Get More Accurate Drone Shots with the XRite XL | No Film School

The traditional color chart is an invaluable tool on film sets (if you've never used one before, here's how). If you want to match multiple cameras together it's essential to have a known reference image you can look to in post, and a color chart is the standard tool. As post software gets more sophisticated, it's possible for grading applications like Da Vinci Resolve to automatically give a neutral balance to footage based on the chart.

X-Rite is one of the leaders in this market, and their color checker video is fully supported by Resolve for automatic balancing (btw - here are our favorite things about Resolve 15). The only problem is that sometimes it's too small. Of course, it's great that they make both a normal sized option and a pocket sized to keep with you, but until recently they just didn't have a jumbo reference. Now they've launched the XL, filling in the rest of their line.

The X-Rite ColorChecker XL

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Why would you want a color chart so big? Sometimes you are on a wide prime lens and can't zoom in to fill the frame with a smaller chart. Sometimes you are on an older zoom that color shifts as you zoom in, and want to leave the lens wide for calibration. Sometimes you are working on a sporting or live action event with cameras stages far back.

All of those are good reason, but the clear reason why this product finally launched now is drone work. Matching footage between your drone, even when it's a high end drone, and your ground footage often involves some finesse. The ability to shoot a chart identical to your ground chart from the sky and to use that to start the matching process is vital. This is a definite must for drone cinematographers booking a lot of jobs where their footage needs to intercut seamlessly with the rest of production.

Honestly, for some shoots we might even want access to a XXXL, though just having an XL is a nice start.

Available now.

Tech Specs:

Lie flat or self-standing
19.8 x 13.05" (50.3 x 33.1cm)
0.12" (3.0mm) thick
Compatible with Da Vinci Resolve and 3DLUT creator

xrite resolve color chart drones

What's the Hype With 'Interstellar' Revisiting Cinemas After a Decade in 70mm IMAX?

Here's Why You Need to Revisit 'Interstellar' in 70mm IMAX

Celebrate the love and hope at the center of Nolan's space epic in the format it was meant to be seen.

If we know anything about Christopher Nolan, he likes to go big. Nolan started with smaller-scale stories (as many of us do) with early noir adjacent works like Following, Memento, and Insomnia, then started going and staying big with his illusionist drama The Prestige. Since then, the scale has been various degrees of massive, with the biggest scope in his time-and-space sprawling epic, Interstellar.

While Interstellarmight not be everyone's favorite Nolan outing, there's no denying it's an impressive feat of filmmaking and his most emotional—if watching Matthew McConaughey's Cooper desperately try to reach his family through quantum space-time doesn't make you cry at least a little bit, what's going on, dude?

With Interstellar'sIMAX release, it's a great time to shed some tears in a public setting in one of the most prestigious film formats around. As we mentioned in our film gauge piece, Nolan loves shooting on film and utilizes 65mm intentionally to provoke a tone of massive scale. In that regard, Interstellar was made for 70mm IMAX. That goes without saying, dawg. That being said, other factors make Interstellar a perfect movie to revisit in theaters while you can.

Let's break down the release further below.

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