[Tig] color

[Dick Hobbs]

Yes, I think that Color is a big deal in its way, but I am not sure  
that its way has much to do with the professional colorist.

No-one, I think, who has any serious knowledge of colour correction  
seriously expects a software application that runs on a desktop  
computer to be a proper colour processor. Even given the eight core  
Mac that we all secretly crave but cannot justify buying, it is never  
going to be able to do the realtime stuff that Pandora's Revolution  
board does so remarkably - almost unbelievably - well (other colour  
processors are available).

Remember that Apple started its Sunday morning prayer meeting at NAB  
with the news that it has sold 800,000 licences for Final Cut Pro,  
which makes it a consumer product first and foremost, albeit with  
some very attractive features that make it suitable for professional  
use.

Final Cut Pro became Final Cut Studio with DVD authoring, graphics  
and audio sweetening thrown in. Final Cut Studio has now become Final  
Cut Studio 2 with 3D motion graphics and colour correction thrown in.  
It is an incredible bargain, but that still does not make it a tool  
for professionals. There is a reason why Final Cut Studio costs $1299  
and Pandora will charge a little more than that for a colour  
processor (other colour processors are still also available).

Indeed, around the bars of NAB I was expounding a theory that there  
is a new niche market to be opened up: the "help me unscrew what I  
screwed up in Final Cut Studio" boutique. There will inevitably be  
some producers who now think they can miss out on the post house  
altogether and do everything on their kitchen table with Final Cut  
Studio. Eventually, when they have wasted weeks and are sick of  
making their own cappuccinos, they will take the badly cut video with  
random audio levels and not a single matched colour to someone who  
can sort out the mess they made. And they will never try to do it all  
themselves again.

Dick



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Dick Hobbs
Consultant and writer on television and film technology
+44 1435 830988
Skype DickHobbs
dick at hobbsonline.tv




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