» Posts Tagged ‘red’
Band Pro has teamed up with Astrodesign to make a 1920 x 1080 Electronic Viewfinder. We’ve already talked about what might be the future for small EVFs, but for now, we’ve got this monstrosity weighing in at 3 pounds. Though many of us won’t be able to afford this when we actually find out the price, it will be a fantastic rental and it’s a good sign that high-resolution EVFs at affordable prices are just around the corner. More »
RED always seems to be a topic of conversation in the independent film world, even if their prices have been steadily rising over the years. They’ve always been quick to add modules or accessories, but many professionals have found that system to be a pain, and many argue that to get the camera to do anything, you’ve got to buy a ton of accessories that only RED makes. That modular system is unique in the film world, however, because it allows RED to make a device like the Meizler module – a module that provides a tremendous amount of functionality in a small package. More »
'Solipsist' - an Experimental Short That Beautifully Blends Practical and CG Effects
What do you get when you mix experimental film with fantasy via Jim Henson? Andrew Huang’s new short film, Solipsist, provides a beautiful and vaguely disturbing mind-trip of an answer. Some of you may recognize Huang’s name from his earlier viral short — Doll Face. For a film that started as a Kickstarter project last summer, it’s pretty impressive to see how quickly Solipsist was finished and released — especially considering Huang did a large chunk of the post-production himself. Coming off its recent win of the “Special Jury Prize for Experimental Short” at Slamdance, the short is now available to watch in full, along with some very intriguing “making of” footage that reveals some surprising use of practical effects: More »
As noted previously, RED has a new color science and gamma curve for their RAW-shooting cameras: REDgamma3 and REDcolor3. The new color science comes with a new camera firmware — version 3.0.0, which is a release build (not beta) for both EPIC and SCARLET — and there’s a new version of REDCINE-X as well. RED’s Jim Jannard explained the color science updates with the following — note that if you’re doing a full grade, your gamma setting will still be REDlogfilm, but you should expect to employ the new color science alongside that gamma curve: More »
Electronic Viewfinders have slowly been replacing traditional viewfinders for the past few years, but last year’s NAB saw an explosion in cameras with all-digital viewfinders – as well as standalone EVF products. Sony has been in the lead for the quality of the EVF on their cameras, specifically the NEX-7, A77, and A65. Panasonic is just behind with their GH2. But all of the EVFs on these cameras pale in comparison to MicroOLED’s technology. More »
The good and bad thing about RED cameras is, more so than most, they’re always getting better. RED fanboys espouse the free updates as “getting a new camera in a software update” whereas RED haters call the cameras “always in beta.” The truth is somewhere in the middle, but even taking into account the usual hype on REDUSER, it’s worth noting a few things coming down the line from Jim Jannard, et al. The first is a $10K home/grading suite projector that is 4K and 3D (one or the other, or both at the same time?), and the other is REDgamma3 and REDcolor3, which will be a color science update for both the cameras and REDCINE-X. More »
Canon applied for a RAW video patent in July of 2010, and it was just published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office yesterday. The filing indicates that Canon is planning to retain CF card compatibility while compressing 12-bit moving images to RAW 4K or 2K resolutions. Note that it’s a popular misconception that “RAW” means “free of compression” — RAW, as far as both still and moving images are concerned, means that the data is stored in an unprocessed manner (which allows for adjustments in maximum colorspace before converting to an output format) — not in an uncompressed manner. Indeed, in the patent Canon describes 4K uncompressed 12-bit video’s 2.8Gbit datarate as “too high for CF cards,” so, like RED, they will be compressing the data coming off the sensor. It’s going to be a very competitive next few years… More »
James Drake from Denver-based RED rental house 5K Insight gave Dave Dugdale of Learning DSLR Video a hands-on with the RED EPIC camera, and the two videos are an excellent introduction to the RED DSMC system. They’re included below, but first, two things every RED EPIC/SCARLET owner should be aware of: More »
RED Workflow: How to Get REDCINE-X and Premiere Pro Working Together Seamlessly
One thing I’ve been wondering about since getting a RED was what I was going to do about workflow. REDCINE-X Pro is a really nice (and free) color grading application. But you’re not going to do secondary color correction or really complicated masking/keying in it (yet). So how does one use it in conjunction with a NLE? Do you render out files, take them and edit them in Premiere Pro, and then color correct files that you’ve already rendered? Don’t you sort of lose the whole idea of a RAW workflow by doing that? Turns out there’s a better way. More »
I mentioned previously that I’d shot a micro-short to test out the RED SCARLET, and here it is. To put the camera through its paces, we wanted to use it in a real-world setting instead of shooting charts in a studio — but we also didn’t have the time or budget to put together a “real” short. What we set out to make (and what we ended up with) is something more than a series of test shots, and something less than a proper short. This was a no-budget, quick production on which everyone donated their time. Let me know what you think! More »
Sebastian at Cinema5D has released a short film shot on his Canon-mount SCARLET, and some very nice video overviews to go with it. Since you can’t get your hands on a RED camera at a normal camera shop — they only sell direct — these video overviews are very helpful. Here’s the short, which was shot in 3 hours on the Canon 24-70mm f2.8L lens (more details on the shoot here) and graded in DaVinci Resolve: More »
Phil Holland (who gave us some very handy RED crop factor and data rate sheets) shot the following tests on his Al Canon-mount RED SCARLET. Graded in REDCINE-X Pro and edited in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5, the tests include low light and 3K/48FPS tests. If you have a high-resolution monitor, you can even view them in 4K resolution (select “Original” if you’ve got the screen real estate): More »
It’s January 1st, and that means that the price of a RED camera has gone up. While I’ve noted this previously for anyone who was thinking about ordering one, there’s a second set of RED components that are getting a price increase: accessories. However, due partially to the fact that some of their planned accessories didn’t ship before the calendar flipped to the new year, RED has extended the date for when accessories will increase in price to March 1st. In the list below, the yellow prices should already be in effect, whereas the green “new” prices won’t go into effect until March. More »
This is a guest post by filmmaker Robin Schmidt a.k.a. El Skid.
The first part of this series brought out some strange, and unexpected reactions, mainly fuelled by the ‘on-set’ footage we put together. We didn’t shoot a behind the scenes doc because this is a short film, and, well, putting together a documentary that’s as long as the film itself seems like a bit of overkill. We will eventually shoot some interviews with the directors, the actors and the composer but these are purely for the festival packs and will be very very short. I spend a lot of time scouring makingof.com for ‘on-set’ footage of films because it gives me the best understanding of what’s actually going on. It’s nice to hear people talk about their choices but I like to see the set at work, observe the bodges and workarounds that crews come up with, and see how the director works. Some of you objected to the ‘on-set’ video. Cool. We look for different things! I’ll try and give you a bit more of what you want in this post…
With all the hype surrounding 4K acquisition, I was surprised to hear that David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo would be the first large-scale end-to-end 4K digital cinema release. Previous films captured at 4K were posted and distributed at 2K… which kind of defeats the purpose. In my quest to find a 4K theater to see GWTDT, I got a response from Sony’s Digital Cinema Twitter account, yet because I’ve been catching holiday films with my family (including young ones) I haven’t yet had a chance to see the film yet (it seems I’m not the only one in this situation). Regardless, I wanted to share a very interesting article about the film’s 4K workflow by Light Iron’s Michael Cioni, which includes this interesting nugget on Fincher’s approach to reframing in post (his framing chart is pictured): More »
I shared my first impressions of SCARLET-X #00072 but hadn’t yet had a chance to put the camera through its paces properly. I wanted to do a real-world shoot instead of a simple test, so I sketched out a one-page scenario and got together with DP Timur Civan, co-director Raafi Rivero, and actor Harlan Short to put together a rooftop short. Because of holiday commitments it might take us a bit of time to put together, so in the meantime here are some brief thoughts and images from the shoot: More »
What have we here? A nice addition to the roundup of lens options for the new breed of Super35 cameras. Indent Studios in Oregon hosted a shootout between seven different PL lens sets: the Cooke Panchro /i, Luma Tech Super 35 Illuminas, Red Pro Primes, Unique Optics Kenji Suematsu Series, Leica R Cine-Mod, Schneider Cine-Xenar II, & Zeiss Compact Primes v1 & v2. Shot on a RED EPIC at 5K, they’ve released the tests initially as a “blind” test — meaning, go ahead and watch them and pick your favorite lenses. Then, a week later, they’ll label the tests so you know which is which: More »
Uh-oh. This site’s getting too RED-centric! Well, it’s not like there have been any big DSLR announcements lately that I’m missing (have there?). And don’t worry, help is on the way. I don’t make the news, I just report it, so here’s what’s new: RED has finally opened up ordering for the EPIC-X (until now, it was only available for RED ONE owners). Also, as previously mentioned, RED will be raising prices on a number of items starting January 1st — including the SCARLET. Here’s how the prices are changing. More »
I’ve had my RED SCARLET-X for about a week now, but am still waiting for some third party batteries which got unexpectedly delayed. Thankfully, Tonaci Tran (who was the first person to get his hands on a RED SCARLET-X and was also the first to post footage from it) has written up his first impressions, and shared feature film footage from the SCARLET. I also have some initial thoughts of my own based on running the camera on AC power. Here’s the new clip posted by Tonaci, and my own thoughts so far: More »
On Wednesday my RED SCARLET-X camera showed up at the door, serial number 00072. I posted a quick picture to Twitter but had nothing more to say about it, given I’m waiting for some necessary accessories (this is on me, not RED, given I ordered third party batteries and don’t have access to any PL glass at the minute). But just as I’m getting my RED, Philip Bloom has given up his. Here’s what happened: Philip had originally written a very balanced post about why to get — and why not to get — a RED SCARLET-X. REDUSER exploded with negative reactions, and Philip started receiving emails from a “higher up” at RED: More »
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