HD For Indies

ProVideo Coalition.com: Camera Log by Adam Wilt | Founder

Adam gets into Red workflow stuff for the first time, is a good intro for those who haven't been keeping track - I take a lot of stuff for granted that I've been fooling with for a while, whilst Adam sees it as any DoP/post guy would getting their first project on it. Plus, he knows what he's after and is good as sussing out the nitty gritty details:
"This is bleeding-edge stuff. Unfinished. Untested. Undocumented. Beta code, remember?� Yes, REDs are on sale; yes, rental houses have REDs. No, it’s not a finished product; no, there aren’t the levels of documentation and support we’re used to seeing.
I’m not going to pass judgment on whether this is an Evil Thing or a Brilliant Strategy or even a bit of both; all I’m saying is that this is the way it is. Deal with it. If you’re not willing to play guinea pig and roll with the punches, you shouldn’t be playing with RED in the first place."

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Working with RED requires lots of [painful] learning. This is true. It’s not a film camera; it’s not a video camera, it’s a digital mopix camera shooting raw data. The workflows are different from what we’re used to, and some things—like colored overexposed highlights—are things we as end-users haven’t had to deal with before (video cameras process them internally; film’s DlogE curve masks the problem). So there’s definitely New Stuff to be learned.


A good read, check it out if you have an upcoming Red project (or are curious about what post with Red is like).

-mike

As of last Thursday night, all Red Ones can shoot 120fps. Wanna see? Of course you do.

: )

I've got a little sample posted over at ProVideoCoalition, as well as some of the details of the new build's features. Some coooool ones. Go read! Now. Cuz I sedd so.

: )

There is also Art Adams' Red One Lattitude Tests, which clearly illustrates the differences between shooting under tungsten or daylight lighting conditions on the daylight optimized Mysterium sensor. CTB is your FRIEND to get the red, green, and blue histograms to line up nicely, and not have the red channel clip early.

Art also has articles about Red up discussing the mixed blessings of "I never knew how much processing cameras did for me, until I used a camera that didn’t do any." (opinions vary on to how good a thing this is - I relish it as a post weenie who likes to tweak things to the nth degree to get best results)

Art and Adam Wilt in Discussing RED, uncensoRED - they both start wrapping their heads around the nitty gritty of RAW image processing, Redcine, ramifications of daylight vs. tungsten lighting. I didn't chime in as I was in transit during that conversation, but a lot of stuff going on in there for the techies.

...and some others in the Stunning Good Looks by Art Adams category of PVC. Art is digging into some of the differences between Red and traditional cameras - I like a lot of those differences.

UPDATE - Be sure to check this out too - workflow software for Red from a third party. Expect LOTS more in the future.

Labels: Red, Red Alert, Red One, Redcine

ProVideo Coalition.com: Capria TV by Frank Capria | Founder

Frank Capria writes up the latest from Avid, and I agree with both Avid's move to kill Xpress Pro, and to cut the price of Media Composer (software only) to $2500 - halving the price.

Now, if they'd only add Kona or Decklink card support, they could REALLY compete...but don't count on it any time soon...but this is a good move on their part.

-mike

ProVideo Coalition.com: Camera Log by Adam Wilt | Founder: "Three three-letter cameras: EX1, F23, RED
An unfair comparison of three entirely different cameras"

Adam Wilt digs in to check out how a $6500 Sony EX1, a $25,000 Red One, and a $250,000 Sony F23 compare when shooting some (quick, rushed, non-lab-grade-definitive) charts and tests.

An interesting read, well recommended.

Adam observes a bunch of stuff people are coming to understand about Red - shooting 4K for a 2K/1080 deliverable is best instead of just 2K for 2K/1080, Bayer patterns aren't quite as sharp as cosited sampling, and quality glass counts (edit - to further elaborate on the glass issue, Super Speeds, as tested, are great for low light, but not the sharpest glass available).

Speaking of Red, I plan on spending tomorrow catching up on writing about a bunch of stuff I've been doing with my Red since I got it and got to Los Angeles (where I'm living now). Since Adam did his tests with build 14 of Red's firmware, I got build 15 (2nd rev of it too) installed and running on mine. My favorite feature so far? 120 fps at 2K!

Holy g-damn sh*t, that is one HOT feature!

I'm doodling with some high speed footage now, and tomorrow I'll also write up some of the golden goodies I saw at what I think was the first ever Los Angeles Red User Group meeting (LARUG? La Rug?).

Stay tuned.

-mike

EDIT - to clarify, esp. since there have been so many trolls over there (who apparently get bored making up original fake email names pretty quickly) - cosited pixels CAN be more sharp than Bayer pattern - on a PIXEL FOR PIXEL basis. If you throw a bunch more pixels at it, then the overall optical resolution of a high res Bayer pattern based system can be higher than a 3-chip setup. As is the case with the Red One.

-mike

Labels: EX1, F23, Red

ProVideo Coalition.com: Camera Log by Adam Wilt | Founder

Adam finds some finicky behavior and VERY useful information on how to export stills out of FCP and maintain highlight (superwhite) detail.

-mike

Friday Morning Update - made it! Got in last night about 7:30, after about 12 hours of driving for the second day ina row. Blech. As always, took a zillion pictures, cut down to best 20 if anyone wants to see saguaro, lizards, wind farms, pretty skies, etc.

Wednesday morning update:

On the Road Again....

Me, Mac Pro, 30" Apple Display, Red One & all accessories...and oh yeah, clothes and stuff....and ties...heading out this morning in VFA (Volumetrically Full Acura).

==============
Hey all -

in case you're wondering why things have been so slow around here lately, it is because I've been prepping for a major life change - I'm moving to Los Angeles, for purposes of doing work more in line with what I want to do with my days - high(er) end digital moviemaking.

Almost exactly 4 years and 4000 blog posts ago, I put up my first entry on HD for Indies (Really? Yep. Really.). My intent, at the time, was for it to be a way to force myself to stay organized and on task with my goal of learning more about moviemaking with digital technology, and to build an identity, and eventually a client base for consulting services. By putting my thoughts, musings, learnings, and eventually links of interest on here, I wanted to get myself known on the Interweb Tubes. It has gone through several phases - heavy research publishing for a while, then mostly links, a period of tracking Red as it was brand new, etc.

Things have slowed since last fall due to a variety of reasons - heaping helpings of travel, for one - I think three trips to New York, three or four trips to Los Angeles, two trips of 10 days or more to Spain, etc. But also because I had the gut feeling a change was coming. The benefit I could get from spending 2-5 hours a day, trawling the web, linking, writing up the results of testing (which takes longer than testing does)...was about tapered out - HDforIndies.com had done about all it was going to, and doing more if it wasn't a very high ROI anymore. While I grew up in Austin, LOVE it here, have friends, family, a house, a girlfriend, etc., Austin, as great as it is, just isn't the place to do cutting edge digital moviemaking (Yet. Ahem.) whilst making a living at it. So it was time to look elsewhere. I nearly took a position in New York, but it didn't quite work for me, kind as the offer was. I had some project work suggested to me in Los Angeles, and lost it because I wasn't local...and it was a coooooool project. While exploring other project work and establishing a foothold (really toehold) residence in LA, a possible full time position popped up, and, pretty much, It Beckoned. So I'm driving out, hopefully tomorrow, to Los Angeles to follow up on that job opportunity, and to look around at what else is out there.

So if you'd like to engage my services, and/or my heavily accessorized Red #417 in Los Angeles, get in touch. Because I'm making decisions SOON as to whether to take this full time position that sounds like a great match for me, or see if anything else is more promising and interesting. I can be reached at mike (at) hdforindies (dot) com, same as always.

I'm definitely going to keep writing, mostly over at ProVideoCoalition.com, because that is a great new site with some great other authors I've known, read, respected and admired over the years, such as Adam Wilt, Chris and Trish Meyer, and a whole slew of others that I have gotten to know over the last few months. HDforIndies.com will be tapering down as I figure out how to post over there what feels right, but of course I'll be leaving this site up for the indefinite future as well, if only as a resource. I'm working with Scott Gentry, the founder of PVC, to migrate relevant back content from this site over to PVC, where among other things, we should have a better search engine than the one at this site. Oh, and a little thing called "design" that I've heard of but apparently never implemented on this site.

: )

In the meantime, my girlfriend will be staying at my house until it is time for her to move out there (hey, I'm not leaving EVERYTHING important behind!), and I hope to arrive in LA with my VFA (Volumetrically Full Acura - me, Red, Mac Pro, and oh yeah, clothes) Thursday night.

This also, regretfully, means I'll be bowing out of SXSW this year. It was a matter of pursuing full time work, or being on the "No Budget Filmmaking" panel - you can guess which way I needed to go.

If you're going, have fun, and have a beer at the Alamo Drafthouse for me - I'll miss it dearly.

I'm going to be in transit for a few days, thinking more about writing up more Red One stuff based on doodling done to date - codec testing, datarates, more unboxing pics, all that stuff.

And I hope to keep writing about the Very Cool New Things I'll be working on in LA as well.

The western horizon beckons...

-mike

ProVideo Coalition.com: News by PVC Staff

Hey all - too busy to blog this one myself, but checkit - new speedbumped laptops, with multi-touch trackpads, and dual layer burners for MacBooks (Finally! Wish mine did!)

Read on for all the deets, speeds, feeds, and prices.

I am short on time because...well, that's my next post.

: )

ProVideo Coalition.com: Creating Motion Graphics by Chris & Trish Meyer

Chris & Trish posted a reprint of a classic of theirs, talking about what causes, and how to fix, reversed field order in 50i/60i content.

Worth a read if you wonder why stuff has that 1 step forward, two steps back look.

ProVideo Coalition.com: HD for Indies by Mike Curtis

I've got Part One of my Red One unboxing article up. Tons of pictures of what you get, how it is packed, a description of what stuff is and how it goes together, etc.

-mike

Labels: Red, Red One