The First Korean ICA Class

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.