People often ask me how do you decide where to run a class or why don’t you visit us and deliver a class? The answer is just ask.
I must admit that Seoul the South Korean capital was not on my radar when looking for possible ICA opportunities for 2011, but just 10 days into the new year I found myself on a Korean Airlines Airbus winging my way up to Seoul.
Around 6 months ago Richard Lim the Asian sales manager for Blackmagic suggested Korea as a possible ICA class venue. At the time I wanted to establish Singapore and Australia so didn’t think much more about the suggestion. About a month later he put me in e-mail contact with Mark Lee who was keen to host a Resolve 101 class in Seoul. Richard also wanted me to work on his BMD roadshow in January so I saw an opportunity to maximise my time in Korea by running a 3 day class just after the roadshow. We worked on a few class options and settled on a mixture of the Resolve 101 and the 3 day Colorist Strategies class. DaVinci has always had a number of 2K machines in Korea so combine these established 2K Colorists with the new guys keen to learn the Mac Resolve meant we had a good chance of filling the class.
Seoul welcomed me with freezing -5C conditions. I checked into the hotel and immediately got a call from my next door neighbour in Brisbane telling me the river was rising and that we had to start packing! He obviously didn’t know I was in Korea, all the same it made me feel pretty hopeless. What could I do from Korea!
At the Blackmagic Roadshow the following day I had to present in front of 150 people. I think the number had swollen as people came in to escape the snow, warm up and grab a hot coffee…..nothing to do with my demo skills! My phone was on silent but during the seminar I was aware of it flashing and vibrating as people called and sent SMS messages asking if we doing ok in the floods. I must admit it was a little difficult to concentrate.
With the Brisbane river still rising we headed into day 1 of the first ever ICA Korean class. We had 8 students from a mixed background. Leomedia our hosts had supplied the kit along with Hipixel. We had an 8GPU Linux system with BMD Resolve panels. The students had a MacPro controlled by a Wave, viewed on a TV Logic grading monitor.
My students were of a very high standard with lots of industry experience. They all had a basic grasp of English, with some Colorists having good English. I was supported by Stella Choi the in house Leomedia Colorist who translated the harder concepts of the class.
The Resolve 101+ class was Resolve training plus a mixture of some of the Colorist Strategies class. We worked on everything from how to grade a grey chart up to Stereo 3D color correction. The guys were also very keen on doing some “Looks” grading, so we spent a couple of hours looking at how different classic looks could be made on a Resolve. The class was split between those colorists keen to learn the Wave and those higher end guys who just wanted to concentrate on the Resolve panels.
3 days was a great length for the class as it allowed us to repeat lots of things.
Everybody agreed it was a great week, good food, wine, snow and hopefully excellent Colorist training.
BTW the Brisbane River level got to my street but never came under the front door.
