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CSI December 2016 Member Newsletter
 
 
 
Member
Newsletter
December 2016
 
 
 
 
 

IMDbPro Recognition for Work Performed by CSI Colorists


IMDbPro, the leading information resource for the entertainment industry, has expanded its Guild Affiliations page to include professional digital colorists who are Full Members of Colorist Society International (CSI).

This means that all CSI Full Members who work on productions listed at IMDb can now choose the CSI designation at the Guild Affiliations page of IMDbPro.

Said CSI co-founder Jim Wicks, “CSI represents a unified voice for the professional colorist in the film and digital entertainment industry. The partnership with IMDb further solidifies and promotes our craft within the industry.”

As part of the IMDbPro Affiliate program, all CSI members will receive a generous IMDbPro discount (see story and details below).

                                                                                                                      

IMDbPro 25% Discount 
for All CSI Members

 
Flanders Scientific 5% Discount
for CSI Members

As part of the IMDbPro Affiliate Program, all members of Colorist Society International (CSI) will receive 25% off their IMDbPro membership.

To take advantage of this offer, go to IMDbPro.com/redeem.  Enter your email address and the promotional code.

To get the IMDb promotional code, log into the CSI forums, and look for it in the discounts folder. If you have not completed your registration – now is the time to do so.

The IMDbPro discount is available only to CSI members.

  • New to IMDbPro? Time to set up a new account.
  • Already have an account? Please use the email address you currently use for IMDbPro. Note that the discount will be applied to your next billing cycle.
  • Former IMDbPro member? Please use the email address that was associated with your previous account in order to ensure the information associated with your profile gets restored properly.

Please note: offers may not be combined, and entering a new promo code will override any existing discount that has been applied to your account.  Promotional discounts will be applied at the start of your next billing cycle. This offer is limited to members of CSI only and is non-transferable.

Flanders Scientific, a key corporate sponsor of Colorist Society International, is offering a unique discount to all members of CSI.

Bram Desmet, CEO and General Manager said: “Members of Colorist Society International may use the exclusive discount code at www.ShopFSI.com or www.ShopFSI.eu. This will entitle them to a 5% discount on any 1 item per year. In 2017 we will issue a new coupon code so this 1 time per year cycle is automatically reset on our store. The item can be a monitor or an accessory at any price, their choice.”


To get the FSI discount code, log into the CSI forums, and look for it in the discount folder. If you have not completed your registration – now is the time to do so. The FSI discount is only available to CSI members.

CSI members need to ensure they only have a single item in the cart and apply the coupon to that. If you want to order accessories with the item you just need to place a separate order. FSI can still consolidate the shipment to save on shipping costs. If you have any questions – call or email FSI.

Thank you Flanders Scientific!

Mixing Light Discount
for CSI Members
 
Dolby HDR Seminar
in London

Training with the best helps you be the best—for your clients and bosses. With that in mind, your colleagues at MixingLight.com have an exclusive offer for their fellow CSI members.


CSI Full Members can save 32% on annual subscriptions. CSI Associates can save 24% on quarterly subscriptions.

To get the Mixing Light discount code, log into the CSI forums, and look for it in the discount folder. If you have not completed your registration – now is the time to do so. The Mixing Light discount is only available to CSI members.

MixingLight.com is the professional colorist-training site. The site delivers weekly insights to a growing community of international color grading pros. Your discounted subscription gets you full access to their ever-growing Library of articles, podcasts and videos. And once signed up, you’ll get additional member-exclusive discounts to their stand-alone training titles.

What will you learn? MixingLight.com currently has an ongoing ACES series that digs deep into the pipeline. They have another active series on breaking down commercial looks. Plus they’ve started another series on conforming an XML using an original short film they’ve recently produced.

Colorist Society International has two core objectives: recognition and progression.

The announcement this month that IMDB fully recognizes CSI is a milestone achievement in our first year.

For the second objective, we are keen to further the art in as many ways as we can. Mixing Light and ICA already offer members a discount on classes. CSI is now also working to arrange meetings at shows and local presentations.

On January 25th, CSI co-founder Kevin Shaw will be presenting a free seminar for cinematographers and colorists on working with HDR deliverables. The afternoon will be hosted at Dolby, 4-6 Soho Square London, W1D 3PZ and is a rare chance for us in the UK to see a Dolby Cinema HDR laser projector.

The seminar will cover the basics of what HDR is, HDR workflows and a discussion about some of the practical implications for cinematographers and colorists.

Registration is not yet open, but if you would like to attend please email Kevin.Shaw@coloristsociety.com.

If you are presenting, or know of a presentation that would interest other CSI members please let us know at admin@coloristsociety.com.

Down to Business
 

Is Color Timing A True Art Form
Part 3

Dale follows up last month’s part two essay with the third and final installment in his series on the early days of color grading and color correction.

Early on, while employed at Deluxe Labs, I was working on low-budget films, and on one of those films the Director was guiding me in the timing of his movie. He wanted the film to be very golden in color. The golden look was part of the story line and was very important to his vision for the film.

For each sequence the director would ask me to add more gold to it. This went on for the first two screenings, and with the corrections that I was putting into the film for the third print, I was sure that the third print would be the final. Thinking third time’s the charm, I thought the director would be very happy.

So we started running that print. All was going well, but at the end the Director said to me, "Dale, the golden color you created is stunning, your shot to shot matching is flawless - but everything is the same color, the entire film is now one color and it's BORING.”

I contended that I had given him exactly what he asked for at every step of the way. He agreed, saying, “yes but I am not a timer Dale, you are. “

The Director explained that he thought his film needed to be more golden but admitted he had been wrong because, “not being a timer, I couldn’t have known that I was asking you to make it all one color. You must have known that was happening because you were doing it.”

The Director wasn’t blaming me for doing what he told me to do; he was just saying it didn't work. “It's probably the first time that you have made any movie only one color. Sorry but we need to fix it.”

At this point in my career I hadn’t been with enough clients to have the strength of confidence, the savvy, nor the skillset necessary to effectively redirect a clients’ vision to my own so I could do what was best for the film.

I was well aware that each sequence or location in a film needed its own look, and yet, have the continuity to fit in with the overall look of the film’s story. But I was also told to give your client what they want, not what you want.

This experience became my crucible. The lessons learned taught me that I really needed to be the one in charge of storytelling with color.

So I learned how to do just that.

First, I worked hard learning how to extract the best look from every exposure and image construction I worked with based upon its workable range. That gave me the confidence I needed to have the correct answer when asked why I made any shot or sequence the color and density that I did.

Every image has it's own individual construction and levels of separation within that constructed base. The established relationships between these levels are set by the initial exposure and lighting conditions and should be maintained unless they are out of balance. Breaking this rule results in an unbalanced image.

Knowing that each image has it's limits in color and density before it starts to "break up" (become unbalanced) means that you have to work with the image on it's own terms.

An average major film has about 2000 individual shots. That's a lot of terms to bring into agreement with each other, and still maintain the film’s overall sense of beauty or symmetry while keeping to the goal of telling the story with color.

I titled this three-part series, "Is Color Timing a True Form of Art?" So what about it? As the title asks, is color timing a true form of art?

To my way of thinking, the answer is yes. The true art form is to use color with skill and understanding to create beauty and symmetry using the film’s multiple related images to tell a story. So in this respect color timing is clearly proven to be a true form of art, and the color timer a true artist and should be rewarded as such.

Happy grading.

Dale Grahn


                                                                                                                      

ASC Awards

The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) has announced its television nominees for the 31st annual Outstanding Achievement Awards. Winners will be revealed on February 4, 2017, at the organization’s annual ceremony at the Hollywood & Highland Ray Dolby Ballroom.

This year’s nominees are:

Regular Series for Non-Commercial Television

  • John Conroy for Penny Dreadful, “The Day Tennyson Died” (SHOWTIME)
  • David Dunlap for House of Cards, “Chapter 45” (NETFLIX)
  • Anette Haellmigk for Game of Thrones, “Book of the Stranger” (HBO)
  • Neville Kidd for Outlander, “Prestonpans” (STARZ)
  • Fabian Wagner, BSC for Game of Thrones, “Battle of the Bastards” (HBO)
Regular Series for Commercial Television
  • Tod Campbell for Mr. Robot, “eps2.0_unm4sk-pt1.tc” (USA)
  • John Grillo for Preacher, “Finish the Song” (AMC)
  • Kevin McKnight for Underground, “The Macon 7” (WGN)
  • Christopher Norr for Gotham, “Wrath of the Villains: Mr. Freeze” (FOX)
  • Richard Rutkowski for Manhattan, “Jupiter” (WGN)
Movie, Miniseries, or Pilot for Television
  • Balazs Bolygo, HSC, BSC for Harley and the Davidsons, “Amazing Machine” (DISCOVERY)
  • Paul Cameron, ASC for Westworld, “The Original” (HBO)
  • Jim Denault, ASC for All The Way (HBO)
  • Alex Disenhof for The Exorcist, “Chapter One: And Let My Cry Come Unto Thee” (FOX)
  • Igor Martinovic for The Night Of, “Subtle Beast” (HBO)

The nominees were selected by ASC active members who voted on submissions.

For information regarding the 31st ASC Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography visit www.theasc.com or call 323-969-4333.

And if you are looking for a great value gift (to yourself), American Cinematographer is offering a one year digital subscription that includes back issues for $9.99 instead of $50. Claim before 15th January at:

https://store.ascmag.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=sub_dig_1_SPECIAL

                                                                                                                      

Getting Credit

Get the credit you deserve.

With CSI colorists now receiving recognition on the IMDbPro Guild Affiliations page, it is more important than ever that you receive screen credit for the work that you perform on motion pictures and television programs.

Patrick Woodard, CSI, is recognized to millions of viewers each week for his outstanding work on the CBS-TV series, NCIS: Los Angeles. Patrick asked to get his CSI screen credit - you should ask for yours, too! 

The style guide established by Colorist Society International for the preferred usage of the suffix affiliation for on-screen credits for full members is as follows. “Name, C.S.I.” or “Name, CSI.”



We are asking all CSI Full Members be given a solo title screen credit, typically following the editor’s credit. There is no way to insist on this, but it is worth asking for.

If you have an on-screen credit displaying “Name, C.S.I” or “Name, CSI” be sure to send us a photo and we’ll share it with the membership in future newsletters.


                                                                                                                     

Friends of CSI

As always, we appreciate our sponsors (and hope to add more to the list). Click on their logo to check out their offerings.



 


                                                                                                                     

CSI wishes all its members seasonal best wishes and looks forward to a healthy, prosperous, and exciting new year.

If you have news, photos, projects your working on, etc. that you would like to share with your CSI fellow members in future newsletters – send us an email at admin@coloristsociety.com with all the details.

Happy Grading!

Best, Jim and Kevin

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