Mixing Light Member Update – January 2022

I understand the challenge of Slack and that it’s not as integrated. Unfortunately I think the forum system is a step back for me.

I use Slack a lot for work. The rest of my team is on Slack, that’s were we coordinate tasks and have our calls, some of my big clients are on Slack and project coordination happens there. So having ML part of the Slack channel made it part of the daily conversations.

A forum is a separate destination that I need to keep track of and engage in. It just adds one more task to the day, that probably will end up further down on the list. Even if Slack remains, it will now compete with the forum and probably be less lively. There are so many forums competing for attention and time, LGG, Lowe, FB, and the list goes on. It’s really difficult to keep the friction low. Slack for me happened to do that. Everyone’s mileage will vary though.

The same with the office hours. I missed this morning’s live stream, but it’s positioned as a place to get a problem solved, not just banter with people in the same field. What if I don’t have a problem I need help solving? Is the live stream still relevant?

I get that ML is primarily a learning business, always has. And the changes being made make it better on that dimension. But they also make it less of a community then. It was nice getting to know everyone on more regular community and share. We’ll see what happens to that aspect in the new format.

That said, very happy to see how ML is evolving.

Cheers,
Jan

Hi Jan – I appreciate your feedback. And I 100% hear you. One thing I discuss in the video is that Slack will be a Notification Center for updates on the forum. So you’ll see the conversations happening within Slack and you’re only 1-click away from communicating.

Also – as in Slack the forum will have several places for free-form conversations if you want to start one, just like we have now in Slack. But yes, in my envisioned scenario, Mixing Light’s Slack channel does become read-only.

I do understand there will be some members disappointed by this change, even knowing that we will still use Slack to keep you up-to-date on *all* conversations happening on Mixing Light (not just the Slack conversations). But unless I/we can find a way to make Slack fully integrated into the rest of Mixing Light, as the person responsible for leading Mixing Light I don’t see a way around this decision.

You can correctly infer from my answer that if members find a solution that solves the problems as I discussed in the video, I’m 100% behind reconsidering this decision. I’ve been looking for a solution for 2 months and nothing integrates Slack the way we need it to.

I appreciate that. I’m not sure how to solve it though either. The 1-click away makes you more aware of topics that may interest you. And does make it somewhat easier to ‘monitor’ and then jump over. How that fares in reality we’ll have to see.

There is lots of precedence of notification aggregators, the ultimate RSS feed I guess. But they’re never the same as direct engagement.

In all these cases you have two options – build a community around an existing water cooler, or setup a new fancier water cooler in hopes that people will walk on over. The most successful communities in terms of engagement metrics have been the big centralized networks because they make efficient use of attention and time that individual communities can never produce. But you sacrifice control and make it hard to integrate your other custom offerings.

I’m not at all trying to change your mind. If I were in your shoes with your new mission, I probably would do the exact same thing. I merely meant to provide feedback/commentary as you asked for in your post above. In the end it will be what it will be.

For me presently ML has become less of an education resource and more of a community. Color is only part of my business these days, and Resolve is not my primary color platform either anymore. I might have watched somewhere between 2-4 insights in the last year. Mostly getting inspiration on look development and understanding the new color tools from Resolve for comparison’s sake. So I’m not really your target audience anymore. I still do very much appreciate what ML has taught me in years past though.

🙂

This is exactly the kind of feedback I’m looking for. Question, out of curiosity: What color platform are you using these days? Are you doing other work, besides color grading? I ask because I’m looking to expand ML’s field-of-vision and I’m looking for data points. (if others want to chime in on this question, feel free to do so)

Totally fair question. I used to be just camera + color until about 2 years ago. These days the split shifts over time, but I’m heavy on edit (Avid), color (Mistika, Baselight, Resolve in that order), vfx (Nuke + Silhouette), and sound (Nuendo). I’m running it as an integrated post-finishing business now and I’m no longer a solo operator either.

I could jokingly say that I do all the things Resolve offers as an integrated platform, but that instead I utilize the premium apps in each category, rather than preferring the integrated approach BMD offers.

In terms of color, Mistika is my first choice for color only, or major color jobs. I use Baselight a lot through it’s integration with Avid. So if I do the edit in Avid, then color will be Baselight. I can also access Baselight in Nuke the same way. Resolve really only comes into play if I want to avoid a conform nightmare from Premiere (usually beauty/commercial work that is super heavy on effects) or if the editor send me a .drt.

My primary education platform these days are fxphd and some other premium paid course materials.

fxPhd is terrific. I love that site. Thanks for your detailed answer. Your mix of tools makes me smile since that’s a tough mix of tools to master – and yours is the approach I’d take if I was still in a major market and looking to push into the high-end.

As it relates to Mixing Light: It’s tough to find Contributors for your platforms. As you probably know, talents able to run those tools tend to be (and stay) very busy. If you run across people (personally or online) who cover those areas and you think would make a good ML Contributor, please do let me know (or ask them to reach out)! Like I said, I’m looking to expand the vision of Mixing Light 😉

Very exciting changes coming down the pike! Congratulations on your expanded role and rollout of creative energy.

Hi,
I’m totally unfamiliar with Slack, but I have the following question :
Would it be possible to make those discussions available as audio files (podcasts) ?
I drive a lot around the (tiny) country and like to listen to something interesting. I already listened to all the Mailbags and other podcasts. I hear a lot of good things about the Slack Hour moments. Maybe they can be shared as such ?
Cheers,
Dries

Hi Dries – The Slack discussions are text only. No audio. It’s a real-time conversation tool built for teams and designed to replace popping into someone’s office to ask a quick question. BUT – Office Hours is moving to a new format and we just released our first one here: https://mixinglight.com/color-grading-tutorials/office-hours-color-management-jan-7-2022/

I have been thinking about releasing the new Office Hours Livestream to the members-only private podcast stream. Would you find that useful?

Office Hours Live Stream – Color Management (and much more)

Thanks!

Hey Patrick,
Happy new year to the MixingLight team. Looking forward to see great skill enhacing content on MixingLight. All the best!
I have one following suggestion for the content if you can cover this year.
As a newbie I always struggle at finding work. So “what could be a right approach to get to the DP and ask them and make them to believe in your skills eapecially when you are new and you do not have work experience.”

Thank you very much!

Best,
Yash M.

Hi Patrick,
Thank you for your response. I’ll check out the new Office Hours video.
I always liked the ‘podcast medium’ because it allows me to learn something while making the 2 hours trip to my main client. If the Livestream would be added to the ‘member-only private podcast’, I would check it out !

The fist office hours livestream is about one hour long. This would be to long to watch it as a video. For a trip in my car, that’s an excellent timing.

Anyway, thanks for your response and excellent content these last years. It improved my workflow a lot !
Cheers,
Dries

Hi, Are the Office Hour video chat’s/Q&A going to be posted? I see one but not others?