The Mother Died Color Correction Home Study features DaVinci Resolve 10
Wouldn’t you love to stop struggling color correcting video?
I struggled with it for many years. I was a straight-to-broadcast online editor who was taught at the very start of his career what good images look like. And concepts like broadcast legality? They were burned into my soul.
But when I transitioned to non-linear editing, bona-fide color correction tools were placed at my fingertips (Avid Symphony, Autodesk Smoke, Final Cut Pro’s 3-Way Color Corrector). At that point, my ability to make nuanced changes to discreet areas of the image went up exponentially!
Unfortunately, none of my video editor mentors were any more well versed in this ‘color correction voodoo’ than I was. Back then, film colorists were a much rarer breed – and extremely secretive. The result is that I had to struggle to learn it on my own.
For many years I struggled in the craft of Color Correction . . .
I usually managed to produce good-looking images (far better than most of my peers, due my focused attention on developing that skill set). And clients noticed. I’d often win jobs as an editor, in part, because of my ability to ‘bring the job home’ at the end of the process—not just telling the story editorially but visually, too. And for my clients, the additional Production Value that my efforts created? I made my clients look good to their clients.
Over time, through focused practice, I got better at balancing images, matching shots and creating distinct Looks, mood and emotion.
Eventually I became confident enough to start teaching others what I had discovered.
Atlanta, Georgia – Graduates from the small group Live Training… color grading the short film, “Death Scenes”.
How teaching color correction made me a better colorist
In 2006 I started teaching color grading in front of local Final Cut Pro User Groups. And I started a whole new learning curve! I was asked questions I had never considered. And finding those answers often involved research and paying much more attention to myself, as I was color grading.
In fact, the biggest benefit I had teaching others how to color correct—it forced me to focus on… my eyes and hands!
- Where are my eyes looking, specifically?
- What are my hands doing?
- Why am I making the decisions I’m making?
- And do my answers to the above questions change – based on how early or late in the color grading process I’m working?
As I started answering these questions for others, at these User Group meetings – I found I became more proficient as a colorist. My learning curve became much less steep – as I explored the fundamentals of the craft, to better explain it to others.
Why my early struggles are your ‘windfall’
All of this is to say . . . I’ve been in your position, struggling!
I remember not understanding why color work that looked great in the morning didn’t look the same after lunch.
I remember struggling with reading an RGB Parade scope… knowing what it was telling me but not knowing how to turn it into actionable information.
I remember asking myself: Is my work any good?
These were questions I never had to ask myself as an editor. After all, I was trained at a busy New York City post-production facility where 90% of my work went straight to air. All those questions were answered by the Editors in front of me. THEY trained me. I didn’t realize until a few years ago that the value of their guidance were the years it took off my learning curve, struggling to not make mistakes they all had already made.
Working under experienced, senior editors accelerated my career by YEARS.
But in this new world of software-based color correction? The opportunity for that kind of growth, learning color correction, is still extremely hard to find.
The Color Correction Home Study: Shortening Your Learning Curve
In the Home Study I slice and dice all the various interface elements so you know what I’m looking at – and what I’m ignoring.
The Home Study is based on my insights in my own struggles migrating from professional editor to professional colorist. Those struggles have helped inform me how I want to create my own training, here at the TaoOfColor.com.
The Color Correction Home Study : Mother Died Edition is the latest iteration in almost 4 years on online mentoring in the craft of color grading.
The Home Study is designed to do three things:
- Get you functional on your color correction software, quickly—so you can move on to doing real work, confidently.
- Drill the interface training into your muscles by giving you a real-life, meaty project that replicates a real-world color grading job as closely as I can.
- Answer the question: Am I doing this correctly?
Is this Home Study for you?
If you’re serious about learning color grading – would you turn down an opportunity to sit next to a professional colorist for a few days? Especially if he was offering you to take home the same film he was working on for you to explore on your own?
That’s what this Home Study offers you.
The Home Study is distillation of almost 15 years of color grading – from someone who had to struggle to get proficient in it.
If you head over to the product page you’ll get a full run-down of all the details of the ‘Mother Died Home Study’.
And since you’ve read this far, here’s $30 Discount Code for you – just for reading this blog post:
TaoBlog30
The code expires May 31, 2014. And the price of the MasterClass will keep raising over the next week or two during this Launch window. So don’t tarry. If you’re interested, check it out today! And you can read more on this blog about this latest iteration of our Home Study here and here.
Click to read about and purchase the Home Study
