HD For Indies

Some tidbits as Red gets closer to shipping (hopefully in a month or so, give or take a week?) Soderbergh is probably shooting right now as I write this in Spain on his prototype Reds, Jim Jannard posted on RedUser.net last night:

Steady progress... - Reduser.net:

"We are making steady progress getting the camera ready for production. As we stated previously, some features will not be enabled with the 1st cameras shipping. All updates will be done as features are enabled through a download and USB or Compact Flash to the camera. It is really easy. Slip in the card, turn the camera on, and say 'yes' when it asks you if you want to upgrade to the new software.

We are very, very happy with image quality at this point and still think we can improve some as time goes on.

This has been (and still is) a huge undertaking. It is a project worthy of our best effort. We appreciate everyone's patience. We do not expect another schedule slip at this time (things can change).

Jim"


later in that same thread:

Steven Soderbergh starts shooting in Spain in 8 hours. He is flying without a net (no backup plan). Just RED ONE's. He will be recording 4k REDCODE RAW to Compact Flash. Wish him (and all of us) luck.

Jim


Somewhere along the line, I missed when Rodney Charters, cinematographer on "24" said about the Red One:

I have had the opportunity to test he RED ONE camera over the past few weeks, including direct comparison to the same film I shoot on '24'. All I can say is that I am totally amazed. Revolutionary might not be a strong enough word to describe what RED is doing.

Then recently, Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (writer/director and cinematographer on Crank) said:

Film is dead. And by the way, so is video. The word is getting out that RED is the future, but for us it is right now. After holding these bad boys in our hands and putting the cameras through the full Neveldine/Taylor acid test our faith in the mad scientists at RED labs is unlimited. We're committed to RED for every project we've got in the pipeline."

Mike's Comments: OK, that Soderbergh is willing to shoot with prototype Red Ones without an alternative plan speaks very highly of his faith. Soderbergh has been a strong digital advocate for quite some time, and after projects like 3 Ocean's 11 movies, Traffic, and Solaris, he can pick whatever he wants.

Rodney's comments are high praise indeed, coming from a highly placed professional in the field. That he compares it directly to film and is still very impressed bodes very well indeed. That he historically shoots film, and still likes Red, is VERY encouraging.

Neveldine and Taylor are strong digital advocates (Crank was shot on F900 if I recall correctly), and I don't know what their film shooting history is or isn't, but seeing the pictures of one of the guys roller blading with a Red One tells me a lot about their gung ho attitude.

Technically, if shooting to 8 GB Compact Flash (I'm guessing at the size Soderbergh is using, dunno) at 24fps (presumably at 27 MB/sec according to Graeme's last statement I saw on the matter, lets go with that for now) allows for a hair over 4 1/2 minutes of footage per CF card. Lame by video standards, but a reasonable short load for a film camera. That's a short load, but considering you can carry a fistful of them for a day's narrative shooting, or have all the media you need for the afternoon in your shirt pocket, that's not bad! Oh - and don't forget, that's 4K res footage you've got in your inner jeans change pocket.

Bigger ones to follow in time, Red RAM to follow in time (64GB solid state, should yield about 36 minutes of 24p footage).

This makes me itchy to start playing with a Red as soon as humanly possible.

: )

-mike

Labels: Red