When I started with video/motion/digital cinema (whatever you want to call it) 10 years ago, the editors I hired would not color . . . period, nada, nope, never.
Not even drop one color filter into a clip and I don't blame them.
Editors like writers and directors are story tellers, not colorists or effects houses.
For color, the colorist I used was in Dallas and worked in a 4 story building full of colorists.
Today that 4 story building is 1/4 of a floor and one large, two small suites.
The editorial houses that were a full floor (small houses) or a full block (large houses) in LA are now working in trailers between sound stages.
Today, it's instant gratification. Our recent and present shoot, has seen us work 18 hour days shooting and honestly, in the end of shooting in London, the client wanted a "quick" edit we shot with three RED's and needed it now. That was three nights until 4:36, 5:64 and 6:15 am. Every morning I went to bed with the sun up.
It's not the client's fault, they're into the instagram age where they don't understand why a cell phone still can be effected in 14 seconds. You can explain that a medium run Hollywood feature takes 6 months to edit and color and that just goes nowhere.
I've seen great instagram photos, even from amateurs and even then never seen 4 great instigram photos from the same person. Shooting one photo or video clip that is interesting is not that difficult. Doing a series of work, either still or motion that has cohesiveness is difficult and takes time.
You can explain it, talk about it, schedule it, diagram it, but it falls on deaf ears.
Today, it's deliver today and most client's think lightroom for stills is a retouching tool, they probably think there is a lightroom for color, which is and isn't true.
Last night downloaded Red giants Bulletproof that ingests and allows for first light coloring. Did it on a powerbook as a test and apply some basic correction, nothing severe as it does nothing severe. For 5 - 4 minute clips it took about 6 hours and finally crashed. The 4 clips it finished had artifacts and some goofy blooming or something I can't describe.
Why is there Bulletproof? Because client's of all stripes are asking for footage and want ALL the footage color corrected for delivery, prior to editing.
A few years ago, nobody dreamed of that, unless you were shooting news for FOX, or CBS and even then any program that wasn't real time went through some kind of adjustment and editing prior to air.
The thing is most desktop systems are not real time. There was a reason a old generation Di-vinci suite costs $1,000,000 and even if you can work real time with dedicated render cards, 4 hours of footage in real time, is 4 hours of rendering, not including setting, primary, secondaries and output and even then once into the edit, probably need some tweaking, or major redo's to make a compelling visual piece.
Good work takes time. More than good work takes a lot of time and it's very hard to explain that in a instagram world.
There is an article in todays NY times about slow down. It shows some beautiful work that takes time, but as much as the NYT's takes the high road, I can promise you that article will sway no one in the commercial world.
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/29/a-modernists-challenge-to-instant-gratification/?_r=2&Actually if anyone wants fast, real time color correction the real answer is shoot and edit in black and white.
IMO
BC