Congratulations to Mike Mazur & Jason Boyer of the feature documentary, “Coming Clean”. Their film was accepted in the New York International Independent Film festival. It’s a bi-costal affair. “Coming Clean” recently screened in LA and we’ll be able to see it here in NYC in July.
Mike Mazur, co-director and editor, and I have been working together for several years. We’ve gotten to know each other pretty well. I don’t think he’ll mind me saying he has seen tragedy resulting from drug and alcohol addition. He’s seen it up close and personal. In the years I’ve know him it’s been clear he’s pulled to showing the kinds of stories highlighted in “Coming Clean”. He was torn by the moral dilemma posed by undertaking this film – and even though the ending makes for good drama, everyone involved wishes things had ended differently. I’m proud to have been affiliated with this project.
After finding myself with some extra time on my hands – I decided to finally finish (actually – start) Fini’s color correction demo reel. You can find it here.
There are two types of demo reels for color correction. The traditional reel is a series of beauty shots. The less traditional reel is the Before / After reel.
I spoke to a few producers with lots of experience hiring film colorists. To a person they said the traditional reel was what I should produce. They felt that a Before / After reel was the sign of an inexperienced colorist. I thought about this long and hard… I decided to go against this advice. My clients aren’t their clients. I was talking to the wrong people.
Unlike clients buying $600 / hour telecine suites, my clients don’t have experience sitting with a Color’ist. At best they’ve worked with a good Avid Symphony online editor who does a good job but rarely approaches it as a career specialty. At worst, my clients don’t quite get it; after all, except for a few tweaks the footage already looks good. Right????
So – unlike a film colorist, I have a ton of educating I need to do with my clients. The Before / After Reel is a tool designed for that job. In fact, I’ve already had one producer say to me, “Perfect – my client has been having a hard time understanding the need for color correction. This reel explains it clearly.”
And before you ask/complain, the music is temporary. A friend is scoring to it.
Any feedback on the reel is always appreciated!
- pi
NEWS FLASH: Fini is auctioning (3) 10-hour days on January 15, 2009 in New York City! The proceeds will go to Mopictive, an educational 501(c)3 serving New York City filmmakers. Details on the Fini auction can be found here. Mopictive’s website is here. Up-to-date information on all the Silent Auction items here.
Help a good cause and post this info where appropriate!
Thanks!
Fini is going on sale!!!
Or rather, we’ll be auctioning off our color correction services to the highest bidder in a Silent Auction.
That’s right. We don’t care if it’s a short, your 20 minute student film, or your 120 minute feature going to the silver screen – if it’s ready to go by the end of March, we’ll color correct it!
Of course, there will be limitations (don’t bother trying to pull Artistic Creativity on us and take 3 weeks to work on one scene) – those details will be announced soon enough.
The silent auction will take place at the January meeting of Moptictive (the New York Final Cut Users Group). I’m their Treasurer and we’re a great 501c3 educational non-profit. We have big plans next year. We haven’t named this promotion yet but it’ll hopefully be the headlining auction of dozens of great products and services.
Feel free to pass around the news. Sometime before Christmas I’ll be putting up a web page with full details, including all the niggly restrictions and required workflow.
In the meantime, Happy Turkey Day!
One programming note: Yes, 5 months, no posts. Let’s just say it’s been busy around here… and this blog is undergoing some changes to better align with my needs. Mostly, it’ll spend less time talking to my peers and more time talking to my clients. But there’s some good stuff buried in these pages, so I’m just going to let this puppy lie. But beyond one or two more posts – this iteration of The Finishing Line will be going dormant.
And I’ll be posting at least once more before putting Finishing Line 1.0 to rest.
- patrick
Last Call! The 1-Day Color workshop I’m leading is happening tomorrow. In Manhattan. 2 seats are open. Registration closes early this evening. To sign up directly, go here. Below I’m re-posting full details that went up on this blog a few weeks ago.
Full Disclosure: I am on the Board and Treasurer of Moving Pictures Collective (Mopictive is a DBA of the New York Final Cut Users Group and also a certified 501c3 not-for-profit) which is hosting the following event. You can be assured that over 50% of the proceeds will go to Mopicitive and furthering its mission to the training of Digital Storytellers. The instructors (including me) are paid only a nominal fee.
It’s that time of year…
If you’re in the New York City area in June or July, there are TWO color correction seminars being held. These seminars are a collaboration between myself, Mopictive, Manhattan Edit Workshop, and Alexis Van Hurkman (author of the Color user manual as well as several books on color correction and effects with Final Cut Studio). I’ll be teaching a weekend of one-day seminars with Jamie Hitchings on the basics of working in Color. Alexis will be teaching another weekend of one-day seminars on Advanced Color Correction techniques with Color.
These will be jam packed days. I last did this class several times last year and they were pretty well received. Jamie and I cover the basics of color theory, FCP -> Color workflow, the Color interface, and solving real-world problems on real-world footage. In July Alexis presents his own material, picking up where I leave off. He’ll cover the ColorFX Room, advanced grading techniques in the secondaries, and how to get Color’s tracker to work properly. Both of us will leave time to make sure you get your questions answered.
The best thing about all of these classes – every enrollee will have access to their own computer running Color. These are hands-on classes designed to get you feeling comfortable on the software and giving you a strategy for sculpting your own images.
Cost: $300 / class with 50% of the proceeds going to Mopictive (the NY Final Cut Pro User Group) and the remaining split between the facility providing the equipment and the instructors.
Sign-up: To sign up directly, go here. For more info on the June workshop, go here. And for more info on the July workshop, go here.
Questions? Feel free to use the Comments.
- pi
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Meet Your Colorist: Patrick talks Color Grading, Finishing, Workflows, Final Cut Color
via Digital Production Buzz