Digital Color Correction:
The Final Cut Studio Workflow with Apple's Color
by Ezra Peace
The latest addition to the Call Box family (www.callboxlive.com) is "Digital Color Correction"which features Stuart Ferreyra and Noah Kadner in an interview style walk through of Apple's new Color. Stuart owns a post production company and has been using Color for years, previously known as Final Touch developed by Silicone Color who was recently bought out by Apple. This is not a tips & tricks DVD (as much as I wanted it to be) but it does show you all aspects of this exciting new program.
Aesthetically it is the same level of quality I am starting to expect from Call Box - studio shot and produced. Noah is not as prominent in this edition but still offers his brand of accessibility and personality. Stuart is knowledgeable and articulate.
The introduction is smartly presented in a two perspective format; Noah presents the low end user prospective (laptop usage and home studio enthusiasts) while Stuart provides the pro perspective (professional colorists/post production). In the introduction they describe best practices as well as colors place in the Final Cut workflow. Stuart describes the things that Color can't do. For instance it wont accept nested sequences, time modified sequences, or modified opacity sequences. There are also other considerations such as you will lose the original timecode of the clips in the imported sequence as Color generates entirely new clips. The rest of the DVD explains everything that Color can do.
One nice little nugget is that they show a colorists control surface by tangent devices which is pretty cool if you've never been in a post production facility and seen one. Stuart goes into describing the benefits of using one (and also the price ranges). I would have liked to see it in action as they only presented a disconnected model, pointing out the various controls.
They round off the introduction by going into the history of Color (the Final Touch days).
The next and final segment is a walk through setting up Color as well as introducing the viewer to the rooms in the program such as Primary In (color wheels), Scopes and Waveforms, Secondaries, Color FX, Primary Out (color wheels), Geometry, Still Store, and Render Queue.
Other items covered briefly include:
Bottom line is, "Digital Color Correction - The Final Cut Studio Workflow with Apple's Color" is a guided tour of Apple's Color by an experienced colorist years familiar with the program. My only criticism is that I would like to have seen them conduct the walk through using a case study approach in demo fashion to add excitement to the experience. Much like Apple's demo in the FCS 2 roadshow.
Ezra Peace is President of Motion Media, LLC, a company with a passion for film making. For more information go to www.getmotionmedia.com. |
