the Element panels like they support the JL-Copper which is in the same Class/Price range.
A fully maxed out Resolve with a ton of GPU and Panels with an assist station with a Wave or JL and a ton of fast storage is like a souped bitchin’ Camaro with a blower. A big chunk of Muscle Car like iron that in many ways might take the McClaren and that can be implemented around a different economic model.
Go BMD it’s a pretty awesome ride.
-Rob-
Robert Houllahan
Director / Colorist
Cinelab Inc.
http://www.cinelab.comMAHC-PRO 6-Core 3X GTX285 20Tb SAS Wave Panel Panny 11UK SDI Plasma.
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I think Thunderbolt looks like a great port and certainly a 17″ Macbook Pro with Thunderbolt peripherals would make a great “on set” DIT / Colorist machine and with the possibility of adding a “real” Gfx card and I/O etc to a portable machine is pretty nice.
However I don’t think a machine with multiple GPU cards based around Thunderbolt is so great as a serious dedicated Colorist setup. Consider 4 or more X16 GPU’s and a X8 Raid like the Atto R680 or similar the Thundebolt port starts looking like a pretty tiny straw to move all that data around with.
-Rob-
Robert Houllahan
Director / Colorist
Cinelab Inc.
http://www.cinelab.comMAHC-PRO 6-Core 3X GTX285 20Tb SAS Wave Panel Panny 11UK SDI Plasma.
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I think Lite is Two nodes and yes you can grade with just one if need be, done for years by film color timers with primary CC only no curves or HSL or anything….
Depends on the material, of course, no going window crazy….
-Rob-
Robert Houllahan
Director / Colorist
Cinelab Inc.
http://www.cinelab.comMAHC-PRO 6-Core 3X GTX285 20Tb SAS Wave Panel Panny 11UK SDI Plasma.
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The Blackboard 2 is really over the top nice but I really don’t know about future proof. Baselight is a great machine and I think they support JL-Cooper and Avid Artist panels now in addition to the BB 1&2. Resolve supports the JL and Avid and Wave… most grading apps support third party panels out of necessity or for assist seats, etc.
The point is that all of the “real” grading solutions offer proprietary hardware panels that are specifically built around the grading app, and those panels are expensive and single purpose.
None of the custom panels are going to work with third party apps I guess it’s just a choice to buy a badd ass chunk of hardware which impresses and lays out the whole user interface in easy and fast to grab controls.
-Rob-
Robert Houllahan
Director / Colorist
Cinelab Inc.
http://www.cinelab.comMAHC-PRO 6-Core 3X GTX285 20Tb SAS Wave Panel Panny 11UK SDI Plasma.
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Burn it in and then find a local ISF/Calibrator guy with a decent probe and Cal-Man to help match it. Cheaper than buying a Hubble and a Color Management package….
-Rob-
Robert Houllahan
Director / Colorist
Cinelab Inc.
http://www.cinelab.comMAHC-PRO 6-Core 3X GTX285 20Tb SAS Wave Panel Panny 11UK SDI Plasma.
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I think that is sort of right…;-)
Obviously with BMD and Resolve following up Color from Apple and now Iridas non linear color grading is getting easier to attain from a hardware/software cost perspective. However I just don’t know how many people will really want to get into doing color grading I think it will remain somewhat niche compared to editing or shooting or even VFX or CGI.
Also it cost me more than the wave and the Resolve dongle to buy a X-Rite Hubble probe and Lightspace to calibrate my display(s) so to do the job of Colorist “right” there will be an amount of hardware/software needed.
I am doing a grade on a feature film right now (3-perf 35mm scanned to 2K on an Arriscan) and we just had a supervised session at my loft in a old mill which was pretty cool I have to say nobody minded the Wave and I think the new Element is going to be great.
As with many many things which have been “changed” by the computer revolution in the end it is still going to be the skill and eye of the operator.
-Rob-
Robert Houllahan
Director / Colorist
Cinelab Inc.
http://www.cinelab.comMAHC-PRO 6-Core 3X GTX285 20Tb SAS Wave Panel Panny 11UK SDI Plasma.
-
I wonder if Tangent plans to phase out the Wave and replace it with the new panels? Or if they plan to use the tube interface on an updated wave?
-Rob-
Robert Houllahan
Director / Colorist
Cinelab Inc.
http://www.cinelab.comMAHC-PRO 6-Core 3X GTX285 20Tb SAS Wave Panel Panny 11UK SDI Plasma.