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High Definition Video for Independent Filmmakers
A How To Guide for Digital Filmmakers
Welcome all! This is my blog to share my latest research,
thoughts, etc. on utilizing HD for independent filmmaking.
YES, I am available for consulting
Contact me at mike@hdforindies.com
All content copyright 2004-2007 Mike Curtis.
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Steven Soderbergh calls Red One 'camera I've been waiting for my whole career' & will "change everything'
UPATED - SEE BOTTOM
OK I lied about blogging again today - this was too good not to post, even on the 4th of July:
Quote from Steven Soderbergh... - Reduser.net
'This is the camera I've been waiting for my whole career: jaw-dropping imagery recorded onboard a camera light enough to hold with one hand. I don't know how Jim and the RED team did it--and they won't tell me--but I know this: RED is going to change everything.'
Steven Soderbergh
WOW. That is quite the accolade. As previously reported, Soderbergh has committed to shooting his next two films with Red Ones, and I heard somewhere that shooting has begun (or is about to) on one of them with a beta Red One unit.
As I posted over on the Reduser thread:
I actually had a chance to talk to Soderbergh many years ago at the Austin Film Festival, probably around 1997, after Schizopolis but before Out of Sight - it wasn't the peak of his career. He was in a Q&A session, him and Richard Linklater, and he really shone in that session. I like Linklater's work, but as an individual talking about the craft, Soderbergh's wattage was about 9 times brighter.
I, of course, digiboy that I was (making a living doing mographics & 2D/3D animation then), asked him what he thought of digital production stuff and he lit right up, talking knowledgably about the then state of the art, and his hopes for the future, and the cameras he'd worked with. A very interesting and engaging and knowledgable guy.
Years later, I got a chance to work on a music video that was being shot by a friend or DP or somebody connected to him, because they were shooting on "Steven's Canon" I don't recall if it was an XL1/1S/2, but it was "mo bettah" because it was a pre-production unit built to greater than production specifications, and it was Steven's personal baby.
So yeah, other than the obvious digital productions he's done over the years, he's been way into this stuff for a long, long time.
Again, kudos to the Red Team for impressing somebody that knows their shiznit - so he's highly qualified to make these kinds of statements.
-mike
THURSDAY UPDATE Jim Jannard posted to CML (Cinematographer's Mailing List) last night, adding some further details:
Steven Soderbergh to shoot "The Argentine" and "Guerrilla" exclusively with RED cameras.
In a very brave move, Steven Soderbergh has chosen to shoot "The Argentine" and "Guerrilla", starring Benecio del Toro, with RED prototype cameras. Soderbergh will shoot RED at full 4K resolution, REDCODE RAW and record to Compact Flash.
....then the quote from above, then continuing....
The prototypes are two generations newer than Boris and Natasha, the cameras Peter Jackson used to shoot "Crossing the Line" in New Zealand a couple of months ago.
The RED 18-55mm T3 (f2.8) CF lens and many RED accessories were also chosen by Soderbergh for these movies. Shooting begins in Spain July 24th.
Jim
All good stuff, encouraging to see. I think the Red One will have significant positive impact for a broad range of filmmakers, film styles, and budgets.
-mike
OK I lied about blogging again today - this was too good not to post, even on the 4th of July:
Quote from Steven Soderbergh... - Reduser.net
'This is the camera I've been waiting for my whole career: jaw-dropping imagery recorded onboard a camera light enough to hold with one hand. I don't know how Jim and the RED team did it--and they won't tell me--but I know this: RED is going to change everything.'
Steven Soderbergh
WOW. That is quite the accolade. As previously reported, Soderbergh has committed to shooting his next two films with Red Ones, and I heard somewhere that shooting has begun (or is about to) on one of them with a beta Red One unit.
As I posted over on the Reduser thread:
I actually had a chance to talk to Soderbergh many years ago at the Austin Film Festival, probably around 1997, after Schizopolis but before Out of Sight - it wasn't the peak of his career. He was in a Q&A session, him and Richard Linklater, and he really shone in that session. I like Linklater's work, but as an individual talking about the craft, Soderbergh's wattage was about 9 times brighter.
I, of course, digiboy that I was (making a living doing mographics & 2D/3D animation then), asked him what he thought of digital production stuff and he lit right up, talking knowledgably about the then state of the art, and his hopes for the future, and the cameras he'd worked with. A very interesting and engaging and knowledgable guy.
Years later, I got a chance to work on a music video that was being shot by a friend or DP or somebody connected to him, because they were shooting on "Steven's Canon" I don't recall if it was an XL1/1S/2, but it was "mo bettah" because it was a pre-production unit built to greater than production specifications, and it was Steven's personal baby.
So yeah, other than the obvious digital productions he's done over the years, he's been way into this stuff for a long, long time.
Again, kudos to the Red Team for impressing somebody that knows their shiznit - so he's highly qualified to make these kinds of statements.
-mike
THURSDAY UPDATE Jim Jannard posted to CML (Cinematographer's Mailing List) last night, adding some further details:
Steven Soderbergh to shoot "The Argentine" and "Guerrilla" exclusively with RED cameras.
In a very brave move, Steven Soderbergh has chosen to shoot "The Argentine" and "Guerrilla", starring Benecio del Toro, with RED prototype cameras. Soderbergh will shoot RED at full 4K resolution, REDCODE RAW and record to Compact Flash.
....then the quote from above, then continuing....
The prototypes are two generations newer than Boris and Natasha, the cameras Peter Jackson used to shoot "Crossing the Line" in New Zealand a couple of months ago.
The RED 18-55mm T3 (f2.8) CF lens and many RED accessories were also chosen by Soderbergh for these movies. Shooting begins in Spain July 24th.
Jim
All good stuff, encouraging to see. I think the Red One will have significant positive impact for a broad range of filmmakers, film styles, and budgets.
-mike
Labels: Red
Comments:
Okay, ok. So the red sounds/looks neat. We get it.
Seriously - tho - what exactly would this change for Soderberg? He's already made a film shot on video. How is this going to "change everything"? I would like to think that
being a pretty successful writer/director who can get whatever project he wants made would be "liberating" enough.
So it looks better? Who cares if the story is crappy.
it all comes back to the same thing - content, content, content. Hello, Borat! Hello, Fahernheit 9/11! Audiences don't give a shit what it looks like if the material is compelling enough.
mike - you've been to lots of film festivals. surely you've seen some stuff shot on 35mm that you had to think "Who the hell would spend that much money on that?"
Little less on the Red, little more on the HD4Indies.
Seriously - tho - what exactly would this change for Soderberg? He's already made a film shot on video. How is this going to "change everything"? I would like to think that
being a pretty successful writer/director who can get whatever project he wants made would be "liberating" enough.
So it looks better? Who cares if the story is crappy.
it all comes back to the same thing - content, content, content. Hello, Borat! Hello, Fahernheit 9/11! Audiences don't give a shit what it looks like if the material is compelling enough.
mike - you've been to lots of film festivals. surely you've seen some stuff shot on 35mm that you had to think "Who the hell would spend that much money on that?"
Little less on the Red, little more on the HD4Indies.
Nathan - the fact that a highly successful filmmaker who just made a movie with Clooney Pitt Damon etc and still thinks Red changes the game is a big deal.
That the Jackson short was done in two weeks with a two day shoot should allude to the speed with which you can work with this.
The fifty or more articles I've written on Red and it's workflow should already be info enough about how this can really level the playing field for indies.
If you need a recap of the cost speed and quality and flexibility advantages of Red I'd be happy to generate such a document for you on a consulting basis ; )
(Sorry couldn't resist!)
I think Red will have significant impact for filmmaker across a wide swath of budget levels.
BTW- this is my first blog content sent from iPhone.
-mike
That the Jackson short was done in two weeks with a two day shoot should allude to the speed with which you can work with this.
The fifty or more articles I've written on Red and it's workflow should already be info enough about how this can really level the playing field for indies.
If you need a recap of the cost speed and quality and flexibility advantages of Red I'd be happy to generate such a document for you on a consulting basis ; )
(Sorry couldn't resist!)
I think Red will have significant impact for filmmaker across a wide swath of budget levels.
BTW- this is my first blog content sent from iPhone.
-mike
This is incredibly relevant to HDforIndies. Mike makes some excellent points on RED and how can you possibly argue that this is not related to indies and does not help indies. I say that it is awesome that Mike is giving RED so much attention as it is the only camera out there that is truly providing big change for indies. What other companies are really producing a camera that has such incredible features at such a strong price point? None. So then, you must ask yourself, how is this not related to independant filmaking? If this isn't then I don't know what is! I'm sure if there were more that were highly relevant to independants then Mike would be covering them. :)
This comment will be in spanish. I have a bad english.
Me parece que tener una vision tan reducida de las nuevas opciones que traera la RED, es repudiable.
No tenemos mas que mirar hacia atras para ver como la aparición de las cámaras MiniDV (DVX100, XL-1, Handicam's, etc) cambiaron la forma de hacer cine, crearon un lenguaje totalmente nuevo e impulsaron el nacimiento de nuevos cineastas.
HVX-200 y el ecceso al HD, aunque sea por medio de DVCPRO HD, ya se transformo en standart en la industria, junto con la mezcla del los dvds de alta definición y las mejoras en la interactividad, genera otro nuevo lenguaje.
La RED, y esto es lo visionario de Soderberg, va a crear un lenguaje totalmente nuevo en la cinematografía. Distintos a los anteriores en los cuales partiamos de una limitación. Ahora que nosotros, cineastas independientes, tengamos acceso a material 2k y sin problemas con la definición de la imagen, ahora disponendremos de toda la resolucion que queremos y desarrollar un lenguaje, otra vez, totalmente nuevo e insisto mezclado con los nuevos formatos de DVD.
Un ejemplo de lo anterior es el proyecto de titulo de mi carrera el cual lo estamos trabajando junto a otras 5 personas.
Creamos un DVD Alteatorio. Ques es esto? Es una pelicula que esta pensada solo para el formato DVD y cada vez que la indroduscas dentro del aparato de reproduccion, computador o dvd player, veras una versión distinta cada vez. Grabamos con 2 DVX100a y en 15 dias con un presupuesto de US$6000. Tenemos cerca de 3 horas de material el cual pueder ser recombinado mas de 36000 veces. Esto no habria sido posible sin la aparición de estas nuevas tecnologias.
Por esto ver que lo único que importa es el fondo, el contenido, es ser un miope.
-daniel ferreira.
daniel@sure.cl
www.sure.cl
www.papalapelicula.cl
www.mundoespejo.com.
Me parece que tener una vision tan reducida de las nuevas opciones que traera la RED, es repudiable.
No tenemos mas que mirar hacia atras para ver como la aparición de las cámaras MiniDV (DVX100, XL-1, Handicam's, etc) cambiaron la forma de hacer cine, crearon un lenguaje totalmente nuevo e impulsaron el nacimiento de nuevos cineastas.
HVX-200 y el ecceso al HD, aunque sea por medio de DVCPRO HD, ya se transformo en standart en la industria, junto con la mezcla del los dvds de alta definición y las mejoras en la interactividad, genera otro nuevo lenguaje.
La RED, y esto es lo visionario de Soderberg, va a crear un lenguaje totalmente nuevo en la cinematografía. Distintos a los anteriores en los cuales partiamos de una limitación. Ahora que nosotros, cineastas independientes, tengamos acceso a material 2k y sin problemas con la definición de la imagen, ahora disponendremos de toda la resolucion que queremos y desarrollar un lenguaje, otra vez, totalmente nuevo e insisto mezclado con los nuevos formatos de DVD.
Un ejemplo de lo anterior es el proyecto de titulo de mi carrera el cual lo estamos trabajando junto a otras 5 personas.
Creamos un DVD Alteatorio. Ques es esto? Es una pelicula que esta pensada solo para el formato DVD y cada vez que la indroduscas dentro del aparato de reproduccion, computador o dvd player, veras una versión distinta cada vez. Grabamos con 2 DVX100a y en 15 dias con un presupuesto de US$6000. Tenemos cerca de 3 horas de material el cual pueder ser recombinado mas de 36000 veces. Esto no habria sido posible sin la aparición de estas nuevas tecnologias.
Por esto ver que lo único que importa es el fondo, el contenido, es ser un miope.
-daniel ferreira.
daniel@sure.cl
www.sure.cl
www.papalapelicula.cl
www.mundoespejo.com.
Well that's very nice of Soderbergh to give everyones favourite video camera plug. Yeh, it's a great piece of gear, I'd love to play with one too but unless someone makes a magic money tree that'll also reduce the cost of everything else involved with movie making, I don't quite see what it's going to revolutionise. I also don't see a slot where it says 'insert duff script here' and the other where it says 'top notch script output' anywhere on the Red. Sure, it's a great camera, but let's not get carried away here. Can't see it reducing the price of George Clooneys fee any time soon :D
While I know nowhere near as much as others about filmmaking, it seems to be to me that the film has always been one of the most expensive parts on a film. Sure the crews and various gear all cost money, but such things when done with an indie mindset I believe can be done much cheaper. Getting favors from people etc can help quite a bit. But film I think (and correct me if I'm wrong please) seems to be one of those major obstacles to making a cheap film that has until now been hard to get around. Major talent while they no doubt will charge a lot for a major studio picture, may be set aside a large portion of their fees in the event that they are interested enough in the project. I can't think of any names off the top of my head but I can certainly recall hearing of ones over the years who charge a lot less because they see the film as having a lot of potential and wanting to become involved. My 2 cents :)
So we're all supposed to make films by asking favours... hmm. Let's just get one thing straight, the film stock and the processing IS NOT the most expensive item on the budget. Feeding people for a few weeks is surprisingly expensive too, as is accomodation, wardrobe, sets. The phrase 'check the gate' is most definitely not dead yet and it's presumptious to think so. Red is a nice camera, but it's no revolution except in the way we make images. It will not revolutionise the industry because the industry isn't just the camera department.
I'm just back from a month of shooting HD in China and I can personally say that "hair in the gate" has officially been replaced by "lit pixel." I'm going to have to do some digtal magic on my show in post to turn off this little curse that could not be seen on the typical 7" monitor on HD documentary productions. The more things change...
i will not disagree with those that say the Red will not change the overall cost structure of the it industry. but i think it will ease the entry point for many filmmakers. remembering that 1000' feet of 35mm film(10 minutes of dailies) cost
$600 for the roll and $200 to process and $450-$700 to telecine and and first up time at 3 1000' rolls per transfer hour, production is paying just under $1000 per 10 minutes of shot dailies. thus a small ratio 5:1 shoot for a 90 minute film roughes out as $45,000 for only getting the film from camera to the editor. this of course is not including 35mm camera rental at minimum around $2500 a week for reasonable packages.
production could own a package for the cost of film,proc ,transfer, or in all likely hood rent the a complete system for $2500-3000 a week and spend $10,000 on 8 hours of redundent storage media.
this would put $35,000 back into to other line budget items-- fedding people, wardrode, etc.
while this is more evolutionary, the fact that this will be the first complete 4k camera system available for less 6 figures is revoutionary. the major manufacturers are still releasing 2/3" HD chip cameras that are six figures or better.
any way just my outlook.
best of luck.
ray flynn,NYC.
$600 for the roll and $200 to process and $450-$700 to telecine and and first up time at 3 1000' rolls per transfer hour, production is paying just under $1000 per 10 minutes of shot dailies. thus a small ratio 5:1 shoot for a 90 minute film roughes out as $45,000 for only getting the film from camera to the editor. this of course is not including 35mm camera rental at minimum around $2500 a week for reasonable packages.
production could own a package for the cost of film,proc ,transfer, or in all likely hood rent the a complete system for $2500-3000 a week and spend $10,000 on 8 hours of redundent storage media.
this would put $35,000 back into to other line budget items-- fedding people, wardrode, etc.
while this is more evolutionary, the fact that this will be the first complete 4k camera system available for less 6 figures is revoutionary. the major manufacturers are still releasing 2/3" HD chip cameras that are six figures or better.
any way just my outlook.
best of luck.
ray flynn,NYC.
To see RED ONE camera for yourself check the 1st L.A. meeting of RED User Group. The group is formed at reduser.net.
More information about the event:
http://www.kappastudios.com/ind_net/red/red_la.htm
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More information about the event:
http://www.kappastudios.com/ind_net/red/red_la.htm
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