Color Talk With Tom Parish

If you’re from the Los Angeles area you’ve likely heard of David and his company Avical.com located in Burbank because he is the go-to guy for high-end video post production professionals in that part of the country. If I’m working at production or post house , and I need my most important monitors made as absolutely perfect as they can be made, I call Dave at Avical. What a fascinating clientele he must have and oh the stories that could be told. Let’s see if we can eek a few of those out in our conversations about the state of the art of display calibration for the Hollywood media houses. On a personal note I learned a great deal from Dave during the conversation. I'm keenly interested in display calibration and the impact it has on color correction and color grading. The two key points I was most curious to learn was why does he use SpectraCal's Calman software for display calibration and how does he set gamma. And finally what are his views on the evolution of adoption of the BT.1886 standard in the p

If you fancy yourself a digital creative, video editor, special effects person, colorist, producer, or filmmaker (or maybe all of these together), then sooner or later you come to the question – When should I purchase a reference display monitor? Why should I even bother? Bram Desmet, CEO of Flanders Scientific Inc., answers these questions along with some enlightening conversation around his insights in the rapidly changing area of display technology and display calibration trends for 2014. If you have a professional emphasis to constantly improve your craft, then improving the quality of your post-production work is critical, and using a calibrated reference monitor is one of your keys to success. Even if most of what you do right now is create, edit, or color content for the web, there are compelling reasons to use a reference monitor. Sooner or later you will be touching content destined for cable, broadcast, and theatre audiences. Your confidence in the color accuracy of your work is closely tied to th

This podcast is a brief conversation with Patrick Inhofer about a collection of insights for color grading log-recorded files. I also ask Patrick to talk about the MixingLight.com website and how that’s been coming along in the last year. I mention a number of times the insights I’ve learned from Alister Chapman an extremely creative DP from the UK who is known for being a storm chaser. He also takes small groups of photographers to Norway to record the Aurora Borelalis all in 4k. You should hear the stories he tells about that experience. And what discussion of grading log files would be complete without referencing Alexis Van Hurkman's Color Correction Handbook.

If you haven’t heard, lots of folks are talking about a new SDI-based LUT box that sorta breaks the mold with regards to how LUT boxes have worked in the past. Here’s why. The Fujifilm engineers designed a physically small SDI-based LUT box to hold a 3D LUT for display profiling and calibration, but this is not your ordinary single-purpose LUT box. Fujifilm wrote their own PC and Apple display calibration software that can be used to quickly calibrate and install LUTs for a variety of purposes. Think about using DaVinci Resolve to create a test look while on set and installing that LUT into the IS-mini for preview purposes. What about networking a number of LUT boxes together on a big multi-camera shoot to manage LUTs for onsite previewing, monitor matching, and look previewing at a live event? During the interview, we also talk about the Fujifilm IS-10o Processing System that does all this. The key point is the Fujifilm software makes quick work of installing a LUT into the box for preview purposes on s

I had two goals with this podcast: 1. Have a one-on-one conversation with Charles Poynton about the future of display technology as we evolve from mastering HD to UHD, 4k and even 8k media. 2. Understand where display calibration technology stands with mastering displays (LCD and OLED in particular) and what is state of the art with calibration software. A point I wanted to bring out was that mastering displays for high-end productions will always need calibration tools for mastering purposes, but how can a growing market of digital creatives leverage these tools to bring their iMacs and personal computers into close compliance with Rec.709 and and newer standards using ICC profiles? The amount of content this community is mastering is huge, so can they use the same calibration tools? From our conversation it was clear that Charles has a great deal to say about displays and display technologies because he's been an instigator of many display standards since the 1980s. Charles really pours on the insigh

In this interview Derek Smith provides a technical history of the evolution of display calibration software for attached monitors on PCs and MACs. Derek covers in detail the older style monitor calibration techniques that use ICC, Direct Display Control and 1D LUTs (inside a computer graphics hardware) and how all three of these technologies are managed at the same time in Calman RGB to produce faster more accurate results. At TomParish.com I’ve included a transcript of the entire conversation so you can go back and read Derek’s explanation of how Calman RGB works, why their approach is different and how it provides a significant improvement in accuracy and speed as well as vastly simplifying the user interface experience. Let’s face it we don’t want to use these tools we just want to use our displays knowing they are calibrated as close as possible to REC709 so we can get on with our creative uses of color, yes! Listen into to learn more.

Young and talented, Roxy Radulescu is representative of the new creative class emerging through the millennial generation. We talk about her motivation for investing her time and creativity into her constantly evolving website, MoviesInColor. As an interviewer I am curious to learn how she creates these color pallets. Listen in and find out. Duration 15:54. You’ll want to visit her site, or better just add her Tumblr account, to gain a fuller understanding of her creativity. Fascinating work. It’s been an inspiration for me as a colorist. I share her hope that her work will inspire new filmmakers to experiment with different color palettes in telling their stories. A noble cause and one worth having in this new age of using digital media to impact the production quality of storytelling in films.

On this interview with Joel Barsotti I decided to dig in with SpectraCal and ask some 'how to' questions regarding their AutoCal and AutoCube technology for display calibration. A curious question that comes up is can you trust software that calibrates a display for you? There is an assumption that only a highly trained calibrator can do display calibration and it can only be done manually and it always takes many hours to do for every display. Scary stuff for the smaller shops who want to be sure their laptops, attached displays and reference displays are at or near the REC 709 standard. So setting the stage here for those small post shops who are looking for a less complicated and less time consuming way to calibrate all of their displays I thought it would be worthwhile to learn more about AutoCal and AutoCube from the director of software development - Joel Barsotti.

Up next is a conversation with Cédric Lejeune on the topic of color consistency in post-production workflows. This is a big topic, and it would be easy to drill down into a dozen different niches. Instead, I gave Cédric an opportunity to talk about the issues and opportunities for small post-production companies to focus on color calibration, color correction, and color grading to increase the value of their work and be more competitive. Background Cédric’s company is Workflowers, and he specializes in digital cinema and video workflows, infrastructures, and colour science. In 2006 Cédric started Workflowers to develop consulting and training services, accompany film labs in the transition to digital, and help post-production step into the cinema world. He specializes in digital cinema and video workflows, infrastructures, and colour science. His work on online collaborative environment and content management tools has made him an expert of cloud technologies for media. He also develops CPGP plugins for co

The reality for the independent post-production house is we’re all Dropboxing (I guess it's a verb now) files back and forth to create or finish out a project, and the problem is that everybody's displays show slightly different colors. We’re all working on a different color interpretation of the files. Talk about confusion for the colorist who has the final task of making it all play together! Up next is a discovery of how SpectraCal is bringing order to the hodge-podge of displays which have such differences in color calibration – in our studios, in our digital creative community, and used by our clients. We need more than just a single reference monitor; we need all of our displays to be more closely aligned. Most of us don't need perfection – just assurance we're close – and if we're way out then we need a way to get those displays adjusted. The difficulty is figuring out quickly which displays need attention, and how to fix the problem so there is greater consistency or alignment of colors when working

In this show I talk with Luhr Jensen the CEO, founder and creator of the Klein10a colorimeter that is herald as the fastest most accurate colorimeter on the market. It's also built like a tank to take tough punishment from those of us hauling around probes for calibration of displays in studios and theaters. Many thanks to Luhr for being willing to have a very personal and technical discussion of how this probe has come to be so popular and what he thinks is next in the evolution of display technology and display calibration needs. Listen in for more!

Senior Colorist James Wicks works with a highly talented team at Olympusat color restoring classic 35mm Spanish-language movies. Jim, as he his known to his friends and colleagues, discusses his passion for being a Colorist, and discusses in detail some of his amazing experiences as he color restores these classic movies for a whole new audience. He carefully color restores each film to its original look and luster - despite the fact that each film has been in storage for anywhere from 50 to 70 years. Given that the films are actually reframed for 16x9 HD viewing, they look even better than they did originally. Jim talks about the team effort that goes into repairing each film, such as the careful cleaning, optical scanning, restoration, the color restoration process, audio, and finishing. Jim covers two examples: one from a 1951 black and white film, the other from a 1956 color film that looks to be nearly as grand in scale as "Gone with the Wind". Join in the conversation and let us know if you have q

If you want better looking video and a smoother ride for your colorist seriously consider listening to this podcast and getting one of the OneShot Color reference card from DSC or SMPTE. The creator of this unique card (Art Adams) talks about how to use it in your production and post workflow to improve the quality of your productions. This is what separates you from the pack of others out there shooting and competing for the same jobs.

While I was attending NAB 2013 I meet Rob Bessette a colorist from Boston demonstrating the new features for Resolve 10. Like most other Resolve users I was excited to hear about all the new goodies coming but I was very curious what Rob would have to say after returning home to Resolve 9. What was that like after a week of using Resolve 10? Background on Rob Bessette: Rob is lead colorist at www.Finishboston.com for the last three years and began as a colorist 8 years ago. He worked with a senior colorist for 5 years learning the tools of the trade. Rob mainly works on commercials but does indie features also and is starting to do some dailies work as well with all the footage being shot in Boston. Rob says he really enjoys the mix of creative work as well as the technical aspects - a 'real interesting blend'. I can relate to that. During this interview I'm mostly interested in Rob's experience in using Resolve 10 and the reactions he received during the week from the NAB crowd. For those of you wanti

Mary Larraine Stewart and I talk about some surprises at the 5Alarm Music booth at NAB 2013 and we have a spirited interview with Sarah Scarlata (see picture to the left). Sarah is a Music Director for 5Alarm Music who is a also a Producer / Creative Writing Manager / Digital Content Coordinator - besides that I hear she is a killer drummer - we have a lot in common. Listen in and learn how the super fun and friendly 5Alarm Music staff with clients to help them find just the right track for their productions. We talk about trends in production music for 2013 also. Sarah gets into her rock roots at the end of the show - don't miss it!

In this interview I speak with Dwight Adair, writer/director/producer at Seadra Productions. We talk about film and the color-grading experience of West Texas Muse, a film about Tommy Hancock. This documentary is 64 minutes long and was shot over a period of 10 years on SD video. There were quite a few special challenges in getting the movie finished. It was originally edited on a FCP3 system, and the movie included many old family movies and stills, all needing special color correction. Dwight did an amazing job of editing the story and building up the initial sound track. As you know, the devil is in the details with audio, so I want to give a special shout-out to Reed Hart for his dedication to reworking the soundtrack from start to finish to make it perfect. He truly has a intuitive feel for what sounsd right in a mix between words and music. The movie is being submitted to film festivals this year, but I believe there are plans to create DVDs so check back later on this if you are interested. I post

This interview was captured on location at their office in Burbank CA. Markus Loeffler the developer and Asif Ahmed Product specialist where on hand for a face to face interview. Before the interview we tested out the ability to export a LUT from Color Assist in Davinci Resolve 9. That worked great it just required change the extension from .TXT to .DAT and move the LUT file to the Application Support folder in System Library (not the user Library) on Apple OS. More on this in the blog article at www.tomparish.com