» Posts Tagged ‘redepic’
JAG35 at NAB 2012: a $1300 Wireless Follow Focus, Friction Follow Focus, RED Rig, and Slider
JAG35 makes one of the cheapest wireless follow focuses in existence. Now they’ve improved upon their design and made the entire system much more durable. They also are introducing a clever follow focus that is friction based for newer lenses, but doesn’t have to be mounted to the side like many other friction-based follow focuses. I talked with Jehu Garcia from JAG35 and he introduced those products, as well as a custom RED Scarlet/Epic rig and a new slider they are developing. More »
Welcome to the world of public camera testing, Jim. The wild west camera shootout that Jim and Co. were planning to have at RED Studios Hollywood on June 4th has been cancelled. It seems all of the “grief” that he’s been getting over the situation isn’t worth the trouble, and he and RED “have better things to do.” Surprisingly, Steve Weiss entered REDUser forum territory to explain the choices that had been made for the Zacuto camera test, and the fact that RED had been offered many times to come to the shootout, manage their own RED Epic, and control the post-production method used for that camera. More »
This is a guest post by filmmaker Robin Schmidt a.k.a. El Skid.
It’s been a while since I wrote part 1 and part 2 of this series and much has happened in between. For the indie filmmaker the camera buffet suddenly grew a few extra tables and it’s interesting to see which, if any, of the new cameras we’d have chosen to shoot on back in November in preference to the RED Epic. More »
Pay-Per-View…Or not. It seems that Mr. Jannard has a bone to pick with the people at Zacuto, and he wants the world to see in 4K. He’s unhappy with the tests (I couldn’t see the newest test at NAB thanks to technical difficulties) since the final output for all of the camera shootouts thus far has been 2K, and it levels the playing field for those cameras that can’t shoot above 1080p. With more and more theaters moving to 4K projectors, it is important to at least consider if 4K should start to be included in the near future. Unsatisfied with anyone else who does camera testing, Jim has decided to do his own camera test in 2K and 4K and is inviting other camera manufacturers to RED Studios in Hollywood on June 4th. More »
Earlier in the week I was able to watch the short film Loom, directed by Luke Scott and produced by his father, Ridley Scott. The entire futuristic sci-fi film was shot on Epic in 3D, and it was being projected on RED’s (not new) Laser Projector and RED Ray. Both of those products were announced a long time ago but RED may finally release them this year. Unfortunately at the beginning of the week the projector was only displaying 2K 3D in each eye, but it’s actually capable of 4K in each eye. I went back later in the week to see if it had been fixed but they were still working on the system, so I imagine at some point it will be 100% working as it ships late this year (hopefully). But the real question is: can 3D make a comeback with RED’s projector? Will the lower cost be beneficial to the survival of independent theaters or will this projector not be adopted by theaters at all? More »
It’s been announced – the long awaited successor to the MX sensor, Dragon, is finally getting some specs and a release date. Upgrades for Epic will cost $6,000 and begin late this year, while the Scarlet upgrades won’t be until 2013 with a price TBD. Jim slightly broke his rules – announcing specs for something that isn’t shipping yet – but it’s still fun to see what those guys at RED are coming up with. I just came from the REDUser event where the 4K portrait finalists had their films displayed on multiple 4K TVs all at once – my favorite being the Panasonic 152″ behemoth, which isn’t even at NAB – only RED had it at their event. More »
RED makes an excellent custom laser-cut EPIC case for $600 (pictured). However, the same wheeled case — a Pelican 1510, which is the maximum allowable size for carrying onto an airplane — is just $150. It’s certainly nice to have a custom foam insert in your case for maximum camera/accessory security, but if you don’t feel like spending $450 on a foam insert, here’s how to create your own — using RED’s own custom-cut materials, which come with the original camera and accessory packaging. It may go without saying, but this post will only be of interest to folks who have a RED DSMC or are thinking of buying one. More »
Not to be outdone by the recent Sony announcement of the high-fps FS700, Vision Research is rolling out a brand new camera that should fit a little better in your hands, and in your budget. The Phantom Miro M320S is an update to their Miro line, and with it comes 1540 frames per second at 1920 x 1080. The sensor inside is slightly bigger than the RED Epic, so full frame field-of-view lenses will prevent any vignetting in the corners at 1080 or 1200. More »
Though this may be the least amount of direct filmmaking knowledge you may get from this site, I thought it was worth following up with the previous Prometheus TEDTalk. We’ve got three new videos: an official full-length trailer, a Q&A with Ridley Scott and Damon Lindelof, and a new viral ad. The Q&A does have some particularly insightful moments that go beyond just the film, but part of the reason I’m sharing this is that on a base level, I really feel that Ridley and his team are now bringing science fiction to even greater heights. They also shot in 3D on the RED Epic…so throw that in there for good measure. More »
We’ve posted about cameras attached to RC helicopters before, but unlike that fraudulent Kickstarter campaign, there are legitimate companies pursuing the marriage of camera and RC helicopter. So, here’s the lowdown — folks in Germany and Finland have attached RED Epic cameras to remote controlled octocopters in a devious attempt to blow our minds. I’ve embedded two videos below. One shows the RED Epic being epically flown whilst attached to an octocopter. The second has ninjas. To be honest, the only thing that would have made this more internetishly savory would been if the ninjas revealed they were actually cats. All goofing aside, the stability and smoothness of the footage is pretty remarkable: 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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
Last week I shared a “blind” shootout between seven sets of prime lenses. Viewers of the extensive test were instructed to pick their favorites and wait for the answer key to find out which lens was which. Now the answers are live with the videos, and downloadable .R3D files (it was shot on a RED EPIC) are also available: 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 »
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