A couple of years went by and the first software plugin that we released specifically for Final Cut was LUT Utility and that allowed users to apply 3D Look Up Tables. Professional users felt that there were some features that were missing, and if you remember the history prior to Final Cut X, Final Cut Studio contained a dedicated color grading system called “ Apple Color” that they acquired from another company called “ Final Touch.” The color port was a kind of revolutionary way of producing color correction, but at the same time it was still limited with what it could do. If you’re familiar with the history of Final Cut X, you’ll know that in 2011, when it was released, it wasn’t the most well-received. “I was running Color Grading Central and was just producing different training videos for people wanting to learn more about color grading. Now there’s tons of tutorials on YouTube, but at the time there wasn’t really anything at all.” I did take some formal training at the International Colorist Academy at Burbank… Besides that there was a real dearth of information that was out there, so this is what inspired the creation of Color Grading Central… There simply wasn’t information out there.

Besides a couple handful of books, there were no tutorials online, so it was difficult for me to learn, to get good at the craft.

DaVinci Resolve hadn’t come out yet and been disruptive in the color grading space specifically. At the time, there was hardly any information about color grading out there. “I started out as a Director of Photography and, because I really wanted to continue to shape the final look, I felt like color grading was a natural extension of good cinematography. At this time, color grading software was difficult to learn and very expensive to acquire (this was pre-DaVinci Resolve), and his transition to color grading had a profound impact on his mentality as an eventual teacher and software developer. To Denver, color grading is an extension of good cinematography, which makes sense given that he started as a DP.

Color finale final cut